In a documentary for BBC One, director Julia Stovell followed 15-year-old Laura, who has run away more than 150 times in two years, as she is moved to a children's home near Blackpool, where staff try to work out what she is running from and what she may be running to.

"It all gets bottled up inside and then one day I wake up and I just think to myself, I can't take this no more, and then I run off. I used to watch my mum and see what she were doing and then I used to go back upstairs and when she's not looking I'd go out of the window," Laura says.

The police are gonna knock on my door and they've found a young girl. 'Can you come and identify the body?' It's so horrible. It's a horrible feeling inside Laura's mum

Laura's mum placed her in care after her behaviour spiralled out of control. In one three-month period she was brought home by the police 58 times and sometimes went missing for two weeks at a time.

"When she first started running away a few years back, it were constant, all the time. No sooner than the police brought her back she was out again through the window.

"I used to put nails down on the window to fasten them down so she couldn't get out. I used to lock all my doors, but she managed to get out of the window. She used to walk around the streets waving cars down and stuff like that.

"And I'm gonna get that one day when the police are gonna knock on my door and they've found a young girl. 'Can you come and identify the body?' It's so horrible. It's a horrible feeling inside."

At one point during the filming Laura goes missing from the children's home for two days. She decided to walk the 40 miles back to her home town along the motorway but was picked up by the side of the road by a man who took her to Manchester.

When asked where she was for two nights, Laura claims she can't remember and that she isn't scared of getting into cars with men she doesn't know.

Complex reasons

During the periods that Laura isn't running away from the children's home, she confides that her running away might have been triggered by her uncle's death four years ago.

I used to be good then - and I just changed, I sort of turned to drugs and alcohol and hanging around with older people. I didn't understand why he did it.

And it just got out of hand. Now look where I am... in a care home."

Working closely with staff at the children's home, we begin to build up a picture of the complex reasons why children like Laura go missing.

During one weekend, on her first visit to her family after two weeks of living at the care home, Laura goes missing again. She returns in the early hours the following day with a black eye, and cuts and bruises all over her body.

Laura refuses to believe the people she is running to are a danger to her. Often the lure for many children like Laura will be the promise of drugs and alcohol from people they believe are friends.

One in six runaways are forced to sleep rough

It is only in the latter months of filming that Laura realises the enormous danger she has been placing herself in, but this realisation also has its own consequences.

"I just felt right mad and I didn't know what to do so I cut myself with a razor. I can't talk it out and I just take it out on myself. And I never done it before with a razor. I forgot I did it when I woke up as well, cos I'd had a bit to drink that night."

Laura's mum is adamant that she won't have her back home until she is sure Laura has changed.

"It's gonna take a lot for me to trust Laura again. She's got this thing in her mind that she's gonna leave when she's 16 and come back home and live with me, but I can't take that risk. Knowing that I need a completely different Laura to what Laura were when she first went into care.

Laura still hopes to live back with her mum one day but for now, she is still living in the children's home and may well spend the rest of her childhood in care.