The Scottish Executive set up an expert group which has produced new guidelines aimed at improving the help, support and protection for those who run away from home or who are sexually exploited through prostitution.
These guidelines have been packaged under the heading of Vulnerable Children and Young People and provides guidance papers on: Young Runaways, Sexual Exploitation through Prostitution and the Legal Framework.
The guidelines, published on 29 July 2003, aim to raise the profile of these groups of young people among senior managers of children's services and encourage a more joined up and consistent approach amongst practitioners.
These guidelines will also feed into the three-year child protection reform programme, which was announced in November 2002.