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Our mission is to create brighter futures for children and young people. We do this by providing fostering, residential and support services where children and young people can feel safe and cared for. We support them to make positive relationships which give them the confidence to succeed.
When a child or young person goes missing it is can be a sign that something is seriously wrong. We provide support to children, young people and the people who care about them to prevent it from happening again. Most of the young people we work with are in care or on the edge of the care system.
When children return from being missing, they can be reluctant to speak to anyone official. They worry they might get in trouble for running away, even though the adults around them just want to make sure they are safe and unhurt. They may not realise that they are technically missing and that people are worried about them. Our support can help a young person stay in contact with those who care about them.
St Christopher’s Independent Return Home Interview Service protects spaces for young people to be heard. Because we are a neutral party, young people feel more comfortable talking to us and sharing the reasons why they ran away. We conduct an Independent Return Home Interviews to find out any harm they may have suffered whilst missing and work with them to identify any on-going risks to their well-being.
Then we provide independent face-to-face support and put an action plan in place. Our reflective, listening approach helps young people to stay safe and reduce their risk of harm.
'They make me feel confident to say no. Before I would go along with stuff because I felt like I needed to. Then I got comfy in the home and didn't need to do that stuff.'
Our Independent Return Home Interview services help young people to make safer choices by giving young person a trusted adult they can talk with and explore their needs with. Fear of consequences can mean that young people may be reluctant to speak to the adults and professionals around them. They worry they might get into trouble and this could mean they stay away from home or don’t get in contact with others. As an experienced independent charity, young people can feel more comfortable talking to us and sharing the reasons why they ran away.
Some young people who go missing are being exploited or being groomed for exploitation. Usually young people do not recognise that they are being exploited. If it is the first time they have experienced these issues they may feel scared and want a way out but don’t know how to ask for help. Young people may not feel comfortable talking to people at home about the problems they face.
We conduct Independent Return Home Interviews to understand young people’s direct experiences of events leading up to and during missing periods. We support them to identify risky actions and patterns of behaviour that could impact their well-being and support them to access community and statutory services to help them meet their challenges in a safer way.
We provide independent face-to-face support and work with young people and the professional network to put an action plan in place. There are lots of reasons why young people run away. Sometimes young people are facing problems with their caregivers, or are targeted for exploitation. We understand the sensitivity of young people’s experiences and the importance of establishing trusted relationships through respectful high impact interventions. We work with young people and those who care about them to create actions plans to resolve issues that may make young people feel like they can’t come home.