§ The Minister for Social Exclusion and Deputy Minister for Women (Mrs. Barbara Roche)In March 2001 my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister asked the Social Exclusion Unit to lead a project
to make running away less likely, and to ensure that runaways' long and short-term needs are safely met".Today we are publishing the final report on young runaways. It sets out a practical package of measures to ensure that young runaways will get the extra help and support to keep them safe and to address their problems.
Running away is a huge problem. Each year more than 77,000 young people run away: one in 14 will end up surviving by begging, stealing or getting involved in prostitution and drug-dealing. 20,000 each year are under 11 years old. Running away is a problem in itself but it can also mean that young people are more likely to suffer from social exclusion later in life with a higher risk of homelessness, crime and drug use.
We are putting the systems in place to make sure no-one falls through the net. This report shows how services must join together to work for the young person at risk. Practical measures will help to prevent young people from running in the first place. If they do run they will have someone to locate and make contact with them, help to negotiate a way home, a safe place to stay and access to longer-term help.
The report highlights how mainstream services need to work more effectively together to address the factors that can lead to running away and other problems. The Green Paper on Children at Risk announced in this House by the Prime Minister on 30 October will develop radical options for improving services for all children and young people at risk.
Later today, I will be visiting Step Forward, a Safe in the City project that provides a range of effective services to this vulnerable group, to launch the publication of the runaways report.
Copies of the report have been placed in the Library of the House.
Resources (£000) Capital (£000) Change New DEL Of which: voted Non-voted Change New DEL Of which: voted Non-voted 187,346 3,722,729 1,142,958 2,579,771 218,879 1,040,515 -15,607 1,056,122