Schools are key to safeguarding runaway children

Children

Society calls for better teacher training to help identify children at risk to flee and take preventive action

Emma was only 13 when she started running away. She had problems at home, but did not know who was able to talk. First stayed in the house of "a boy who was watching," but later participated in a group of older men who introduced him to alcohol, drugs and sex. Sometimes he slept in the street, which made it vulnerable to abuse.

Children

Society estimates that 100,000 children run away each year. Many are fleeing family conflict, neglect or abuse. Nearly a quarter are "driven by their parents or caregivers," according to the report of the charity insurance Runaways.

schools are at the forefront of protecting these vulnerable children. Teachers are in a unique position to identify children who are upset, stressed or miss school frequently. These are children who are more likely to run away from home.

"hooky goes hand in hand to run away," said Susie Ramsay, policy director of Children's Society. "Our research tells us that one third of the fugitives have problems with School. They are not happy, they fight, you can not attend this regularly. One fifth of the 100,000 who lost every year have a learning disability. "

Ramsay warned, "If a young person can not cope with something, the reaction is sometimes only for takeoff, but to society in general and services is where the Things start to go wrong

"They are at risk, people risk. Nobody knows where they are. Many of these youth are more stable family life. Two thirds of the fugitives are not reported as missing to the police. "

Emma (not her real name) is critical of how your school handles their escape, and described it as a "punishment". Each time she returned to school, she said she went to sit beside her in silence, under close supervision, day after day.

Earlier this year, the Centre for Child Exploitation and Online Protection issued the report Out of Mind, Out of Sight, whose runaway children identified as particularly vulnerable to exploitation sexual and personal grooming.

• Society for Children called for teachers to be more training to identify children at risk so they can take preventive measures. "Legal in [children] are missing from education and preservation of fugitives there and very clear that all professionals must do," said Ramsay. "It is not only to be followed and there is sufficient training."
• schools, police and health agencies are required to collect data on the fugitives, but the information is often not pulled together effectively or sufficiently exchanged between services. Ramsay would like to see the policy changed so that the service automatically conferred when you have information about a fugitive.

Stela Stansfield, coordinator of the service project of the League of street children safety in Lancashire, said a particular problem is that schools do not report cases of leakage, because they want to protect their reputation. "We always encourage [schools] to work with other organizations that may already be involved with the youth or to ensure that other agencies are getting involved. However, some schools are very concerned, that is classified as a school with particular problems if they admit that some students are on track and get into all sorts of problems, "she said.

"The responsibility should not fall only in school but are afraid that if they admit a problem with a bad reputation."

To Stansfield, the "key question" is that schools know who to call, and they are called, as soon becomes clear that someone has escaped, although it was only a few hours because that this behavior may "degenerate quickly." In Lancashire, he said, the best schools with a team of "SPOC" - Single point of contact for professionals - dealing with fugitives

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