Fears rise for care children going missing

Vulnerable runaways face exploitation

GRAVE FEARS have been raised over the risks that vulnerable young people are exposed to, amid rising reports of children missing from care.

A so-called ‘‘looked after’’ child is reported missing to police every hour in Yorkshire, analysis suggests, a steep rise from 11 a day over the past two years.

More young people may be running away as they are placed in children’s homes far from home, the chair of an All-Party Parliamentary Group into missing children has warned in the wake of her own findings, fearing that councils are too often reliant on private provision.

Now, fears have been raised over children’s vulnerability when it comes to being targeted for exploitation.

“There clearly is, and nationally, a rise in children going missing, particularly from children’s homes,” said MP Ann Coffey, chair of the APPG which is preparing to launch an inquiry into the use of out of area placements. “Children’s home placements are not where they need to be. Unless we solve that, we are not going to be able to prevent children from coming to harm.”

The latest Government figures, recording reports of missing incidents when it comes to looked after children, show a 78 per cent increase in the two years to March. These experimental statistics, the only indicator of their kind, show that in some parts of Yorkshire, one in six children in care were reported missing at least once last year.

Rob Jackson, area director of The Children’s Society, warned that if young people are placed far from family for care, they are more likely to run away: “Where increases in numbers occur, these may be due in part to more children in care being placed away from their home area because there are not enough appropriate local placements.”

Councils must ensure every care placement is in the child’s best interests, he said, but the Local Government Association, representing authorities, said children’s services budgets already face a £3.1bn funding gap by 2025.

“A child missing from care for any length of time is a concern for everyone involved in the protection of vulnerable children,” a spokesman said, adding that it is “vital” that councils are adequately funded. “But with the number of children in the care of local authorities growing even further over the past year, children’s services are under huge and increasing financial pressure.”

Children and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi, stressing that the data is experimental, said: “The Government takes the issue of any child going missing, either from home or from a local authority care placement extremely seriously. Local authorities are responsible for protecting all children regardless of where they go missing from.”