HAVING a child go missing is one of the most worrying and distressing experiences any parent can go through — and a ‘groundbreaking’ new service is hoping to help combat the problem in Bolton and stop them doing so again in the future.

Hundreds of children are reported missing in the area every year and while many safely return home soon after, the experience is always a difficult one for the whole family.

In 2014/15, 44 children in Bolton went missing more than twice, sparking a total of 134 ‘missing from home’ alerts.

Footsteps, a new scheme launched in Greater Manchester, involves the Bolton charity Urban Outreach.

The scheme was launched across the region earlier this month.

Urban Outreach is working in partnership with The Children’s Society and 42nd Street, a Greater Manchester mental health charity that works with young people.

Footsteps will work with children and young people who have been reported missing between two and five times in the past 12 months.

It will look at the issues causing young people to go missing and get them the tailored support they need to help address these, involving families and carers were appropriate.

It is hoped that with the support provided the children will be less likely to run away again in the future.

Dave Bagley, chief executive at Urban Outreach, said: “When somebody goes missing for the first time, it’s very worrying for everyone involved, it’s very distressing.

“The immediate concern is for their welfare and that they get sorted and get some help.

“We’ve never had a child in Bolton that hasn’t come back that I know of, we’ve never had one where something bad has happened to them.

“The police deploy very quickly when they are called to a missing child. We generally find them very quickly in Bolton.

“Most missing children we deal with are just late getting home and haven’t told anyone.”

Mr Bagley added that when that isn’t the case, attention then turns to the issues at home or maybe at school that have led to them running away and how these can be dealt with.

The new scheme will complement the work of the RUNA project that Urban Outreach runs in Bolton.

RUNA provides contact with every child who is reported missing to the police in Bolton. Project workers meet with children and young people and police officers and discuss the dangers of running away as well as addressing the problems.

Mr Bagley hopes that authorities across Greater Manchester will be able to share ideas with each other to improve best practice.

Most importantly, he hopes that the scheme will help improve safety for children in the area.

He said: “Absolutely, the main thing is benefiting young people, none of us do everything. We certainly can all do more than we do now.

“We can only come up with something positive together. There’s always something new, something that can be worked on.

“We need to prioritise the children and we have been doing that, but we’re going to do it even better now.”

Mr Bagley added that Bolton Council has always been involved with missing children and that the authority takes its role ‘very seriously’.

Mr Bagley said that The Children’s Society and 42nd Street, are ‘profoundly brilliant’ and that he hoped Urban Outreach could learn from working with them.

Paul Maher, Greater Manchester area manager at The Children’s Society, said: “When a child or young person goes missing they can be at risk of serious harm, including from child sexual exploitation.

“We know from experience that getting them tailored support to address some of these issues that lead to them going missing — such as family breakdown, drugs and mental health — can be vital. By offering this same early support to children and young people who have begun to go missing across Greater Manchester we hope we can get even more of them the help they need before they come to harm.”

Figures from across Greater Manchester show that the number of children who went missing in the area increased from 13,673 to 16,457 last year.

The scheme has been made possible thanks to £400,000 of funding from Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner, Tony Lloyd.

He said that when a child or young person goes missing it is often a ‘cry for help’ and authorities have a ‘responsibility’ or ‘moral duty’ to safeguard them from harm, crime and exploitation.

Mr Lloyd described the service as ‘groundbreaking’ and that it will give young people a voice to address the issues making them run away in the first place.