United Kingdom

Running away is a dangerous activity that puts children at risk. It is a problem that affects approximately one in nine children before the age of sixteen, from a broad range of backgrounds. Children, male and female, from rural and urban areas, from white, black and minority ethnic communities, and from wealthy and poor areas, all run away. Approximately 20,000 runaways a year (around a quarter) are under the age of eleven. Running away is an important signal that something is seriously wrong in a child's life.

One quarter of runaways will sleep in unsafe places putting themselves at serious risk of harm, with as many as one in fourteen children who run away, around 5,000 a year, surviving through stealing, begging, drug dealing and prostitution.

Runaways with the most problems are likely to run to city centres and spend time on the streets, sleep outside, or stay in other unsafe places, such as with adults who may exploit them. These children need more intensive support - services that can locate and make contact with them, and then find them a safe place to sleep or help negotiate their return home.

(Social exclusion unit report on young runaways, November 2002)

Members

Action For Brazil's Children (ABC) Trust

Action International Ministries

Railway Children

SOS Children's Villages

Street Kids Direct

Publications

A Guide to Giving
A Guide to Giving aims to provide clear, practical and objective guidance for anyone who wantsto donate money or time to good causes and would like to do so in an effective and tax-efficientway.This handbook presents a framework for developing a programme of philanthropic activity andhighlights key principles of effective giving. It also offers guidance on a variety of approaches andmechanisms for giving, which, through a series of guest contributions, benefit from the expertiseof thought leaders across the sector. The Guide is further augmented by a series of profiles ofleading philanthropists in the UK.

Another Perspective: How Journalists Can Promote Children's Rights and Equality
A paper produced by the Children's Rights Alliance with guidelines on how journalists can engage with and promote the issue of children's rights.

Child trafficking in Birmingham, Coventry and Solihull
Save the Children and ECPAT UK published three reports on trafficking of children and young people in England. Interviews were conducted with social services teams, other statutory organisations and voluntary sector organisations in the North West, North East and the Midlands.

Child Trafficking in Manchester
Save the Children and ECPAT UK published three reports on trafficking of children and young people in England. Interviews were conducted with social services teams, other statutory organisations and voluntary sector organisations in the North West, North East and the Midlands. 

Child Trafficking in Newcastle
Save the Children and ECPAT UK published three reports on trafficking of children and young people in England. Interviews were conducted with social services teams, other statutory organisations and voluntary sector organisations in the North West, North East and the Midlands.

Learning to Listen: Consulting children and young people with disabilities
Learning to Listen shows what can happen when local authority staff think creatively about how to consult disabled children and young people about the services they receive. It has practical ideas and strategies for how to go about the process, and includes copies of leaflets and guidance that can be given to children and their parents. There's also a checklist that will be a useful tool for managers and other staff planning similar consultations.

Life without Basic Service ''Street Children Say''
This study builds on the learning of Street Diary (Save the Children UK, 2001), giving theopportunity for a group of children to represent their own analysis of their situation. Itexamines the human and emotional dimension of life on the street. This is not astatistical or quantitative research but is representative of the feelings of children livingon the street about their lives and organisations working with them.

Local Authority Support to Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Young People: Changes since the Hillingdon judgement (2003)
This report looks at how support has changed and highlights gaps that still exist.The UK government recognises that unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children are some of the most vulnerable children in England. This report looks at what support is available for this group of children in 18 local authorities.

Networking for Policy Change: An Advocacy Training Manual

Organizational Diagnosis for Advocacy
When groups are considering advocacy, it is helpful for them to assess what advocacy actually can offer their organization, what some of the benefits and risks might be and what organizational barriers might influence their success.

Policy Brief: Financial Transactions Tax
Save the Children Policy Brief. The global recession has had a severe impact on many poor children. In the UK, the percentage of children living in severe poverty is rising. Additional resources are needed to challenge these threats. Find out what we're calling for.

Still Running: Children on the streets in the UK
Still Running is the most extensive piece of research evercarried out in the UK on young people under 18 who runaway or are forced to leave home. It is the first report thatgives an overall picture of the scale and extent of theissue. The research has been commissioned by threecharities: The Children's Society in England and Wales,the Aberlour Child Care Trust in Scotland and theEXTERN Organisation in Northern Ireland.

Young Refugees: A guide to the rights and entitlements of separated refugee children
This guide provides information on the rights and entitlements of separated children and includes advice to professionals on how to support separated children in accessing them. It includes national contact details of agencies that can support separated children.

Young Refugees: Providing emotional support to young separated refugees in the UK
This guide offers advice on how to provide emotional support to young separated refugees and asylum-seeking young people in the UK. It includes information on the typical emotional experiences of young refugees, practical ways of providing support, mental health issues, and key contact details.

Young Refugees: Setting up mentoring schemes for young refugees in the UK
This is an introduction to mentoring and befriending schemes for young refugees. Mentoring is commonly seen as a way of supporting young people to meet their education, training and employment aspirations. Befriending tends to concentrate more on supporting a young person emotionally, having someone to talk to and have fun with. There is much overlap between the two models.

Young Refugees: Setting up youth groups for young refugees in the UK
This guide provides information on why there is a need for establishing groups in the UK, the benefits of groups for young people, tips on setting up groups, and support for group leaders.

Young Refugees: Working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children at ports
This guide is designed to assist immigration officers working at ports of entry. It includes practical tips on supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and answers to frequently asked questions about asylum-seeking young people and why they come to the UK.

Resources