Barnet Missing Children Protocol
Related guidance
- Barnet Safeguarding Children Partnership: Vulnerable Adolescents Strategy 2018 – 2020
- Statutory Guidance on Children who Run Away or Go Missing from Home or Care (2014)
- London Safeguarding Children Procedures: Children Missing from Care, Home and Education
- Safeguarding Children who may have been trafficked (2011)
- Vulnerable Adolescents Protocol (Documents Library)
Children and young people who go missing from home and care often do so due to underlying factors. In recent years, well publicised cases have highlighted the multiple risks and vulnerabilities facing children, which includes the risk of child sexual exploitation, drug and alcohol use and becoming involved in perpetrating, or a being a victim of crime.
Between April 2017 – November 2017, 140 Barnet children went missing from home on 251 occasions with a quarter of those children going missing on more than one occasion. In Barnet, girls account for 51% of all children missing from home and children from BAME backgrounds make up 56% of the cohort. Children aged 13-17 make up the largest proportion of children who go missing, with the number significantly rising at 15 years.
In congruence with the national picture on children missing from care, Barnet's Children in Care present with a higher volume of reported missing episodes than children living at home. 56 children in care were reported as missing on 384 occasions with just under a third of them going missing on more than one occasion. Boys account for 61% of all children missing from care and children from BAME backgrounds make up 59% of the same cohort. Children aged 13-17 represent 98% of children in care who were reported as missing from care and the frequency increases significantly in later adolescence with those aged 16/17 years of age, accounting for 73% of all missing reports.
In order to respond effectively to children and young people who go missing from home and care, it is important that professionals working with them are mindful of the risks they face and make tenacious efforts to protect their welfare by making robust enquiries to locate them. To reduce the risk of further missing episodes, practitioners must understand the 'push and pull' factors that influence the actions of children who go missing, develop relationships of trust with them and build their resilience through child centered assessment, planning and intervention activities.
This protocol sets out the London Borough of Barnet's missing children procedure and provides practice guidance to practitioners and managers for children and young people under the age of 18 (up to 25 for children with disabilities/SEN and Care Leavers) aimed at promoting effective arrangements to safeguard children and young people who go missing from home or care (including residential care).
Barnet aims to safeguard children and young people by adhering to the following principals:
- The safety and welfare of the children and young people is paramount; Child Protection procedures will be initiated whenever there are concerns that a child, who is missing, may have suffered, or is likely to suffer, significant harm;
- Our primary aim is to locate and return missing children to a place of safety; we will ensure our efforts are robust and work effectively with multi-agency partners;
- We will work tenaciously with children, young people and their families, building their resilience and providing timely support to meet their needs and reduce repeat missing episodes;
- We will make efforts to learn about the reasons children and young people go missing and the risks they face; and use this information to create SMART Risk Assessments and Risk Management Plans;
- Our recording of missing episodes will be timely, accurate and up-to date to enable accurate data reporting and analysis leading to purposeful service planning;
- Legal action will be taken to safeguard children, when this is necessary to safeguard their welfare.
Whilst this protocol does not specifically cover Children Missing from Education it is informed by good practice guidance on this area. The guidance in this document should not be read in isolation. Additional policy and guidance in relation to children who go missing should be read alongside relevant guidance and procedures for children who are at risk of:
- Child Sexual Exploitation;
- Domestic Violence;
- Deliberate Self-Harm;
- Group Offending; Substance Misuse/Dealing and Gang-involved young people;
- Children with disabilities.
This protocol has been developed by Barnet Children's Social Care Services in partnership with the Police, Education, Targeted Youth Support (TYS) and Youth Offending Services (YOT) on behalf of Barnet's Safeguarding Children Partnership (BSCP) in accordance with national guidance and to encourage agencies and practitioners work together to prevent children and young people going missing, support their safe return and ensure the risks they face are robustly managed.
The strategic responsibility for children missing from home and care is held by the Strategic Lead for Child Sexual Exploitation and Missing. Through quality assurance activities and data, regular reports on missing children are provided to the Lead Member for Children's Services, the Chief Executive, Barnet Children Board Partnership and Director for Children's Services.
The Police are the lead agency for missing and absent children and they are ultimately responsible for deciding whether to categorise a child as missing or absent. There will be on-going risk assessment and so children may well move between the categories depending on the updated risks. The definitions of 'missing' and 'absent' are:
| Missing A child or young person will be defined as missing if their whereabouts are unknown and there are reasons to believe one or more of the following: |
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Absent Note: Children and young people away from placement without authorisation, but whose whereabouts are known, should be treated in the same way as children who are missing, if the carer has concerns for their safety. |
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| Unauthorised Absence Whereabouts are known but the child or young person is not where they are expected or required to be. A child cannot be categorised as missing if their whereabouts are known. |
Report to Police only if there is sufficient safeguarding concern for the child/young person, or another, which may require Police intervention. |
The Police as the lead agency for the investigation of missing children will conduct investigations into all children reported as missing. The local authority and other agencies are under a duty to cooperate with any investigation for a child at risk of harm.
It is expected that parents and carers will take all reasonable and practicable steps to locate a child missing from home and inform the police without delay. If a child is discovered to be missing and their parent/carer has not reported this to the police, they should be strongly encouraged to do immediately.
For Looked After Children the primary carer should report the child missing to the Police by calling 101 immediately and advise the local authority of the CAD number and circumstances leading up to the child going missing.
To support the police investigation, the following information should be shared.
- Description of the child including their clothing;
- Details of where the child was last seen and with whom;
- Recent photograph;
- Relevant addresses, known associates and addresses frequented;
- Name and address of child's School, GP and Dentist;
- Previous history of absenteeism and circumstances of where found;
- Circumstances under which the child is absent;
- Any factors that increase the risk to the child;
- Child's Oyster card / Travel card details;
- Child's Telephone number / email /social media.
The police classification of a person as 'absent' and 'missing' are based on continuous monitoring and risk assessment in line with current guidance.
All cases classified as 'missing' by the Police will receive an active Police response – such as deployment of officers to locate a child.
Cases where the child is classified as 'absent' will be recorded by the Police and risk assessed regularly but no active response will be deployed. Absent cases will be resolved when a young person returns or reclassified as 'missing' if new information comes to light suggesting the child is at risk.
When receiving a missing person report in relation to Children in Care, the Police will tailor their response to the circumstances and the risk assessment of the child. Children living out of borough will be reported as missing to the police force in the locality of the placement.
Police risk assess reports of missing children as follows:
High Risk - The risk posed is immediate and there are substantial grounds for believing that the subject is in danger through their own vulnerability; or have been the victim of a serious crime; or the risk posed is immediate and there are substantial grounds for believing that the public is in danger
Medium Risk - The risk posed is likely to place the subject in danger or they are a threat to themselves or others
Low Risk - There is no apparent threat of danger to either the subject or the public
All children under the age of 18 years must be classified as at least Medium risk
In addition to high risk groups some children may be regarded as at exceptional risk when missing. These children include those who are very young, vulnerable as a result of a disability or mental ill health, they are regarded as an immediate risk to self or others or where the missing episode is lengthy including where there is no proof of life.
In these cases the following is important:
- That the missing episode is correctly categorized by the police at the outset in terms of risk level including consideration of the episode as a crime incident;
- That all relevant information is shared with police to ensure they can assess the risk accurately including the child's involvement in criminal or gang activity or links to any associates of concern;
- That efforts to locate the child are immediately proactive so that intelligence and telecommunications methods can be considered/utilized before time elapses and these become less effective;
- If there is disagreement regarding the risk level selected by police/investigative approach this should be escalated immediately – see Appendix C: Barnet Safeguarding Partnership Resolution Policy;
- That regular contact is maintained with the family/parents of the missing child to seek and share information with them regarding locating the child- this may involve unannounced visits to the family by a social worker as well as planned liaison and support;
- The use of media campaigns and publicity should be kept under review;
- That the missing episode is managed via a tight multi agency plan with clear timescales which is regularly and pro-actively kept under review. Multi agency meetings should take place a minimum of monthly for long term missing children but this may be more frequent and actions should be tracked in between meetings. Initial strategy meeting may need to be chaired at a senior level e.g. Head of Safeguarding and Quality Assurance or Assistant Director level;
- That these missing episodes have oversight at the right level of seniority within each agency;
- Minutes of meetings and actions must be circulated to the line manager and senior officers in each agency for review, oversight and tracking;
- That any drift and delay in the plan, lack of engagement by a key agency or where the child is not located involve multi agency challenge where necessary and rapid escalation to senior officers - see Appendix C: Barnet Safeguarding Partnership Resolution Policy.
Last Updated: July 31, 2023
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