NEARLY 200 children run away from home every year in Brighton and Hove, a

new report reveals today.

The figures included in Still Running, by the Children's Society, means twice as many under-16s are leaving home than was previously thought.

The report claims a quarter of the runaways first leave home before they are 11 and seven per cent before the age of seven.

Up to a third resort to selling drugs or sex to survive and they sleep rough in back alleys, building sites, on beaches, or in fields.

The report calls for a nationwide network of emergency refuges, where child runaways have a safe place to go - an initiative suggested by Lord Utting in a Government sponsored report in 1997.

And the society says the Government and local councils must do more to ensure

children have a better alternative than

sleeping rough when they reach crisis

point.

Graham Gage, head of the Children's Society in the South East, said: "Above all child runaways told us they wanted accessible emergency accommodation to give them a safe place to stay where they would be listened to."

There is no dedicated refuge for

runaway children in Brighton and Hove.

However, Jean Spray, the councillor responsible for social services on the council's ruling cabinet, said she was not sure a refuge would be the only solution.

She said: "We can consider it and look at it and we would have to consider how it

fitted in with all

the other things we do.

"We would also have to consider what to do with our resources."

At the moment there are only two dedicated refuges for runaway children in the country, in Leeds and at Centre Point, London.

The report says that in Brighton and Hove:

l 195 children run away every year, of which 150 are first-time runaways.

l A quarter are under the age of 11 when they run away for the first time.

l 49 of the runaway children are forced to sleep rough.

l 27 were forced to leave home.

l One in seven children will be physically or sexually assaulted while away from home.

Girls are more likely to run away than boys, but boys are more likely to sleep rough and be attacked.

Nationally 100,000 under-16s run away from home every year the report says.

Four out of five children said they ran away to escape family conflict, violence or abuse.

Other reasons included depression, drug problems and being in trouble with the police.

Mr Gage said: "Many are running from problems at home, some as a

result of abuse and violence, others following problems at school including bullying, truancy and exclusion."

The report also recommends police and social services, along with education health and voluntary organisations, develop a dedicated service for child runaways.

Every returning runaway should be interviewed and given support to stop

them leaving home again.

The society also wants a nationwide missing persons

register set up, rather than the local

registers used at present.

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