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Tameside Safeguarding Children Partnership

Missing from Home


Background

In 2014 the Government issued statutory guidance concerning children who run away or go missing from home or care (Statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care)

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is a key duty on local authorities and requires effective joint working between agencies and professionals. When a child goes missing or runs away, they are at risk, and it is important that the reason why the child is missing is understood so that an effective intervention is implemented. Safeguarding children includes protecting them from this risk and putting preventative measures in place to ensure their safety. These children and young people are not always open to services at the point of them going missing from home. Local authorities are responsible for protecting children whether they go missing from their family home or from local authority care.


Definitions

Child: is anyone who has not reached their 18th birthday.

Missing child: is anyone whose whereabouts cannot be established and where the circumstances are out of character, or the context suggests the person may be the subject of crime or at risk of harm to themselves or another. If you know where the child is they are not missing.

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

Away from placement without authorisation: a cared for child whose whereabouts is known but who is not at their placement or place, they are expected to be, and the carer has concerns or the incident has been notified to the local authority or the police.

Serious Harm: A risk which is life threatening and/or traumatic, and from which recovery, whether physical or psychological, can be expected to be difficult or impossible.


Police Responsibility

When a child cannot be located and their whereabouts are unknown, their parents or carers will be expected to make all reasonable enquires to trace them prior to contacting the police, unless there is an immediate safeguarding concern.  

When a child is reported missing to the police, the caller handler will obtain information, and a risk assessment will be completed. When a child in the care of the local authority is reported missing, the police have a duty to notify children’s services when the report is made and when the child returns.

Greater Manchester Police have two risk categories when dealing with children who have been reported missing. They are as follows:

High risk: the risk of serious harm to the person or the public is assessed as very likely.

Medium risk: the risk of harm to the person or the public is assessed as likely. All reasonable enquires are expected to have been undertaken by parents or carers prior to contacting the police, unless there is an immediate safeguarding concern. If a child has been missing for over 24 hours or three days in a calendar month then a multi-agency strategy meeting is required to consider the risks.

A child is never considered as low risk when missing.


Return Home Interviews

When a child is found or returned, they must be offered a return home interview (RHI).

Return home interviews (RHI) provide an opportunity to uncover information that can help protect children from the risk of going missing again, from risks they may have been exposed to while missing or from risk factors in their home.  

The interview should be carried out within 72 hours of the child returning to their home or care setting.

This should be an in-depth interview carried out by an independent person (ie, someone not involved in day-to-day care for the child) who is trained to carry out these interviews and is able to follow-up any actions that emerge.  


The Return Home Interview

It is important for Missing from Home project workers to build a good rapport with the young people they work with. This allows the young person to feel safe, supported and heard.

Missing from Home Project Worker will explore the following areas with a child, to try and find out what caused them to go missing. These topics of conversation are generally referred to as push and pull factors.

  • When did you go missing? What happened whilst you were away?
  • What happened to make you leave home?
  • Where did you go? Who were you with?  
  • Was there anything stopping you from returning?
  • Did you feel unsafe whilst you were missing?
  • Were you under the influence of alcohol or drugs?
  • Is there anything you would like support with?

Depending on the answers to these questions, actions are formed jointly with the child to help to get them the right support. I.e. signposting to services (mental health, drug and alcohol services).


Cared for children living outside of Tameside

Children who are placed out of area but remain cared for by Tameside Children’s Services will be entitled to a Return Home Interview and it is the responsibility of Tameside Missing from Home Team to carry out the interview. The Tameside Missing from Home Team aim to reduce the missing episodes by working in partnership with children and young people to complete a Missing from Home safety plan as well as completing preventative work where appropriate.


Preventative Measures

Safety Plans: The safety planning process involves working collaboratively with parents, children and professionals to develop and implement a detailed safety plan that ensure everyone understand their role in keeping the child safe. We collate important information about:

  • The child’s support network.
  • Triggers and warning signs.
  • Places and people that make them feel safe.
  • How they keep themselves safe whilst missing.
  • Support they require from their parents or carers?
  • Support they require from professionals or external agencies.

 

The child’s voice is an important factor in this process. Listening to their wishes and feelings is paramount, it helps us empathise with them and see their experience from their perspective.

The information within this document helps to provide practical recommendations to parents or carers for how to reduce missing episodes e.g. the child may say that they are particularly triggered when they are overwhelmed. We would then share this with the child’s support network.

Trigger Plans: A trigger plan should be completed for any young person who is frequently missing from home or care. The plan contains useful information about the needs, vulnerability and risk concerning the young person and it can support the police in locating them. Social workers are responsible for keeping the plan up to date with all relevant information as well as sharing it with parents/carers and the police. Missing from Home Project Workers can support professionals with collating the information and ensuring the plan is reviewed regularly.  


Assurance arrangements

A Multi Agency Missing Panel is held monthly to discuss young people who have been reported missing on three occasions or more in a 28-day period, children in care who have had a missing period of 48 hours or more and any other young people deemed to be ‘high risk’.

The meetings are chaired by a Service Unit Manager and key professionals working with the child/family will be invited to participate in the meeting.   Information is shared to formulate a plan with the aim of reducing trigger points for future missing from home episodes and identify any developing themes that may provide partner agencies with any CCE/CSE intelligence or information.


Why does it matter?

Tameside Children’s Service and Greater Manchester Police both have devised protocols that outline their duty and responsibility to safeguard children and families across Tameside, or those using services in the area. It is intended these protocols will assist in developing robust responses to missing children and young people, taking a multi-agency approach. A copy of each protocol can be found below.

Welcome to the Greater Manchester Safeguarding Children...

tameside-multi-agency-missing-protocol-final-june-2024.pdf


Who to contact?

If all enquires have been undertaken and the whereabouts of the child or young person remain unknown, you must contact the Police. Dial 999 in an emergency situation or call 101 in non-emergency situations as well as making contact with Children’s Services.

Tameside Children’s Services can be contacted on 0161 342 4101 (if out of hours 0161 342 2222) or report online by visiting Multi-Agency Request for Service Form

Greater Manchester’s Safeguarding Partnership has teamed up with the charity ‘Missing People’ and their Runaway Helpline to let young people know there is somewhere they can turn for support and advice on staying safe. They have a free help-line available 24/7 for you to call or text - 116 000 or email 116000@missingpeople.org.uk


Further information and support: