Children Missing from Home and Care

1. Introduction

This policy and procedure sets out how agencies in Slough will work together to respond when children or young people go missing from home or care. Our response must be collaborative, effective and prioritise children and young people's safety. This includes effectively assessing risks associated with going missing, both the risk of a missing incident occurring and risk of harm during the incident itself, and providing proportionate and helpful responses to reduce those risks.

Professionals in every agency have a role to play and this document sets out the roles and responsibilities of different teams and services. For more detailed guidance on the responses of individual agencies see also:

Joint protocol between Thames Valley Police and children's social care – missing children, agreed January 2018;
Slough Children First Return Home Interviews - Service Delivery Agreement between Slough Borough Council Young People's Services and Slough Children First.

Children and young people going missing from home or care can pose risks to their safety and welfare. While missing they may be vulnerable to violence, exploitation and other forms of harm. Securing the safety of children and young people who are missing is the first priority in responding to any missing incident.

Once the child or young person is safe in the short-term, our response seeks to understand the reasons why the child goes missing. Going missing can be a sign that the child does not feel safe or cared for where they live, or may be a sign that they are involved in more systematic exploitation and are going missing as a result.

Missing incidents are an opportunity to understand children and young people's lived experience, and to offer help and support. For some children and young people, this may be the first time that they have been offered a chance to talk to someone about any challenges that they are facing. Taking these concerns seriously and providing help and support at an appropriate level is crucial to building trust that may lead to further disclosures.

Understanding where children and young people go, and who they are with when they go missing provides crucial intelligence for the police and Slough Children First to guide efforts to disrupt exploitation networks, identify particular areas that may pose a risk to children and shape strategic responses to risks in the community.

Strategic responses to children and young people going missing includes considering how we can make the local community a safer place for children and young people. Contextual safeguarding is an approach that seeks to understand the contexts in which children and young people are at risk in the community and to attempt to make them safer. This might be through licencing enforcement at local shops, bars or taxi firms or improved infrastructure such as street lighting and parks.

Strategic Responsibilities

Slough Borough Council, Slough Children First and Thames Valley Police work together to ensure that children who go missing, whether they live at home or in care, are safe, secure and successful. All three agencies contribute to strategic decision-making and activity, as well as operational responsibilities for responding to individual missing incidents.

Thames Valley police are responsible for:

Developing risk assessment processes that determine the level of response to a missing child or young person;
Maintaining information flows about children and young people currently missing;
Collating intelligence about areas and people that pose a risk to children.

Slough Children First is responsible for:

Establishing procedures for responding to safeguarding concerns raised in relation to missing incidents.

Managing the work of the Sexual exploitation and missing risk assessment conference (SEMRAC), and oversight of children who repeatedly go missing from home or care;
Fulfilling their corporate parenting responsibilities to children and young people who go missing from care.

Slough Borough Council is responsible for:

Managing the Youth Service and overseeing the Return Interview process for all children who go missing in Slough and within a three mile boundary, ensuring that there is sufficient capacity to meet the target deadlines;
Quality Assuring the Return Home Interview process;
Working in partnership with Slough Children First to secure timely return home interviews;
Liaising with local authority departments that can help to make the local environment safer for children and young people missing from home or care (licensing, parks, street lighting etc.).

Overarching Operational Principles

All professionals coming into contact with a child or young person who is at risk of going missing, is currently missing, or returning home must abide by the following principles.

Child-first – The safety of children is paramount and a safe return to the place where they live is the top priority. How children and young people experience this process will shape their future relationship with support services. No matter how challenging their behaviour, or how far they appear to be 'choosing' to put themselves at risk, children and young people need our kindness and respect;
Proportionate to risk – the risks to children and young people going missing vary depending on the child's age, family life, and other vulnerabilities. As well as being safely returned home, some children and young people will require a longer-term safeguarding response;
- Any risks identified are referred to the Slough Children First front door for assessment, and children are offered social care services where the threshold is met;
- Children repeatedly going missing, or are missing overnight, or where missing incidents otherwise cause concern are referred to the Sexual Exploitation Missing Risk Assessment Conference (SEMRAC).
Holistic – Going missing might be a response to something else going on in the child's life. As well as assessing risk of harm during missing incidents, professionals should be aware of any other risks to the child, including at home:
- Return Home Interviews are offered to all children going missing, including children looked after living out of area. Return Home Interviews explore issues about the missing incident and the child's wider wellbeing;
- Where no safeguarding risks are identified, the worker undertaking the Return Home Interview suggests universal and targeted services to support the young person's wider well-being;
- Children already known to Slough Children First have an assessment of need and a plan to address any needs identified.
Intelligence-led – missing incidents are opportunities to understand more about potential risks not only to the individual child but to children and young people in general. Recording all missing incidents and capturing details about where, when and why children and young people go missing will help to improve future responses to risk of harm:
- All Missing incidents are recorded in ICS by Slough Children First;
- All information about missing incidents are collated by the Child Exploitation Manager;
- Information is shared at both a strategic and operational level to inform decision-making.

Risks to children and young people going missing

All professionals working with children or young people who go missing from home or care must be aware of the potential risks to children and young people associated with missing incidents, and the factors that might increase the risks of children going missing.

Children and young people missing from home or care are at increased risk of:

Child sexual exploitation, or other forms of child exploitation;
Drug and alcohol use;
Homelessness;
Being victims or perpetrators of crime;
Being a victim of violence, or associated with gang / organised youth crime.

Children and young people can go missing from the place where they live for a number of reasons. These include 'push' factors, where the child is running away from something at home, or 'pull' factors, where the child is running to somewhere that they want to be.

Push factors include family difficulties and parental conflict; mental health difficulties, bullying or personal problems that the young person doesn't feel that they can disclose.

Pull factors include wanting to be with friends or a romantic partner; running to relatives, especially if the child is looked after; or the child may be a victim of grooming, and is being enticed or pressured to go missing as part of wider exploitation.

Children Looked After may be more likely to go missing and be particularly vulnerable when missing. They may be 'pulled' to visit family and friends, or 'pushed' by not feeling settled or safe in their placement. Many of these children have histories of neglect or abuse, which may make them more vulnerable to unhealthy relationships, and therefore exploitation. In group settings, children looked after may be encouraged to go missing by their peers within the children's home, and children's homes may be targeted by perpetrators of exploitation as sources of vulnerable children and young people.

2. Definitions

Missing

For the purpose of this guidance a child (i.e. a young person under the age of 18 years) is to be considered 'missing' if their 'whereabouts cannot be established and where circumstances are out of character or the context suggests the person may be subject of a crime or at risk of harm to themselves or another. They will be considered missing until they are located and their well-being or otherwise is established.

Examples of missing that cause concern are those where:

Parent /Carers/staff have no indication as to the child's whereabouts and/or;
There is no indication that the child is likely to return within a reasonable period of time; and
There is immediate concern for the child's safety.

Police will review risk assess all missing reports to assess for level of risk. All cases classified as 'missing with risk' 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 'missing without risk' (previously absent) will be recorded by the Police and reviewed risk assessed regularly, but no active response will be deployed unless risk increases.

These cases will be resolved when a child returns or new information comes to light suggesting he/she is at risk where the case will be reclassified to 'missing with risk' (see Thames Valley Police Missing Protocol).

Unauthorised absence

Some children absent themselves from home or care for a short period and then return, often their whereabouts are known or may be quickly established through contact with family or friends, or are unknown but the children are not considered at risk. Sometimes children stay out longer than agreed as a boundary testing activity which is well within the range of normal teenage behaviour. These children have taken 'unauthorised absence', and would not usually come within the definition of 'missing' for this guidance.

If a child's whereabouts are known then they cannot be 'missing'. However, if they are known to be staying somewhere where they are in danger and it is not possible for the carer/person with parental responsibility to remove the child or young person, then it may still be necessary to involve Police and partners in safeguarding them.

3. Responding to an Active Missing Incident

Roles and responsibilities

Thames Valley Police are responsible for:

Receiving and recording all reports of children missing from home or care;
Classifying the level of risk and proportionate response to missing incidents based on the information given to them;
Leading the search for and recovery of the child where child is missing with risk;
Keeping live missing incidents under review and upgrading the category of risk should new information come to light;
Daily liaison with the Child Exploitation Manager at Slough Children First to discuss currently missing children;
Notifying Slough Children First of any safeguarding risks identified;
Undertaking protective checks (formerly Safe and Well checks) once a child is found.

Slough Children First is responsible for:

Recording all missing incidents on ICS, the social care IT system.
This ensures that there is a social care record of every child or young person who goes missing, and that the missing incident is considered in the light of, and contributes to, a holistic assessment of the child's safety and welfare, both at the time of the missing incident and in the future;
Providing social care support where thresholds are met.
Children who go missing from home or care may qualify for support from Slough Children First – i.e. children in need under Section 17 or the Children Act 1989, and those requiring a child protection response or needing to become looked after because they are at risk of or experiencing significant harm;
Responding to missing incidents where the child or young person is looked after by Slough Children First. If the missing child is a Child Looked After, it may be more appropriate for the police and Slough Children First to jointly undertake enquiries with the family and other agencies. This approach should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Young People's Services are responsible for:

Conducting Return Interviews for children missing from home or care who live in Slough or within a three mile radius of Slough;
Quality Assuring Return Home Interviews;
Making referrals to Slough Early Help Services when needs are identified;
Making referrals to targeted and specialist tier 3 services as necessary;
Sharing information and intelligence with partners as necessary;
Recording the Return Home Interview on ICS;
Making safeguarding referrals as appropriate.

NYAS is responsible for conducting return home interviews for children looked after by Slough but who are placed outside of Slough.

When a child is reported missing

Initial Parent or Carer response

The parent or carer reporting a missing child should call the police, when they will be asked the risk assessment questions about the child.

If the child is Looked After, the carer or manager must:

Make an initial assessment if the child is considered missing on if this is an unauthorised absence – see Section 2, Definitions;
Take any steps set out in the Placement Plan and risk assessment for that particular child, as agreed with the placing authority;
Assess any risks to the child based on information available;
If the child is believed to be at risk, call the police, (otherwise – see Unauthorised absences);
After calling the police, notify the Emergency Duty Team (if out of hours) and provide the police reference number.

The parent/carer should take the following steps in assessing risk and trying to locate the child:

Telephoning the child, their friends and relatives to try and locate there whereabouts;
Offering to collect the child wherever they are, or negotiating a safe alternative if the child is reluctant to return to their placement;
Contacting the child's social worker or Front Door if within working hours, or Emergency Duty Service if out of hours;
If the carer does not know the child well, or does not feel able to assess risks, they must notify the police and Front Door or Emergency Duty Team (if out of hours).

If the child returns home after the child has been reported missing, the parent or carer must notify the police immediately.

Police response

Children and young people going missing from home or care are brought to the attention of the police through reports from parents or carers or other people concerned about the child's whereabouts.

Reports received by children's social care should be referred to the police through 999 or 101 police contact numbers.

On receiving a report of a missing child or young person, the Police:

Ascertains what steps have been taken to find the child or young person before the call to the police;
Undertake an initial risk assessment to classify the incident as Missing – With Risk or Missing – No Apparent Risk;
Confirms the categorisation of risk with a supervisor;
Seeks to identify the care status of the child, and if looked after, the relevant local authority.

The subsequent police response depends on how the incident has been categorised.

Missing – no apparent risk:

The person will be flagged on the Police National Computer (PNC) and an appropriate call-back time will be agreed with the caller. When the call-back time is reached, the original caller will be contacted for any updates and the initial risk assessment will be reviewed. If at that time, or earlier if further information comes to light, a risk is identified, the case will be re-classified to 'Missing' with risk and officers will be deployed to commence a full missing person investigation;
If not located after 48 hours, the case will be reviewed and either re-classified as 'Missing with risk' or remain as 'Missing – No Apparent Risk' but managed by the local Missing Person Coordinator;
Unless a crime or a safeguarding issue is suspected, the police will not conduct a 'prevention interview' (formerly 'safe-and-well check').

Missing – with risk

The child will be recorded as 'missing' and a notification sent to sloughchildren.referrals@sloughchildrenfirst.co.uk;
An officer will visit the reporting person and/or parent/carer to commence a Missing Person investigation. This will include the following actions:
- Obtain full details of the child and the circumstances of their disappearance;
- Conduct a search of the premises and surrounding grounds, looking for the child but also for evidence of 'push/pull' factors behind the child going missing;
- Complete a full risk assessment by reviewing the initial risk assessment and asking a further 8 risk-assessment questions (see Appendix 2 - to follow). The officer will then provisionally grade the child's risk level as Low, Medium or High;
- Obtain consent to release the photograph to the press and to share details with partner agencies to assist the investigation.
A police sergeant will review and confirm the risk level and will supervise the initial police response, with oversight from an inspector. All High-risk cases will be managed by a senior officer of at least the rank of Chief Inspector;
The child will be flagged on the Police National Computer (PNC) as 'missing';
Secondary investigation will be undertaken to identify any incidents or issues which may inform the risk assessment or assist enquiries to locate the child. This includes contacting Slough Children First to make enquiries about the child and family;
The risk assessment and the risk level will be kept continually under review by the police;
The police will liaise with family and partner agencies and keep them regularly updated regarding the investigation;
The Missing Person Co-ordinator liaises daily with the Child Exploitation Manager at SCT where all live missing cases are discussed;
The Missing Person Co-ordinator notifies Slough Children First via sloughchildren.referrals@sloughchildrenfirst.co.uk‎ of any additional information about missing children and young people.

Slough Children First response

On receipt of a referral from the police to sloughchildren.referrals@sloughchildrenfirst.co.uk‎.

The Front Door:
- Notifies the Child Exploitation manager;
- Checks whether the child is known to Slough Children First;
- If known, the BSO opens a contact and notifies the allocated social worker;
- If the child is looked after, the BSO notifies the child's social worker, the consultant social work manager and the IRO;
- If not known, the BSO opens a file on ICS for the child and records the contact and refers to a social worker in the Front Door.
The Child Exploitation Manager:
- Enters the missing episode on ICS for all children;
- If the child is looked after, enters the missing episode on the tracker for missing children looked after;
- Triages the case based on known risks;
- If threshold met, the case is referred to SEMRAC for review;
- Attends the daily liaison meeting with the Police to discuss all children currently missing;
- Updates ICS with new information received;
- Attends any strategy discussion as needed.
The allocated social worker:
- Assesses risks to the child and, if necessary convenes a Strategy Discussion to determine whether a Section 47 enquiry is needed;
- If the child does not have a Child and Family Assessment, or the missing incident is part of a pattern of such episodes, plans to carry out an assessment when the child returns.

A Strategy Discussion is required if the child is at risk of significant harm while missing or is missing for more than 5 days – see below Missing for more than 24 hours.

If a child is looked after, and their whereabouts are known, but they are not willing or able to return, then the social worker must consider a Recovery Order (S50 Children Act 1989)

The Daily Missing Children Meeting

The Daily Missing Children liaison meeting is an opportunity for the police and the Child Exploitation Manager to share information and consider what further action needs to be taken in each case.

This should include:

What further efforts could be made to find the child, including contacting family and friends;
Whether the child can safely be returned to their home or placement if they are found;
Whether the police should conduct the preventative interview at the point the child is found or once they have returned home;
Any child protection processes that might be required when the child is found.

SEMRAC

When is a missing child discussed at SEMRAC?

Not all children who have been reported missing are discussed at SEMRAC, however if the child has had any of the following they will be discussed:

3 or more missing episodes in a 90 day period;
Any overnight missing episode;
Any missing episode of particular concern/significantly out of character;
Any missing in relation to Child Sexual Exploitation.

Thames Valley Police Missing Person's Coordinator sends a list of all children who have been missing three or more times in 90 days, and those missing overnight. Slough Children First's CSE and Missing Manager will consider any other relevant children to be discussed, in consultation with the Police Missing Person's Coordinator where necessary. The child will continue to be discussed at SEMRAC until they no longer meet any of the above criteria, or until the risk has been reduced.

Other Local Authority (OLA) Children

OLA children who are placed in Slough and go missing remain the responsibility of the placing authority. The placing authority manages the child's care plan and any risk related to going missing. OLA missing children will be discussed at SEMRAC when they meet the above criteria in order to achieve the following aims:

Explore associations with Slough children;
Contribute to local intelligence;
Understand the placing authority's plans to address identified concerns.

SEMRAC will notify the placing local authority when their child is discussed at SEMRAC.

Missing incidents lasting more than 24 hours

If a child is missing for more than 24 hours the Child Exploitation manager:

Informs the Head of Service;
Informs the child's school and gathers any information which may help find the child.

After 5 days, a strategy meeting must be held, which is:

Chaired by the Head of Service;
Includes the police, education and health, as well as any other relevant partners;
May include legal services and Slough Children First's Head of Communication in exceptional circumstances.

The strategy meeting must consider what further steps to locate the child might be taken, including:

Writing to friends and relatives asking for information;
Writing to other local authorities and agencies notifying them that the child is missing;
Involving the press, in consultation with the police, and with close regard to informing parents and getting their consent, and abiding by any restrictions due to court proceedings;
Seeking a recovery order;
Notifying the Missing Person's Helpline and national agencies;
How the Emergency Duty Team will be kept updated and by whom;
The frequency of subsequent meetings – recommended to be fortnightly while the child is missing.

The Head of Service will ensure a child of most concern form is completed and submitted to the relevant senior management including the Chief Executive after 5 days.

When a child returns from going missing

Police response

On finding a child, or being notified that the child has been found, the police:

Contact the parent and child to conduct a prevention interview (where the child was missing under the category of missing with risk;
Notify the Child Exploitation Manager that the child has been found;
Share information about the incident at the daily liaison meeting with the Child Exploitation Manager;
Share the written record of the prevention interview with Slough Children First.

Slough Children First Response

On receiving a notification from the police that a child has been found:

The Child Exploitation Manager:

Updates ICS missing episode, and if the child is looked after, the Missing CLA tracker;
Adds the prevention interview record to ICS;
Notifies the child's allocated social worker of the return.

Notifies the relevant agency to conduct a Return Home Interview.

The social worker is responsible for:

Visiting the child within 5 working days of their return home.

Return Home Interview

Return Home Interviews are conducted by an independent person. Arrangements have been made for Return Home Interviews to be provided by:

Slough Young People's Service when the child lives in Slough or within a 3 mile radius of Slough;
NYAS when the child does not live in Slough.

For children living in Slough, Slough Young People's Services:

Contact the young person to arrange a Return Home Interview within 72 hours of the prevention interview, making 3 attempts by phone, followed up by a letter;
Where the young person refuses a Return Home Interview, gathering evidence from parents and carers about any need for support;
Arrange to see the young person in a place where they feel safe;
Conduct the interview;
Complete the RHI form and record on ICS within 3 days of the interview.

When there are repeated missing episodes in quick succession, the Young People's Service may only conduct a single interview. The interview will cover the recent missing episodes and will be recorded on ICS under each missing episode.

At any point, where safeguarding concerns or criminality are suspected, the Young Peoples Services will notify as appropriate:

The Police;
The child's allocated social worker and Child Exploitation Manager, by sending the completed RHI form;
Make a SEMRAC referral;
Make a referral to the Serious Youth Violence Group where the criteria has been met.

Further assessment

The child's allocated social worker:

Reviews the prevention interview record and the record of the Return home Interview and considers whether further action is required – e.g. Strategy Discussion, child and family assessment or Section 47 inquiry;
Has a management consultation to confirm decisions made and records decision on case notes;
Where the child is not known to social care the information will be reviewed by the Front Door to determine whether a referral is to be considered, or a referral to Early Help may be beneficial, in some cases no further action is required.

4. Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children and Young People

Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children are usually looked after, and as such the procedures for reporting a child looked after missing must be followed.

CLA procedures must continue to be followed in the event of a long terms missing episode.

Preventing missing episodes

Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children and Young People are at increased risk of missing episodes, particularly if they have been trafficked into the UK. This increased risk is particularly high in the first couple of weeks after the child becomes looked after. The needs assessment undertaken when an unaccompanied asylum seeking child becomes looked after should may particular attention to mitigating these risks.

Immediately on entering care, the social worker must consider how to keep the child safe during the assessment. This includes restricting knowledge of the child's location until the enquirer's identity can be verified, clarifying roles and responsibilities within the Placement Plan and considering any additional safety measures proportionate to risk;
Like all Children Looked After, the risk of the child going missing should be assessed as part of the care planning process when the child becomes looked after and updated as risks change.

Where a UASC young person goes missing and their whereabouts are unknown and they remain missing for an indefinite period the CLA status remains in place and a regular review of the status and situation must be undertaken.

Support in assessing the risk of trafficking in unaccompanied asylum seeking children (or any other child) can be sourced from:

The UK Human Trafficking Centre and immigration staff familiar with patterns of trafficking into the UK. Immigration staff who specialise in trafficking issues should be able to advise on whether information about the individual child suggests that they fit the profile of a potentially trafficked child;
NSPCC Child Trafficking Advice Centre (Email: help@nspcc.org.uk) provides specialist advice and information to professionals who have concerns that a child may have been trafficked. Phone: 0808 800 5000, Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4.30pm.

Additional resources in assessing unaccompanied asylum seeking young people can be found:

'Safeguarding Children Who May Have Been Trafficked' contains practical guidance for agencies which are likely to encounter, or have referred to them, children who have been trafficked.

Children Looked After

Preventing missing episodes

Missing Risk assessments

The risks of children going missing from care form part of the risk assessment undertaken when a child begins to be looked after, and these risks are reviewed regularly. The risks of going missing must be reviewed at the start of each placement.

This might include:

The likelihood of the child/young person going missing, including information about previous patterns of going missing and risks associated with being missing;
The child's view on the current placement / stability of their relationships at home;
The level of care / supervision / support available to the child / young person and how this may be enhanced if a factor for example some children may benefit from a period of one-to-one support;
The views of those with parental responsibility on what action should be taken if the child/young person goes missing or regularly returns home late;
The level of risk presented if the child / young person going missing - for example, a history of alcohol/ drug misuse, sexual exploitation, involvement in gangs, mental health or learning difficulties;
Details of any medical condition and treatment that the child/ young person is currently undergoing and the implications of this in terms of their missing / absence;
Consideration of any external influences which may result in the child's removal without consent;
Recording all the contact names, addresses and telephone numbers of the places where child/ young person may return to;
Establishing the locations a child may go when missing are these places known vulnerable locations;
Ensuring the child is aware of the safer places scheme and what places are in the safer places scheme in the particular areas they frequent.

All children's homes are required to have a location risk assessment and missing policy, and this should be requested read and analysed with reference to the risks identified in the child's assessment, before a placement is chosen.

The young person and those with parental responsibility must be informed of the risk assessment process, and what will happen if the child goes missing from placement.

Placement Plans

The child's Placement Plan must include a risk assessment, including the risk of going missing, and the strategies and actions that carers should use to reduce risks, and to respond when a child does go missing.

Strategies to mitigate the risk of children going missing include:

Clear delegation of authority to carers;
Agreeing behaviour strategies with the young person / consideration of behaviour contracts;
Agreeing communication methods and frequency with the young person;
Attention to and notification of episodes of missing education, indicating increased risks of going missing from placement;
Ensuring the child has access to and understands the placement's complaints procedure and that of Slough Children First.

The Placement Plan must also contain clear roles and responsibilities when responding to possible missing incidents.

Care Planning

Care planning and good social work practice can mitigate the risks associated with going missing, including:

Choosing local placements, unless to do so places additional risks on the child;
Regular social work visits that address any issues with the placement at an early opportunity;
Use of Placement Stability meetings to address any concerns about the placement;
Access to an Independent Visitor or advocate adult outside of the placement for the young person to talk to;
Permanence planning, and particularly ensuring that periods of voluntary accommodation under Section 20 are short and well-planned, and other legal orders are used to provide stability and parental responsibility where required;
Telling young people about their rights to an independent interview after they go missing and providing information about the Missing Person's Helpline.

Unauthorised absence of children looked after

Children looked after, like other children, are not always where they are supposed to be. Testing boundaries is a normal part of adolescence. This does not necessarily mean that they are at risk, or that they should be considered missing. However, making efforts to locate the child, and let them know that their absence was noticed is a strong sign to the child that someone cares about them.

The carer or manager must try and telephone the child and their friends and family to establish where they are and if they are safe.

No police response is necessary if:

The child's whereabouts are known;
The child is not assessed to be at risk of harm;
There are no risks of public order or safety concerns related to recovering the child.

If the carer is concerned about safety or public order issues when recovering the child, they must ask the Emergency Duty Team for advice. A Recovery Order or police assistance may be required.

If the police are notified of an unauthorised absence, without further indications of risk, the child will be categorised as 'Missing without risk' and no direct police response will be offered.

Unauthorised absence over 24 hours

A child absent without authorisation from placement for more than 24 hours must be reported to the child's social worker by the carer or residential home manager.

The child's social worker:

Notifies the child's IRO and the Head of Service for CLA;
Notifies and keeps updated the child's parents and their current carer;
Leads on dynamic assessment of risks, and escalates to missing episode if risks increase;
Considers next steps and how long the child should be considered absent rather than missing;
Convenes a strategy meeting when that time has passed;
Considers changes required to the placement plan when the child returns.