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This article describes a practice initiative to reduce the incidence of young people running away from home or care. Such individuals are at risk of exploitation, offending and victimisation. The cost of dealing with runaways is also assessed. Partnership initiatives are described that achieved significant reductions in the number of running away incidents and cost savings.

The transition to adulthood can be a difficult time for young people, both financially and emotionally. A number of additional factors make this transition more difficult for young people in vulnerable housing situations, such as lower rates of the minimum wage and benefits, increased likelihood of unemployment and exclusion from housing registers. Many of the causes of homelessness, such as unemployment, shortage of housing and family problems, affect young people across the spectrum. However, there are some young people who are more at risk of becoming homeless.

This paper outlines best practice in the commissioning of emergency accommodation for children and young people who run away, identifying: levels of need; models of accommodation provision that have existed in the UK; approaches to funding; costs of emergency accommodation; the commissioning process; and service delivery issues.

This paper is an expert opinion piece drawing upon a project commissioned by The Scottish Government based on extensive research including a review of the pre‐existing evidence base and new data.

Fixed refuge has been the most common form of emergency accommodation for young runaways in the UK and provides positive outcomes for young runaways relating to improved general well‐being, mental health and schooling. The costs of refuge can compare favourably to alternative specialised accommodation and support and prevent other costs relating to future episodes of running away, future offending, substance misuse and youth homelessness.

Evidence‐based learning has identified best practice in the commissioning of emergency accommodation related to a number of issues including: scoping activity; the commissioning process; costs; approaches to funding; effective future commissioning of emergency accommodation; why the third sector is best placed to deliver emergency accommodation; and ensuring key elements of service delivery are included to meet children and young people's need and achieve positive outcomes.

The commissioning of emergency accommodation for young runaways has received little attention in research; this paper goes some way to rectifying this omission alongside providing evidence‐based learning for commissioners and service delivery organisations.

This paper aims to offer a commentary on Psychologically Informed Services: A Good Practice Guide, a recently published operational guidance document on developing psychologically informed environments (PiEs) in services for homeless people.

The paper is an invited opinion piece and comment based on the author's specialist knowledge gained from undertaking research addressing the experiences and needs of young runaways.

The new operational guidance is welcomed but should be extended so that psychologically informed environments are provided in services for young runaways under the age of 16, who often encounter abuse, mental health issues and problematic substance misuse and experience homelessness post 16 and into adulthood.

Commissioners and practitioners should encourage the development of psychologically informed environments for young runaways to meet their needs, aid recovery and reduce the likelihood of experiencing homelessness as they move into adulthood.

This paper sets a case study of missing children in the Republic of Ireland against a review of international research to explore broader understandings and responses to the problem.

The study begins by reviewing the literature on pioneering American initiatives dating back to the 1970s and more recent literature from Great Britain where a series of high-profile scandals involving sexual exploitation of teenage girls provoked a number of controversial inquiries into the police and social work professions. The present study was prompted by an evaluation of the 116 000 Missing Children Hotline which was introduced to Ireland in 2012 under the auspices of the European Union (EU) Daphne III Programme by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC).

The central conclusion emerging from analysis of the evidence is that Missing Children Hotlines remain rooted in representations of ‘stranger danger’ and disconnected from repeat runaway children who feature prominently in police reports from formal care settings or family homes and who are actively targeted by sexual predators and criminal gangs. The implications are that systemic change requires grounding in research strategies which combine police data with anthropological studies to give legitimacy to the voices of runway and sexually exploited children.

The study offers original international perspectives on missing children to epistemological research communities in the fields of social work, criminology and policing with recommendations that Missing Children and Runaway Safe-lines are targeted systemically at keeping runaway children, homeless children and at-risk-youth safe and off the streets.

In recent years the political and practice climates have changed greatly, towards a focus on preventing negative experiences and vulnerability in the lives of children and young people, but at present many efforts suffer from two defects: they apply adult treatment ideas to young people, and they are not joined‐up responses. The article argues that young people are different from adults, having not yet established set patterns of behaviour, and that this offers a chance to intervene before the point of crisis. While they may misuse drugs and alcohol, in the main this is symptomatic of other problems that they need our support to face, which can be offered most effectively by services that are holistic and integrated, and which deal first with their emotional and family needs while also addressing personal development and vocational skills and training. These interventions need to begin well before the current housing crisis points around age 16 or 17.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how, by encouraging all key stakeholders to “play nicely and act maturely” to share responsibility, the author was able to improve outcomes for children reported missing to Gwent Police. The paper shows that sharing responsibility is a critical factor in such collaboration, requiring people and agencies to let go of power that usually interferes with a preparedness to avoid blame, a willingness to enjoy the rewards of success and together manage the risks.

It offers a viewpoint about identifying the issues and failings of silo working and developing a more creative way of working together to improve outcomes for some of the most vulnerable children and young people. It is informed by close working between colleagues from different agencies and professional disciplines and the lived experience of the author in moving from a social services department to the police service.

Working with people is always complex, the whole process is vulnerable to and affected by personal interpretations and different value bases, yet vulnerable young people need consistency and boundaries. To improve outcomes, the author has to improve the understanding of individuals’ stories, hear what the young people are saying and create a consistent response by balancing risks with potential for change.

There are no formal research findings as yet, but it draws on research carried out elsewhere and highlights where there is shared learning from listening more attentively to what young people say about their experiences of services, set up to protect and safeguard their interests. The independent counselling offered to young people is a critically different ingredient to consider for the future, harnessing the contribution of the third sector and explores their strategic and operational involvement.

Improved outcomes for and engagement with the young people and their families, reducing the long-term impact on the public purse, while lessening risks and breaking the cycle.

It explores collaboration still in its infancy, but one about which there has been considerable interest UK-wide, illustrating the potential for collaboration and/or integration between agencies that have seldom been comfortable “bedfellows”.

Dangos sut, trwy annog yr holl randdeiliaid allweddol i ‘chwarae’n dda ac ymddwyn yn aeddfed’ i rannu cyfrifoldeb, roeddem yn gallu gwella canlyniadau ar gyfer plant yr hysbyswyd Heddlu Gwent eu bod ar goll. Nod yr erthygl hon yw dangos bod rhannu cyfrifoldeb yn ffactor hanfodol mewn cydweithrediad o’r fath ac, yn hynny o beth, mae angen i bobl ac asiantaethau gael gwared ar y pŵer a’r rheolaeth sydd fel arfer yn ymyrryd â pharodrwydd i osgoi bai a pharodrwydd i fwynhau gwobrwyon llwyddiant a rheoli risg gyda’n gilydd. Methodoleg - Mae’n cynnig safbwynt yn ymwneud â nodi materion a methiannau’r ‘hen ffordd’ silo o weithio a datblygu ffordd arloesol a mwy creadigol o weithio gyda’n gilydd i wella canlyniadau ar gyfer rhai o’r plant a’r bobl ifanc mwyaf agored i niwed. Caiff y safbwynt hwn ei lywio gan gydweithio agos rhwng cydweithwyr o asiantaethau gwahanol gyda disgyblaethau proffesiynol a chefndiroedd gwahanol a phrofiad ymarferol yr awdur yn symud o adran gwasanaethau cymdeithasol i weithio yng ngwasanaeth yr heddlu.

Mae gweithio gyda phobl yn gymhleth, gall y broses gyfan gael ei heffeithio gan ddehongliadau personol a gwerthoedd gwahanol, ond eto mae angen cysondeb a ffiniau ar bobl ifanc agored i niwed. Er mwyn gwella canlyniadau, mae’n rhaid i ni wella ein dealltwriaeth o straeon unigolion, clywed yr hyn y mae pobl ifanc yn ei ddweud a chreu ymateb cyson trwy gydbwyso’r peryglon gyda photensial ar gyfer newid.

nid oes unrhyw ganfyddiadau ymchwil ffurfiol ar y prosiect eto, ond bydd yr erthygl yn defnyddio ymchwil a wnaed rhywle arall ac yn amlygu dysgu a rennir wrth wrando’n fwy astud ar yr hyn y mae pobl ifanc yn ei ddweud am eu profiad o wasanaethau, sydd wedi eu sefydlu i amddiffyn a diogelu eu buddiannau. Gall natur annibynnol y cwnsela sy’n cael ei gynnig i bobl ifanc fod yn elfen hanfodol wahanol i’w hystyried ar gyfer y dyfodol ac mae’n defnyddio cyfraniad y trydydd sector ac yn archwilio eu cyfranogiad strategol a gweithredol.

Canlyniadau gwella ar gyfer pobl ifanc a’u teuluoedd ac ar gyfer eu hymgysylltu, gan leihau’r effaith hirdymor ar gyllid cyhoeddus, tra’n lleihau’r peryglon ac yn torri’r cylch.

Mae’r erthygl hon yn archwilio cydweithrediaeth sy’n dal mewn cyfnod cynnar, ond yn un y mae diddordeb sylweddol wedi bod ynddi ar draws y DU ac mae’n dangos y potensial ar gyfer cydweithredu a/neu integreiddio rhwng asiantaethau sydd heb fod yn gyfforddus iawn yn gweithio mewn ‘partneriaeth’.

Young people with multiple social problems, especially if compounded by additional needs such as those associated with mild learning disabilities or mental health problems, are in particular danger of being excluded from society. Homelessness is one of the most extreme manifestations of such exclusion.

[L]ife has become increasingly dangerous in the erratically moving river. The relatively closed circles of development agents may turn into dangerous vortices. Promises are empty, concrete practices of implementation lose their meaning. All of a sudden everything seems to be in a mess, and any kind of order seems to have been lost. (Quarles van Ufford, 1999, p. 292)

International literature on missing persons suggests that a significant volume of missing person cases originate from hospitals and mental health units, resulting in considerable costs and resource demands on both police and health sectors (e.g., Bartholomew et al., 2009; Sowerby and Thomas, 2017). In the Canadian context, however, very little is known about patients reported missing from these locations – a knowledge deficit with profound implications in terms of identifying and addressing risk factors that contribute to this phenomenon. The present study is one such preliminary attempt to try to fill a significant research and policy gap.

The authors draw on data from a sample of 8,261 closed missing person reports from a Canadian municipal police service over a five-year period (2013–2018). Using multiple logistic regression, the authors identify, among other factors, who is most likely to be reported missing from these locations.

Results reveal that several factors, such as mental disabilities, senility, mental illness and addiction, are significantly related to this phenomenon. In light of these findings, the authors suggest that there is a need to develop comprehensive strategies and policies involving several stakeholders, such as health care and social service organizations, as well as the police.

Each year, thousands of people go missing in Canada with a large number being reported from hospitals and mental health units, which can be burdensome for the police and health sectors in terms of human and financial resource allocation. Yet, very little is known about patients reported missing from health services – a knowledge deficit with profound implications in terms of identifying and addressing risk factors that contribute to this phenomenon. This manuscript seeks to remedy this gap in Canadian missing persons literature by exploring who goes missing from hospitals and mental health units.