The children’s Society calls for more help for teenagers whose home life forces them onto the streets
“MY DAD used to abuse my mum and it did my head in,” said 15-year-old Kim. “After they split up, I just ran riot. My mum idolised my brother. Whatever he did wasn’t wrong, so I rebelled a lot.”
In trouble at school and at home for rudeness and truanting, Kim ran away last summer, soon after her 15th birthday. “I signed in at school so my mum wouldn’t get a call, then I went home, got my stuff and left.”
Most runaways are, like Kim, fleeing problems at home. A quarter end up sleeping rough, where one in seven is sexually assaulted or violently attacked, the Children’s Society says.
Martine Osmond is senior practitioner at Check Point, a Children’s Society drop-in centre in Torquay for 13 to 25-year-olds. A year ago, she embarked on a series of talks in secondary schools with some trepidation, not wanting to alarm teachers or parents who might think that discussing leaving home was tantamount to promoting it.
Her fears were unfounded: parents and schools welcomed the support on offer.
Under the umbrella topic of “problems at home”, she talks to older pupils about advice available from Check Point workers on drugs and alcohol, sexual health and counselling. Then comes leaving home. “A lot of young people think it’s easy to just go and get a flat,” she said. “We look at the dangers of running away, the reality and the other alternatives.
“GCSEs are my busiest time,” she said. “There’s a level of frustration and tension that builds until parents say ‘OK, you’ve finished school, get out’.”
Ms Osmond helps young people think through their options - and offers mediation between parent and child. “The young person will tell me that the parents hate them. The parents are amazed.” A common solution is a cooling-off period with friends or relatives.
Kim, with Martine’s help, decided to stay with her sister. After 10 days, she moved back in with her mother. She agreed to stop truanting and her mother did up the attic to give her more privacy. Her brother left home.
“We talk things through like civilised people now. A lot of things have changed,” she said.
Wendy Wallace
