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Working with Merton's Missing Person's Unit
Published on July 07, 2009
Jigsaw4u has started working with Merton’s local Missing Person’s Unit, run by the police, to provide follow up interviews and mediation work to children and young people who have been reported missing for various reasons. The partnership has proved so successful that the latest figures show there was over 20% reduction in the number of children and young people being reported missing to the police during the project’s first year (2006/7).
PC Maggie Brownlie, Merton’s Missing Persons Officer says "The police have a duty of care to interview all children who have gone missing once they have returned home, but we found they wouldn't speak to us. Children often view social care and police as authority figures therefore intervention work is needed with the views of an independent person. Jigsaw4u were brought in speak to the children and bridge this gap."
Chris Roe from Jigsaw4u managed the project and social worker Sindia Malhotra works as Jigsaw4u’s Young Runaways Co-ordinator. She says "All referrals come via the police. I make contact with the young person and meet them wherever they feel comfortable. This could be outside the family home, often at our office or school. I inform the parents and carers what I am doing. If they are 14 or over, I contact them directly or if they’re younger, through the parent or carer. They don’t have to meet with me, and this is something I make them aware of, although 95% of youngsters have done so. I send them a leaflet or letter. I offer consistency – which is vital for those who are looked after as very often the young person may have had six social workers in a very short space of time. I’m independent and the service is voluntary - that makes a difference to young people."
What makes a child run away from home? There are many reasons including family break down, bullying, bereavement or they want to be with their boyfriend or girlfriend.
"A new stepparent and a child might not get on," she says. "This results in the child staying at a friend’s house and is reported missing. My role is to listen to everyone and build up the communication channels by helping them to understand each other so the parties involved can start to communicate again. Another case involved a boy sleeping in a stairwell as he didn’t like his new school – his parents had recently moved house. A 15 year old girl ran away to stay with her boyfriend because her mother was emotionally abusive – nothing she did was good enough."
Other cases involve runaway children being paid for sex and young girls who have consented to sex in return for a place to stay or for a packet of cigarettes without realising there is a transaction involved. Some have run away as they have been coerced into sexual activity at school and are now being bullied. "I support young people to get in touch with their feelings from the moment they wake up to when they go to school. This helps young people look at their responses to situations and enables them to make informed choices" says Sindia. "We also organise a young runaway and sexual exploitation group which meets every two months and we have funding for a drop in every Tuesday 4pm to 6.30pm at Jigsaw4u."
Sindia uses several tools when she works with young people such as asking them what their three wishes are, as this usually gives an insight into what is happening for the child at that moment. "A 15 year old boy wrote his three wishes to be - win the lottery, for his Nan to be alive and live in a mansion," she says. "Although he had been reported missing he said he had been thrown out of the house as it was alleged he was violent towards his three half siblings. He had no contact with his birth father and lived with his mother, step father and three half siblings. Whilst using this tool, he informed her he had lived with his Nan up until he was 7 and felt she was the only person who had always been there for him, she died and he then went to live with his mother. He disclosed his stepdad punched him for talking to two friends out of the window."
For further information about the Young Runaways service, contact Jigsaw4u tel: 0208 687 1384
