Violence. Drugs. Abuse. Neglect.
These are some of the reasons 100,000 children a year run away from home or care in the UK.
Violence. Drugs. Abuse. Exploitation. Death.
And these are some of the dangers they face when they end up living on the streets.
For these children, there are no options. Often it’s not safe for them to stay at home. Even more likely, they won’t be safe on the streets. But for many children, those are the only choices available.
In late 2009, Railway Children published ‘Off the Radar’, a 3 year research study into the lives of more than 100 children under 16 living on the streets in the UK.
We wanted to find out why children had left home and had ended up living on the streets; what difficulties they were currently facing; how best we – and society as a whole – could help them; and where current services were going wrong.
‘Off the Radar’ gave us invaluable insights into how children came to be living on the streets and the appalling dangers they faced once there. The study shone a spotlight on these largely hidden children, revealing many unpleasant and unpalatable realities of their lives. Many people find it distressing that there are children in such danger and poverty on the streets of the UK and find their existence difficult to accept. But this distress is nothing compared with the misery, suffering and hopelessness that many children face on the streets every single day. ‘Off the Radar’ highlighted the enormous chasm between the needs of children on the streets and current policy and practice in place to meet them.
In response to the findings from ‘Off the Radar’, Railway Children has developed an innovative model of best practice based on children and young people’s recommendations on what works for them and what they need: the REACH model.
