Multi-Agency Protocol On Children Who Go Missing From Home or Care
The revised protocol provides guidance for professionals from all agencies including parents/carers on how to respond when a child is classified as missing. This protocol is important for the safeguarding of children and families across Northamptonshire. It should be read and implemented, where necessary, by all practitioners and managers working with children or young people who are at risk of going missing from home or care or are already doing so.
The aim of the protocol is to assist practitioners across all agencies to develop robust responses to children who run away and go missing. This will include preventing the child suffering harm and recovering them to a place they are safe as soon as possible. The most effective assessment and support comes through good information sharing, joint assessments of need, joint planning, professional trust within the interagency network and joint partnership working with families / carers.
Children who are missing from home or care may be at risk of suffering Significant Harm as a result of going missing and as a consequence lack their basic need for food, safety and shelter and/or place themselves at risk from the people with whom they may come into contact with. Risks can include Physical Harm, Sexual Exploitation, Criminal Exploitation, drug abuse and involvement in a range of other criminal activities. Additional vulnerability due to their age, level of understanding or the significance and seriousness of the circumstances that led to the missing episode may also be present.
Click here to go to the NSCP website where you will be able to read and download the full protocol. |
