Q&A about running away from home with experts Andy McCullough & Charlie Hedges. Aviva will donate £2 to charity Railway Children for every post - CLOSED

[RachelMumsnet]

You may have seen last month that the charity Railway Children is working with Aviva to provide help and support to children who have run away from home, or are at risk of doing so. It's estimated that one child runs away from home or care every five minutes in the UK. They've helped us to build some information on the reasons why children run away and how to spot the warning signs.

We were astounded by your response, with many of you sharing very personal stories and experiences. So many people have been touched by this issue and by sharing your thoughts, you have already helped us raise £18,422 for Railway Children.

Your comments have also raised lots of questions, so to answer everything and anything you'd like to ask - but never previously knew who to go to - about the topic of running away from home, we have invited the following experts to answer your questions:

·         Andy McCullough Head of UK Policy & Public Affairs at Railway Children
·         Charlie Hedges from CEOP, an organisation that deals with child exploitation and online protection

For every (proper & real!) question submitted, Aviva will donate £2 to Railway Children. You can post a maximum of three questions on the thread. Aviva will donate up to £100,000 by the end of 2012 as part of the Mumsnet campaign.

£2 will also be donated for everyone who 'likes' and recommends this thread on Facebook (by clicking 'Recommend' at the top) and if you 'like' any of the articles here

Do please join in, have your questions answered and help that money stack up!

Send your questions for the experts before Sunday 25th November and we'll link to their answers to up to 20 questions from this page on Monday 10th December.

[freakydeaky]

What % of runaway children tell someone (ie a friend) that they're planning to run away before they actually do it?

How many of these children 'run away' to a friend's house, and how best can the parent of the friend help them?

Would it be helpful to have educational talks in schools from the experts?

[Whojamaflip]

Is there any sort of organisation that a child could turn to before they run away? Or somewhere they could go to instead of landing on the streets? (along the lines of refuge for those in dv situations)

Who should we report concerns to if we know of a child who has "threatened" to run away - is it best to tell a carer or is an independent person better?

At what point does a child that maybe just late home become classed as a runaway?

[Mograt]

Are the statistics on runaways collated nationally and desseminated down to all the relevant groups and charities so that they can be put to best use for supporting runaways, potential runaways and their families?

Do the statistics include data on runaways by different ethnic groups and religions and are there specific support networks in place to care for these different groups with adequate knowledge and expertise to offer appropriate advice?

What work is being done to empower local communities to provide support services and groups to nurture their young people and identify problems which may lead to runaways?

[notcitrus]

Where can a child who has or is thinking if running away seek confidential help?
Can any child under 16 be forced to return home by the police/social workers?
If so, where can they seek help if they are desperate not to go home?

[riveroise]

Proportionally, are children that are in local authority care, more likely to run away then children living with their families?

Would a child who ran back to their families from care be considered a "runaway"?

Additionally, do children who live with a step parent more likely to run away then those not living with a step-parent?

[flow4]

I'm fretting slightly, because people are posting 3 questions at a time, and MNHQ said £2 per post in their headline...

[flow4]

I am thinking there may be two types of runaway: young people who are desperate to escape a home life they can't stand, and young people who go because they are angry about something - maybe something they have not been allowed to do - but who always intend to go home in the end. They are equally vulnerable, but may need different responses.

Can agencies tell these motives apart, and do they work differently with YP and families depending on what they find?

[flow4]

If a young person doesn't come home at night, at what point should a parent start to panic?

[flow4]

What support is there for parents whose children have run away, and how do they find it?

[ILoveAFullFridge]

What happens if a runaway child is found, but refuses to give their name, or to be returned home?

[mymonkey]

Are there any things to look out for that indicate a child may be planning to run away?

Who should a parent contact if they suspect that their child may be planning to run away?

Is there any support / guidelines / intervention available to help prevent the running away in the first place?

[ILoveAFullFridge]

If a child I know - a friend's child, or a friend of my child - runs away and comes to me, and they refuse to let me call their parents, what should I do?

Are my responsibilities towards that child different to what they would be if they had come to me with their parents' knowledge?

[GooseyLoosey]

What outcomes do runaways want? Do they want to return to a better home environment, an indendant life or an alternative family environment? What assistance is or should be available to both them and their families to help achieve reasonable outcomes?

[flow4]

That's a good question, Fridge :)

[RachelMumsnet]

@flow4

I'm fretting slightly, because people are posting 3 questions at a time, and MNHQ said £2 per post in their headline...

Sorry this is a bit confusing. We're going to contact Aviva about this later today but for now, can you all please just post one question per post but you can post up to three questions each.

[flow4]

There are about 30 posts in which people have posted 3 questions. :( I hope Aviva do the decent thing and donate per question not per post.

[jennybee1408]

Who decides if a child is a runaway - how is this determined

[gloriafloria]

What is the average length of time a runaway child is away from their home before returning?

[gloriafloria]

What is the most commone reason that children who have previously run away give for why they felt they had to run away?

[gloriafloria]

Sorry common

[gloriafloria]

Is it a good idea to bring up the subject of running away to your children to give them information regarding other choices available to them if they are in trouble?

[Worley]

do children who run away confide in a friend before they go? apart from family / personal reasons do they go because of pressure from their friends encouraging them to go? do friends make a pact to run away together?

[SecrectFarleysNibbler]

How are parents and families of these children supported?

[RachelMumsnet]

Just to update you, we've been in touch with Aviva who can see that there may have been some confusion with their pledge, and usually it would be £2 for each individual post (and each mumsnetter can make a maximum of 3 posts). However, they are happy to donate £2 per question for the questions submitted so far. Do keep them coming...

[noidles]

I'm really excited about this campaign, and really pleased to see a company like Aviva involved in this, and pledging to donate £2 for every time someone gets involved in a campaign. What better way to raise awareness really and get people talking, when there's a quick and easy way for people to feel they've made a contribution and helped.

Anyway, my first question is to Andy: considering that there are a huge number of wide ranging reasons that a child might run away, there can be no 'one size fits all' approach to dealing with the issue of child/teen runaways and you must feel as though there's a million and one things that the government could do to help. What are the main solutions you're trying to lobby the government with at the moment? Does it focus more on prevention, or is more about support and rehabilitation once a child has run away? If a child has a challenging background, in some ways it might be easier to anticipate that they might consider running away, but it must be hard to anticipate it if a child appears to be from a nice cosy middle class perfect world. But I could be completely wrong!