Children in Care: Missing Persons

(asked on 19th December 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children in care who go missing are (a) found and (b) kept safe.


Answered by
Claire Coutinho Portrait
Claire Coutinho
Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
This question was answered on 13th January 2023

The department takes the matter of any child going missing very seriously, and statutory guidance is in place which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-who-run-away-or-go-missing-from-home-or-care.

This guidance outlines the responsibilities of local authorities working with partners, to prevent children going missing and to gather and share information and intelligence to reduce this risk. The guidance applies to all children going missing, whether this is from the family home or from care.

The guidance requires that every children's home has clear procedures to prevent children from going missing. The guidance also ensures there are detailed interviews when a child has returned from being missing.

The department is firmly committed to ensuring that when care is the best choice for a child, the care system provides stable, loving homes close to children’s communities. The government is investing £259 million in capital funding to provide high quality homes for some of our most vulnerable young people, to ensure that they can be closer to families, schools, and health services.

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