Inspector Neil Middleham will never forget the day he walked into Skelmersdale police station, only to see a young beat bobby holding her head in despair. Overcome with paperwork on missing-person cases, the officer, usually keen and enthusiastic, admitted she had no time for anything else.
For 42-year-old Middleham, a father-of two, the moment was a turning point in his 23-year career with Lancashire police force. Two months later he devised an advanced computerised missing-person system which has been the key to a new way of treating persistent young runaways. The project has led to a dramatic 33% reduction in the number of children who repeatedly go missing from care homes. Furthermore, for the first time there are measures in place to support vulnerable youngsters at risk of absconding.
The success of the scheme follows three years of hard work by Lancashire Constabulary, which has worked with local authorities, private care homes, and specialist children's workers to tackle the problem of young runaways.
The scale of the problem only came to light after details of missing person investigations were transferred to computer, and officers sat down to analyse the data.
It showed that of the 6,200 investigations undertaken annually in the county, more than 4,800 involved people under the age of 18; most involved girls aged 13-15. Police officers were then startled to discover that 3,200 investigations were shared by 300 children who go missing at least three times a year. One child had gone missing from a care home 78 times in 12 months.
Further scrutiny of the records of six of the most frequent runaways gave a terrifying insight of the dangers they faced. All too frequently they were sucked into the world of drugs, were sexually exploited and became the victims of violent crime.
Middleham says: "Nothing braced us for these figures. We found there was a new type of young runaway involving children with serious social, domestic and behavioural difficulties being placed into private care homes hundreds of miles away from their families. All too often they are placed inappropriately, and without sufficient support."
After 12 months spent collecting data, Lancashire Constabulary introduced a pilot scheme where children who went missing three times or more in 90 days were offered specialist support.
"We knew the children would not want to talk to a cop so we set up interviews with specialist workers," says Middleham. "The reasons they gave for running away varied. Some wanted to see their grandparents; others were bullied by staff or other children in the home; while lots of the girls went missing on a Friday night because they wanted to go out then. What we did was set up a system of rewards and tell the children if they didn't go missing they could have more supervised visits to their families. We also tried to deal with any bullying and switched a care home's DVD and takeaway night to Fridays so the girls wouldn't be tempted to abscond."
The results were astonishing. In the first year of the pilot in south Lancashire the number of frequent runaways dropped by one-third, compared with a 7.5% rise across the rest of the force. In the second year the pilot further decreased the number of frequent runaways by 17%.
The scheme was introduced across the force in January this year and led to a reduction in the number of frequent runaways of almost 20% in the first six months - saving the force an estimated £583,000 on the cost of investigating cases.
"We've had lots of interest from other forces," says Middleham. "But more important than financial savings is the positive impact the scheme is having on the lives of our most vulnerable children. It gives them hope for the future."
Sponsor: NSPCC
Winner
Lancashire Constabulary for greatly reducing the incidence of children absconding from care homes.
Runners-up
East Ayrshire council for establishing Scotland's first organic, locally procured school meals service.
Hertfordshire county council for its pioneering reorganisation programme bringing together key services for children and families.
