The Other Railway Children, Chapter 12 - Research in the UK

With our first hand evidence from the Railway Children UK partners, Andy’s experience and data available from research undertaken by the Children’s Society on the numbers of young runaways, the Railway Children Board was given a proposal by Terina, the Chief Executive, and Andy, to acquire our own Researcher to undertake a deeper investigation into the life of children living on the streets of the UK. The Children’s Society research was numerate but our team felt that we needed evidence from the lives of such children to make any real impact and bring about change for the most vulnerable group of children - those ‘detached’ from families and support agencies, who had fallen through the safety net and were existing in great danger on the streets of this country 24 hours a day.

The research that had formed the available knowledge about British runaway children had been conducted by a Principal Consultant of the Children’s Society based at York University, Emilie Smeaton, and Andy had worked with her and respected her work. We advertised the post and were pleased to see that Emilie had applied and appointed her to carry out this important piece of research. Emilie was also enthusiastic to have the scope and funding to carry through a depth qualitative body of research that, by exploring the stories of children living on the street, would produce real evidence behind the figures on which some policy was being applied.

Both Andy and Emilie were aware that many of the 100,000 children quoted in the Children’s Society’s research ran from home to friends or relatives for relatively short periods, but within this figure were some children who were genuinely ‘detached’ from home and society and who spent time living on the street at great risk of harm. In addition, Andy’s contacts with the police indicated that there were many more children outside the quoted number who were ‘off the radar’ in that no-one had reported them missing. These children were at even greater risk without any agency intervention or supervision and it was Railway Children’s objective to get some robust evidence about these children, their lives, reasons for leaving home and experiences on the street.

We realised that such research might be difficult to undertake – to find such children and get them to talk frankly about their lives – and that we would probably be highlighting a problem that would not be popular with either the public or the politicians, as many such children were already likely to be stigmatised in the media as ‘hoodies’ or even worse, ‘feral children’. But both Andy and Emilie knew such children were there, even though the term ‘street children’ was not one that the British public would associate with children in their own country.

We spent some time planning the research and working with Emilie on her own safety in carrying out such a remit. She had worked earlier in a hostel for homeless young people so she was aware of some of the issues and risks. She recommended to us that she should interview a relatively small number of children in depth rather than try to get a larger number and cover the issue too superficially and we needed to give Emilie time to find the most appropriate children and gain their trust and that of the community in which they existed.

We therefore agreed with her the criteria for choosing the children to interview – those selected must have lived on the street 24 hours a day for more than a month while still under the age of 16. We also agreed that Emilie would cover children in all parts of the UK and would seek children in a number of towns – not just the ‘assumed’; hotspots of London, Glasgow or Manchester.

103 children eventually took part in the research, all giving Emilie interviews varying in length from two to five hours. Although our researcher used one or two of our partner agencies to identify some appropriate children, Emilie found that the most apposite method was to hang around the street, often with advice from the adult homeless who seemed to be the people most aware of the youngsters living on the street. Emilie would establish the validity of the interviewee according to the criteria we had set – she often found several children wanting to tell their stories although some, because of age or time on the street had to be disappointed – and most often would invite the child for a coffee and something to eat while they answered her questions and she gained their trust.

Some of the interviews then became remarkably frank and sometimes it was as if a floodgate had been opened. At the end of each interview Emilie would seek to suggest some positive action that the young person could take, offering to refer them to a suitable agency if they were willing. 75% of the children she interviewed had never had an intervention from any agency whatsoever, they were truly ‘off the radar’ which became the title of her research report.

One young girl had been so damaged by her experiences and was now in such a state that Emile could think of no suitable course of action that the girl was likely to find acceptable, and she apologised profusely at the end of the interview that she could not help her. The girl shook her head and said, “You’ve helped me already. You’re the first person in my life who’s ever listened to me.” (The proposed title of the book was taken from this quotation.) Whilst this was the most explicit comment of this nature, the same theme of not being listened to, of being ‘talked at’, or more often ‘shouted at’, came out in many of the interviews.

Violence was normalised for all these children to such an extent that most of them knew no other means of reacting to life – this was what happened to them and this was the only way they knew to react to others. All the children had suffered from parents or carers who were alcoholics, drug addicts or had mental health problems or any combination of all three. The young people themselves now suffered from the same abuses and problems and would in all likelihood become similar parents unless a successful intervention could take place. For most it was already too late.

One of the key findings and recommendations from the report was the importance of early intervention – the recognition by front line workers of when a family needed help and time whilst the child was in the first two years of its life; or intervention as a child begins to show signs of distress or drifting from school – often the last contact a child had before becoming ‘detached’.

(Children’s quotations can be found by those interested in Railway Children’s report ‘Off the Radar’ through the website www.railwaychildren.org.uk/otr).

Railway Children’s trustees, with Emilie, Andy and Terina, spent some time at the end of the research documentation discussing not just the conclusions, but more importantly, what positive recommendations could be made to help such children. Perhaps even more importantly, to prevent more children falling through the same gaps in society and continuing the problems through the next generation of children, for it was apparent that many of the parents who had abused and rejected these children were themselves victims of similar neglect and abuse in their own childhood.

Many of the problems highlighted would require government policy changes – more emphasis on home visits to such families at risk, with more time for health and social workers to interact and the implication on resource numbers to do this; more youth outreach work on the street; more short term refuge facilities for under 16 year olds to help them consider options independently. And there was an overwhelming need to see these young people as children and not stigmatise them in the media. Despite their own often violent or self-destructive actions, they were often children crying out for love and acceptance, for being respected and heard. At a time of recession and concern in some of the media over ‘youth crime’, this was not going to be an easy message to get across and gain acceptance.

The report ‘Off the Radar’ was launched in November 2009 before over 100 invitees at the German Gymnasium centre by St Pancras station. The event was well attended by other voluntary sector organisations and Railway Children’s corporate and programme partners, but the media and politicians invited were notable by their absence which confirmed for us the difficulty in getting the message across to obtain real change for these children.

The Railway Children has since used every opportunity to bring the issue before appropriate bodies who can influence policy – it will be a long haul requiring sustained interest and action if Britain is not to face an ever increasing number of such children at risk to themselves and others. An opportunity to mount an exhibition in the Houses of Parliament came in November 2010 and this focused particularly on ‘Britain’s Street Children and the ‘Off the Radar’ report. There is a big financial penalty too if no effective action is taken. A lack of action will cost British Society billions over the next decades. And that’s just the financial damage….