THE number of children who go missing from home in the region makes for shocking reading.

Often, young runaways are being abused by a family member or, in many cases, they are unable to cope with changes in lifestyle when a step-parent moves into the home.

Others are unhappy living in local authority care homes.

The only option open to them, they believe, is to run away. Some are lucky enough to find a bed at the home of a friend or relative but for many youngsters, they end up on the streets.

The Children's Society estimates that as many as 5,200 young people run away from care homes or their parental homes each year in the North.

Those most at risk are often children under the age of 16, who are unable by law to qualify as homeless people.

A Children's Society spokeswoman said: "Those who are younger are counted as runaways, and the local authority has to send them back to their parents, which is no good if the parents are beating them up.

"A lot of children have a history of running away."

InLine, in Newcastle, gives support to young people aged 16 to 19 and helps about 130 youngsters each year in the Tyneside area.

The service, a project managed by the Children's Society, offers family mediation to work through problems at home that may have caused the young person to run away

If that is not an option, the service will help children with socials skills, education and assist teenagers to find alternative accommodation.

It is hoping to develop services for runaways aged between ten and 16 in the future and is working alongside Newcastle City Council.

The project is hoping to set up a community-based refuge in the North-East, where young people can stay for the night before mediation starts.

They are also working to develop a missing from home scheme with Northumbria Police, where youngsters will be given a welfare interview to discover why they ran away and help solve problems.

The Children's Society hopes that every local authority will set up a network of agencies to reduce the number of children living on the streets or from being drawn into a terrifying world of drugs and prostitution.