Runaway lives at risk as London’s only teen refuge to close this weekend

Campaigners are warning that the lives of hundreds of teenagers who run away each year may be at risk after the closure of the only emergency refuge for teenagers in the capital.

The London Refuge, which has been run by the children’s charity St Christopher’s since 2000, has failed to secure further funding after the bulk of their support from the NSPCC ended last month.

The refuge, which provides emergency accommodation for under-18s, will close this weekend unless funding is found.

It is the only centre of its kind in the capital, and one of only three in the country specifically serving teenagers and young people.

Brian Smith, the assistant director of children’s services for St Christopher’s, said: “Unless a funding opportunity comes up in the next few days we will have to close. We are in the eleventh hour, extra time as it were.”

The refuge was set up by the homeless charity Centrepoint in 1994 and, at full capacity, helps about 250 young people a year. The children, many of whom are victims of family conflict and domestic violence, can stay for up to two weeks until more permanent accommodation is found.

The NSPCC was providing about £500,000 a year until the end of March, mostly from large private donor. Since that ended the refuge has been desperately seeking extra funds.

“This year we have had to shut down some of the rooms, so we ran on four beds,” Janet Glenn-Millanaise, the manager of the refuge, said. “Nearly 50 kids did not get a bed because there was no bed available for them at the time of referral.

“For London not to have a place for their runaways … it’s embarrassing. Frontline social workers are horrified that this will be closing. It can take a week or two for them to accommodate someone.” Emergency provision for young runaways is paid for by local authorities, who argue that they have adequate alternative provision without the refuge.

But third sector organisations and academics say that there are clear gaps in provision.

Martin Houghton-Brown, the chief executive of Missing People, said that the charity receives 64,000 calls a year from runaways under the age of 18.

“Many of those are from distressed young people who are on the street. We regularly receive calls from children as young as 12.

“At the moment in London we can call the refuge and they will go and pick the child up and then assess the reasons why they are on the street. If it closes we don’t know where we are going to send them,” he said.

The majority of calls for help come during the weekend or late at night when “most social services departments have one person on call and they simply don’t have the resources to respond”, he added.

A report commissioned by the Government Office for London and published last month found that many London boroughs had made use of the refuge over the last year.

Nora Duckett, an academic who co-authored the report, said: “Local authorities believe that they can put a foster care placement in place if a child is running, but we have heard from the people that take these calls that it sometimes takes them 30, 40 calls to find a place. Meanwhile, that child is standing in a phone box. Sometimes they are told to find a safe place and call back at 9am.

“A 12-year-old should not have to wait in a phone box until the social worker can get to them. I think they deserve more than that.”

The Metropolitan Police received 18,869 reports of missing children under the age of 18 in the year to February, the report found, while The Children’s Society estimates that 100,000 children and young people in the UK run away from home every year, many to the big cities.

Barry Sheerman, MP and chair of the Children, Schools and Families Committee, said: “I am utterly convinced that there is a way of delivering to that need that is not the local authority model. This is a vital area. It can be a matter of life and death when a vulnerable child runs away to London. This refuge has saved a lot of lives.”

St Christopher’s says that it needs £600,000 a year to keep the refuge operating, and recently approached all of the London boroughs to ask them to provide £19,000 each in annual funding. All but one refused.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said that they were looking at the recommendations made in the Government Office for London report, but stressed that the GLA did not have the power to directly fund services.

The Department for Children, Schools, and Families said in a statement: “St Christopher’s have been unable to secure financial support from London boroughs for the model of emergency accommodation provision they offer. The Association of London Directors of Children’s Services has assured us that they are able to deliver emergency accommodation to all young people that need it through their existing systems.

“Provision of emergency accommodation for all young people who need it is the responsibility of local authorities … But we will also be working with local authorities to ensure that children and young people who currently make use of the refuge are supported by other services.”

Wes Cuell, director of services for children and families at the NSPCC said: “The NSPCC has given considerable support to the London Refuge since its opening in 1993. Last year alone we contributed £555,000. We are proud to have helped the many hundreds of young children who came to the refuge when they needed short-term accommodation and a breathing space.

“A number of agencies have been involved in the work of the Refuge and we have tried hard to find others willing to provide the long-term funding needed to secure its future. We have enjoyed an excellent working relationship with St Christopher’s and regret the project may now have to close.”

Case study: “I would have been sleeping on the streets. It was quite scary”

When James was 15 he was made homeless after his mum moved out of London and into a smaller home in Kent with his younger brothers and sisters.

For a few weeks he stayed with his grandfather until he, too, left London.

Since the beginning of March he has been moving from friend to friend trying to find a place to stay. Last week, with nowhere else to go, he was referred to the London Refuge.

“I was basically homeless. I was living from place to place, but had nowhere stable to live. I went to social services and they put me in here,” he said.

“Since Wednesday I didn’t have anywhere to go. I would have been sleeping on the streets. It was quite scary.” He arrived at the refuge, which is in a secret location in Central London, later that day after his case was referred to his local social services department. He stayed in the refuge for just under a week. After turning 16 last weekend, he was referred to a hostel.

He said that for some children, like him, foster care wasn’t the right option, and that the refuge had given him a place to stay when he had nowhere else to go.