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Basic Introduction to Missing or Absent Children

Why Talk about Missing or Absent Children? 

Going missing can be a powerful signal that all is not well in the adolescent’s life and it is therefore not enough to find them and bring them home. A timely multiagency safeguarding response is required for all adolescents who go missing and should not depend on where they go missing from or to (for example, abroad).
(Brandon et al, March 2020, Complexity & challenge: a triennial analysis of SCRs 2014-2017)

Significant evidence highlights that children and young people who go missing from home or care are at increased risk of experiencing criminal or sexual exploitation and sometimes both.

Whilst there are no exact figures for the number of children who go missing or run away, DfE Statutory Guidance 2014 estimates suggest the figure is in the region of 100,000 per year with 25% considered to be at risk of serious harm 

How to use this briefing?

This briefing should provide you with some basic information to raise awareness within a staff team around the topic of Missing and Absent Children:

  • Ask team members to read the briefing then, as a group, work through the information, using it as a prompt to promote discussions
  • Use the discussion points at the end to explore how your team works with the topic
  • Consider if there are any further learning and development needs in your team and who is best to pursue this

How do we define Missing or Absent Children? 

Anyone whose whereabouts cannot be established will be considered as missing until located, and their well-being or otherwise confirmed. The majority of children and young people who go missing return of their own accord, or are found quickly and sometimes children may not always consider themselves as missing. All children and young people who go missing irrespective of the amount of time that they are missing are at risk.

Missing: a child reported as missing to the police by their family or carers

Missing from care: a looked after child who is not at their placement or the place they are expected to be (e.g. school, fostering placement) and their whereabouts is not known

Absent: a child not at a place where they are expected or required to be 

What are the risks to children who go Missing or who are Absent? 

Missing children and young people are particularly vulnerable to abuse such as exploitation, including sexual exploitation, trafficking, violence, crime, drug and alcohol misuse. Missing is a direct risk indicator of child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation.

The Children’s Society states on their website that every five minutes a child in the UK runs away from home or care and many are groomed by adults who will later exploit and harm them. They also state that:

  • One in six young runaways end up sleeping rough 
  • One in eight resort to begging or stealing to survive and 
  • One in 12 are hurt or harmed as a direct result of running away

Recent cases of child sexual exploitation have shown that going missing, even for short periods, and frequent episodes of going missing are both indicators that a young person could be at risk of sexual exploitation (The Children’s Society)

Signs and Indicators 

  • Not attending school/leaving school premises during the day
  • Being seen in, or known to visit, areas that they do not usually have a connection to 
  • Being secretive/elusive
  • Avoiding attention
  • Parent’s/Carer’s not knowing exact whereabouts
  • Being seen in the community late at night/during school time
  • Not attending arranged appointments
  • Being tired
  • Change in behaviour/Friendships 

Why Children go Missing or Absent  

There are a number of push and pull factors to consider for why children go missing. 

Push

A push factor is something that makes a child want to leave or absent themselves from where they should be. For example:

  • Problems at school or with friends 
  • Problems at home (e.g. parental conflict) 
  • To escape Female Genital Mutilation  
  • To escape forced marriage 
  • To escape abuse
  • To escape bullying 

Pull

A pull factor is something which attracts the child away from where they should be. For example:

  • To see friends or boy/girl friend
  • Radicalisation
  • Peer pressure
  • Criminal exploitation
  • To see/make contact with family (from care)
  • Children may have been coerced to run away

What can we do? 

It is essential that all partner agencies act rigorously to reduce incidents of children going missing, to locate a missing child and ensure that they are returned to a safe environment, and work together to reduce the likelihood of future missing incidents Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is a key duty on local authorities. All children running away and going missing from home, care or view must be considered a safeguarding issue. If you’re working with a child who has been or is it at risk of going missing you can:

  • Be a trusted adult
  • Spend time with the young person getting to know them – be consistent
  • Ask if they have ever felt like running away and why
  • Be interested, professionally curious, listen and hear them from a safeguarding perspective
  • Look to build the child’s resilience, identifying their strengths and develop future plans
  • Try to identify push/pull factors
  • Encourage them to engage with the return interview process if applicable (see below)
  • Consider making a referral to the MACE Bronze meeting (one minute guide).
  • Complete the Child Exploitation Risk Identification Tool.

The Child Exploitation Risk Identification Tool can be used to establish if a child is at low, medium or high risk of exploitation by using the template and looking at the risk indicators in a number of areas pertinent to the child’s current circumstances.

Returning Children 

Statutory guidance on children who run away or who are reported missing states that when a child is found or returns home or to care, they should be offered an independent return interview (DfE, 2014:14). These help to identify people at risk, understand the risks and issues faced whilst missing, aim to reduce those risks and equip children and young people with the resources and knowledge of how to stay safe if they do chose to run away again (DfE, 2014:15 & 16). All return interviews for Leeds children and young people are carried out by the Return Interview Service through Leeds Youth Offer.  Safe & well check: A return interview can be confused with a Safe and Well check. Whilst both of these should be conducted when the missing person is found they are not the same. A safe and well check is carried out by the police to establish whether the child has come to any harm whilst missing.

Areas for Consideration

  • How do we currently recognise & respond to Missing or Absent Children in our service-user group?
  • Do we need to consider changing our way of working with these children?
  • What more can we do to raise awareness of the risks associated with children missing or being absent? 
  • Do we need to do more to support them and their families? 
  • How can we find out more about Missing or Absent Children and who will do this? 

Further Information & References

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