CONTENTS PAGE

Page Number

3 Foreword

4 Introduction

6 Definition of a Missing Person - Categories

7 Missing Children

8 National Context

9 Local Context

10 -12 Roles and Responsibilities

13 -14 returning home

14 - 15 Additional procedures for looked after children

16 Children – Longer or significant absences

16 - 17 Monitoring children or young people who go missing

APPENDICES

19 – 20 Appendix 1: Risk Factors

21 – 22 Appendix 2: Activation of Child Safeguarding Procedures

23 – 27 Appendix 3: Personal Descriptive Form

28 – 31 Appendix 4: Return Questionnaire

32 – 34 Appendix 5: Guidance to Carers

35 – 41 Appendix 6: Merseyside Contacts Lists:

  1. Social Services
  2. Merseyside Child Protection Designated Nurses
  3. Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership
  4. Police Contacts

MERSEYSIDE PROTOCOL

Foreword

In 2004 a protocol was agreed between the below mentioned partner agencies:

In 2008 this was reviewed by the same agencies with the exception of Halton who have now adopted the Cheshire protocol.

Local authorities, Merseyside Connexions, the Police and local Voluntary Agencies have worked together to aim towards a consistent response to the needs of children who go missing or run away from home or care. Ensuring a consistent approach and reliable follow up in appropriate cases will be essential in minimising the likelihood of children repeatedly going missing and running away.

It is within the spirit of partnership that the following protocol has been developed with the shared outcome being that all children and young people in Greater Merseyside have a safe start in life.

Safeguarding professionals from Knowsley have taken an active part in the development of this protocol. In addition these professionals have provided Knowsley specific guidance to ensure that the procedures are in place to provide effective safeguards for the children and young people of the Borough. This is highlighted in bold italic print throughout the protocol.

The Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership covered the six areas of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.

1. Children & Young People Who Go Missing or run away From Home & Care

INTRODUCTION

Merseyside partner agencies have produced this protocol to enable a consistent response to the needs of children and young people who go missing or run away from home or care. This collaborative working will offer a safe and prompt response to the needs of children and young people who go missing or run away from home or care so that everything possible is done to make sure they are found and made safe.

All children deserve the opportunity to achieve their full potential. This is set out in the Every Child Matters outcomes framework and focusing on outcomes is the key to improving children and young people’s wellbeing. A reminder of the five outcomes:

  • stay safe
  • be healthy
  • enjoy and achieve
  • make a positive contribution
  • achieve economic wellbeing

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined in ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ HMSO 2006 as:

  • protecting children from maltreatment
  • preventing impairment of children’s health and development
  • ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care

In November 2002, the Department of Health (DoH) issued statutory guidance under Section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. This guidance was detailed in the Local Authority Circular 17 (2002), which builds on the report from the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU, November 2002). The DoH Statutory Guidance (2002) summarizes messages from various research reports and makes recommendations on prevention. This aims to ensure the safety of those that run away, advises on appropriate help on their return and highlights co-coordinating responsibilities at a local and national level. One of the DoH key recommendations for local authorities, the police and partners is to:

“Ensure that multi agency protocols are in place on the action to be taken when children go missing from care and home or run away”

The purpose of this protocol is to ensure:

  • all services concerned with the care and protection of children and young people work together in accordance with the protocol and procedures
  • a clear plan is activated whenever children and young people run away/are missing
  • all appropriate agencies and individuals are notified if children and young people run away/are missing and/or return
  • appropriate and effective actions are taken when children and young people return or are located
  • effective early intervention is achieved to prevent repeat running away and associated risks
  • the police are appropriately notified of children and young people who go missing or run away
  • effective monitoring procedures are in place
  • children and young people are positively encouraged to influence the outcome of any professional intervention
  • ensure a prompt and effective response 24 hours a day

This protocol will sit alongside your Local Safeguarding Children’s Board procedures

2. Definition of a Missing Person and Categories

A missing person is anyone whose whereabouts are unknown, whatever the circumstances of disappearance. He or she will be considered missing until located and his or her wellbeing or otherwise established.

For the purposes of this protocol, three categories of identification are used that call for different responses from the agencies. Local enquiries and risk assessments need to be carried out to determine which category the young person falls into.

A child or young person under the age of 18 years is to be considered ‘missing’ through:

  • missing from home or run away with cause for concern
  • missing from care
  • missing families including children on the Child Protection Plan

All such missing children or young people will be considered to be a child at risk under Section 47 of the Children Act (1989). This section of the Act gives the power to all appropriate agencies to disclose relevant information to provide a positive outcome for the child or young person/s.

UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE

An individual may be categorised as an unauthorised absence if the person has deliberately or carelessly absented themselves and:

  • their behaviour is not out of character
  • they are either expected to return or be found quickly, or are temporarily staying with a relative, friend or associate
  • they are not expected to suffer or cause significant harm to others whilst absent

This categorisation must not be used as a convenient way of avoiding the obligation to respond record and investigate a missing person when there are genuine concerns for their welfare or the person is at imminent risk.

It is not the number of times a child or young person goes absent that determines their status as missing or unauthorised absence. It is the level of risk that they are likely to be exposed to.

  1. MISSING CHILDREN

3.1Initial response

Clearly, some children and young people absent themselves from home and/or care for a short period of time and then return, often their whereabouts are known. These children and young people are not considered at risk and usually they are testing boundaries. Sometimes children stay out longer than agreed either on purpose or unwittingly. This kind of boundary testing activity is well within the range of normal teenage behaviour and may not come within the category of ‘missing’ from this protocol. However, each individual child should be subject to a risk assessment based on individual circumstances and vulnerability (See Appendix 1).

3.2In considering a child or young person who is considered to be missing from home by their parent, carer or guardian, they will apply their own judgement with regard to the overall circumstances of the child or young person and the circumstances in which they have gone missing. If, in their opinion, the absence of the child or young person is more than ‘boundary testing’ activity, then they will, in normal circumstances, alert the police who will then apply a risk assessment to the report being made and deal accordingly.

4 NATIONAL CONTEXT

4.1 Running away is a dangerous activity that puts children and young people at risk

4.2 Prevalence

  • approximately 11% of young people run away from home for at least one night before their 16th birthday
  • There are an estimated number of 129,000 incidents of young people running away in the UK each year. Using the same figures this involved approximately 100,000 young people, the remainder were repeats

4.3 Characteristics

  • more runaways are female than male
  • most running occurs from the age of 13 onwards
  • rates of running away are higher for young people living with a step family 18% and in a lone parent family 13% than with both parents, 8%
  • rates of running away and repetitive running are substantially higher for young people and children who are Looked After

4.4 Reasons for running away

  • Poor family relationships.
  • conflict
  • maltreatment
  • a significant proportion, approximately 25%, define themselves as having been forced to leave home.
  • strong links have also been found between running away and other issues i.e. truancy, offending, substance misuse

4.5 Experiences whilst away

  • approximately 16% of young people sleep rough whilst away from home
  • Approximately 8% report being hurt or harmed.
  • Approximately 12% resort to survival strategies such as begging and stealing.
  • a quarter of young people who run, will have at least one of the above experiences whilst away

(Stepping Up Report – Children’s Society 2007)

5. LOCAL CONTEXT

Merseyside Police statistics indicate that between April 2007 and March 2008, 3494 young people (under 18yrs) were reported missing from a home or care setting.

These figures do not include those young persons who were treated as ‘Unauthorised Absence’. There were 1560 reported incidents of ‘Unauthorised Absence’

These figures are broken down into the six Merseyside Police areas;

Month-Year / Wirral / Sefton / Knowsley / St Helens / L/Pool North / L/Pool South / Merseyside
Apr-07 / 33 / 39 / 18 / 28 / 42 / 33 / 193
May-07 / 41 / 55 / 34 / 26 / 34 / 19 / 209
Jun-07 / 64 / 67 / 39 / 51 / 68 / 43 / 332
Jul-07 / 52 / 62 / 39 / 28 / 60 / 51 / 292
Aug-07 / 48 / 70 / 16 / 36 / 91 / 46 / 307
Sep-07 / 24 / 59 / 30 / 43 / 68 / 93 / 317
Oct-07 / 37 / 57 / 22 / 55 / 71 / 72 / 314
Nov-07 / 33 / 38 / 18 / 60 / 61 / 79 / 289
Dec-07 / 42 / 34 / 21 / 42 / 68 / 92 / 299
Jan-08 / 26 / 68 / 28 / 42 / 61 / 103 / 328
Feb-08 / 29 / 63 / 31 / 39 / 54 / 90 / 306
Mar-08 / 42 / 78 / 22 / 44 / 58 / 64 / 308
Year to April 2008 / 471 / 690 / 318 / 494 / 736 / 785 / 3494

6. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Parent and or Carer / After making reasonable enquiries as to the whereabouts of the missing child/young person, the parent/carer should notify the Police. If the child is the subject of a Care Order or is accommodated by the Local Authority, the Children’s Services Department should also be informed by the alerter and confirmed by the police.
Parent’s failing to make appropriate notifications when their child/young person is missing may reflect on that parent’s ability to protect and, as such this may be raised as a child protection issue.
All Agencies and Voluntary Organisations / If it comes to the attention of any agency or voluntary organisation that a young person is missing from home they must advise the parent/carer of their duty to report the child missing to the Police and of the organisation’s to ensure the matter is reported to the police.
Social Care / Social Care will work within the Framework for the Assessment of children and their families in need, local Safeguarding Children Procedures and Children in Need/Child Concern Procedures.
In all reported cases Children’s Services will consider the need for an Initial Assessment or S47 Investigation to address the identified risks. Consideration will also be given to the need for a Strategy Meeting to be held and independently chaired by an Independent Reviewing Officer who is located in the Quality Assurance Unit.
If the missing child or young person is Looked After, the subject of a Child Protection Plan, or there are any child protection concerns identified at the time of reporting, the Children’s Services Manager must be informed within 24 hours and there must be immediate implementation of local Safeguarding children procedures (See Appendix 2).
In the event of any child missing over 48 hours there must be regular strategy meetings held under safeguarding procedures and the actions/decisions of which reviewed at least every 7 days until the child is found.
Following any episode of missing from Care or when children are subject to a Child Protection Plan, the allocated Social Worker must undertake a return interview and complete return questionnaire (appendix 4).
Police / Merseyside Police must refer to Force Policy and Procedures for Missing Persons.
There are dedicated Missing Person Co-ordinators in each of the 6 Force areas
All children or young persons reported missing from home or absent from care are initially considered by the police as being ‘Vulnerable – High Risk’. The Police will carry out proactive enquiries to locate, trace and make arrangements with the parents/carer/residential home, for them to collect the child or young person as soon as possible, and return them home. In addition to specific internal actions to locate and trace the missing person, the following times scales are of relevance:
Within 2 hours the Police National Computer will be updated with the subjects’ details.
  • regular contact with the person reporting (alerter) is to be established as soon as possible and maintained until the child or young person is returned
  • liaison with partner and other agencies to be established as soon as possible
  • continual review and risk assessment to be applied
If Missing for 24 hours:
  • children’s Services to be informed regardless of circumstances of child or young person going missing
  • continual review and risk assessment to be applied
  • education Welfare Officer/Services to be informed and the school notified
If Missing up to 7 days:
  • Missing People charity to be informed – if not already notified
  • close contact with partner and other relevant agencies to be maintained
If Missing over 7 days:
  • All missing Children and Young Persons to be classed as ‘High Risk’ if not already assessed at this level before this time lapse. (At this stage children will be dealt with under Safeguarding Children procedures).
  • press/media strategy to be implemented – if not already in place
If Missing over 14 days:
  • NPIA- Missing Persons Bureau to be informed – if not already notified.
If Missing for over 10 weeks:
  • Ensure the Police National Computer report on the subject is extended and reviewed periodically.

Residential Unit Staff/Foster Carers / Staff must follow specific local protocols for missing from care.
Within 48 hours of a child/Young Person being ‘looked after’ a photograph and a personal description should be taken (appendix 3).
Prior to informing the Police and in addition to local protocols:
  • staff must ensure they have thoroughly searched the care establishment and its grounds to verify that the child is in fact absent
  • speak with other residents to obtain relevant information about the missing child
  • Make all appropriate telephone enquiries about the whereabouts of the child. This will involve trying to contact the child themselves, friends, family, associates and appropriate locations. This should include pro active efforts of going out to search for the missing child, at known locations/ addresses
  • complete or obtain a copy of the missing person Personal Descriptive Report Form and forward it to the police, together with the results of all the above enquiries (See Appendix 3)
  • If ‘Unauthorised Absence’ and reporting to Police state that it is an ‘Unauthorised Absence’ and quote Altaris code 328.
(See Appendix 5)
INCLUSION SERVICES / On receipt of notification that a child
The respective worker should then check Contact Point to establish if the child is known to any other agency and follow this up by contacting the police to verify that the reporting by the parent/carer has occurred.
In addition it may be necessary to consider the need for an assessment using the common assessment framework. All agencies should consider the risk factors (See Appendix 1). There is a responsibility on everyone to ensure there is no undue delay which may place the child or young person at risk.
Connexions Staff / All Staff should follow the Merseyside procedures above for “All agencies and voluntary organisations”
The designated officer with Connexions to receive all notifications and the agency response is:
Yvonne McCormick
Huyton Connexions Centre
12 – 14 Lansdowne Way, Huyton, L36 9YS
Tel: 0151 949 5700
Mobile: 07969 152955
The prime concern should be to ensure and safeguard the young person’s welfare and safety, as stated in the Code of Practice for Connexions Personal Advisers (November 2003). Personal Advisers will need to be sensitive to the young persons needs but ensure that support mechanisms are in place and appropriate services informed.
Connexions staff must ensure that information received is recorded appropriately on the client record.
If there are any child protection concerns staff must follow GMCP Child Protection Policy and Procedures and report concerns to the appropriate statutory agencies.
For Service Delivery see Appendix 6A
Health / Children and young people missing from home or care often present themselves for health care at various health services e.g. Accident and Emergency Departments, Walk-in Centres, GP Surgeries.
The local Designated Professionals (Doctor, Nurses etc.) will co-ordinate the circulation of missing child alerts. They will ensure that the relevant health services are alerted.
If a child initially discloses that they have run away, then the Health Professional needs to refer to “All agencies and voluntary organisations” section above, and to their own internal policy and procedures.

7RETURNING HOME

7.1If any information is gathered during the course of enquiries which indicates a child or young person will be at risk on their return home, the Police and Social Care must be informed immediately, so that they may take appropriate action. This notification should be followed by a CAF within 48 hours. When a child/young person returns or is located, the Police will attend as soon as possible and in any event within 24 hours. The purpose of this is to establish that the child is safe and well and to ensure as far as possible that it is safe to return to the home or placement. They will then notify other agencies as appropriate and the missing person reports will be cancelled within 2 hours.