Issue - meetings

To receive evidence from residential care providers and private fostering agencies.

To receive evidence from members of Haringey Foster Carers Association.

To receive evidence from:

·        The Police Missing Persons Unit

·        The First Response Service

To receive a general intoduction on the issue of children missing from care or from home from officers from the Children and Young People’s Service.

Debbie Haith, Deputy Director of the Children and Young Peoples Service (C&YPS), gave a presentation introducing the issue of children missing from home or from care and providing some background information. 

It was noted that the terms ‘young runaway’ and ‘missing’ referred to children and young people up to the age of 18 who had run away from their home or care placement, had been forced to leave or whose whereabouts were unknown.  There was an important distinction between this and unauthorised absence, which was where the whereabouts of looked-after children were known or thought to be known but unconfirmed.  In such circumstances, they were not considered to be missing but instead classified as absent without authorisation from their placement.  This was in order to ensure a proportionate response.  The distinction was overridden if there were any child protection concerns as the safety of children and young people was paramount. 

Little detailed research had been undertaken on the issue except by the Children’s Society.  They had recently asked C&YPS to identify a link officer for some further research that they were undertaking on the issue.  Such research that was available showed that many children ran away repeatedly and a significant proportion were away for long periods - 10% ran away for more than four weeks.  Children could be coerced into running away and 25% of children said that they ran away because they were told to or were physically forced to go.  The vast majority – two thirds - were not reported to the Police as missing.  Refuges were now required to notify social services if missing children arrived at their premises.  They had previously been required to inform parents. 

The Police Missing Persons Unit had primary responsibility for dealing with children who were reported as missing.   As part of this duty, they were required to notify relevant social services departments.  In Haringey, they would notify the First Response Unit. However, any involvement of childrens social care services did not override their overall responsibilities. Following notification, the Police would try to gain an understanding of the circumstances and make an assessment of this situation including whether the child was at risk.  There was normally some sort of reason why children or young people ran away.  This could be difficulties at school, drugs or alcohol problems, trouble with the Police or the breakdown of relationships between parents.  Although children in care were three times more likely to run away, they only made up 2% of the total number of runaways.

There were London wide procedures on safeguarding children missing from care or from home.  There was a large concentration of children in the capital which made it essential for there to be clear expectations of all agencies working within the capital.  The most important issue was the need to mitigate against risk. 

Each local authority had to have a named officer responsible for children and young people who go missing or run away.  In Haringey, this was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4