NSPCC says we must look at why children are running away

THE NSPCC are calling for urgent action to protect children from sexual exploitation as new figures reveal that nearly 3,000 repeatedly went missing from care last year.

Police forces in England and Wales recorded over 28,000 such incidents with some children running away dozens of times. One vanished on 67 occasions. Merseyside Police reported 1,425 incidents of them being asked to look for missing children, involving 157 children being reported as missing more than once.

When children frequently go missing it puts them at increased risk of harm, particularly from grooming gangs, who specifically target vulnerable youngsters for sexual abuse.

The NSPCC wants a more focused effort to establish why young people go missing and improve ways of preventing it happening.

Tom Rahilly, head of the NSPCC's Looked After Children programme, said:- "The state needs to be a parent for these children. If any other child went missing their parents would move heaven and earth to find them and to understand why they did it. It should be no different for young people in care. Repeatedly going missing should be a big warning sign as this kind of behaviour can put them at serious risk of harm such as grooming or sexual exploitation. But we have to understand why they are doing it. Children go missing for many reasons; they're being bullied, they've been put in a home miles from their family and they miss them and their friends, or they just don't trust staff enough to tell them where they are. Many will have been abused before being placed in care and they need a lot of attention and protection. Going missing for just an hour or two can be long enough for them to come to harm. Of course care staff have a difficult job and many local authorities are working hard to deal with this problem, but children tell us they are looking for someone to understand why they go missing and to help set boundaries for them. Children want a little love and to be able to speak to someone who understands the difficulties they face. Otherwise, in the words of one young boy in care, they are 'dead to the world.”

The NSPCC is calling for:-

►   Children's experiences of going missing from care to be put at the heart of professionals' responses. Too often children say that they are punished for going missing while their concerns and fears are not listened to or understood.

►  Professionals working in residential homes to act like parents. They must understand why a child went missing and how their needs can be met to keep them safe and prevent future absences. Support should be provided to ensure that practitioners are able to build trusting relationships with children in their care and that practitioners know when to involve the police and other services.

►  Repeatedly going missing from care to be seen by all professionals as a sign that children are at heightened risk of harm .Those caring for children can sometimes miss signs of abuse that could allow vulnerable children to be harmed. Repeatedly going missing from care, even if only for short periods of time, is a sign that a child is at risk. It should not be treated as low priority by carers and the police. Professionals must work together to develop a tailored response for each child.

►  Police, children's services and residential care providers in a local area must be clear about what is expected of each other. The emphasis should be on preventing children going missing in the 1st place and returning them to safe care as quickly as possible when they do.

In Liverpool our service centre provides 2 services for looked after children. These services include:-

►  Safeguarding looked after children through advocacy - A programme providing children in care with a trusted adult to help ensure their safety and protection.

►  Connecting with children in care - A programme providing children in care with a new way to get the support they need.

A Freedom of Information request from the NSPCC revealed that police received, on average, more than 75 reports a day involving nearly 7,900 youngsters, many of who were aged 13 to 17. At least 2959 of the children went missing more than once with some absconding on 35 occasions. Some weren't seen for more than a week and one force reported that 6 had still not been found.

However this is still believed to be a drastic under estimate of the scale of the problem as it is thought less than half of all cases are reported to police and only 29 out of 43 of the forces contacted responded in full to the FOI. Latest figures from the Department for Education put the number of children who went missing from care at under 1000; a vast difference to that supplied by Police.

An inquiry in 2010 by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Runaway and Missing Children was told there was evidence that missing children are at risk of being groomed and sexually exploited, but there was no clear picture of the size of the problem.

Children's Rights Director, Dr Roger Morgan, told the inquiry:- "If you ask me how many children run from care I don't think anyone knows the answer to that and that is a major concern.”

"Paedophiles could walk free" - says MEP

A North West MEP has described Conservative plans to opt out of co-operation with crime fighting agencies across Europe as a 'paedophiles charter’. Police forces across Europe now share data on criminals to improve the chances of catching and convicting serious offenders. Home Secretary Theresa May has proposed that the UK should opt out of over 100 cross border crime fighting measures. The Liberal Democrats in the coalition government have criticised the proposals, and their views were this week shared by a cross-party committee of Lords. It reported that:- "opting out would have significant adverse negative repercussions for the internal security of the UK and the administration of criminal justice in the UK, as well as reducing its influence over this area of EU policy." The Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies claims that co-operation between police forces across Europe has led to the detection and prosecution of hundreds of serious criminals, including murderers, rapists and paedophiles. He told us that:- "Tens of millions of people travel across national borders each year and criminals are amongst them. Encouraging crime fighting agencies to work closely together is exactly what the European Union should be doing. Conservatives and UKIP seem to prefer to pick a fight with the EU and risk criminals walking free rather than encouraging police officers here to work closely with continental colleagues."