Missing Children

Young people go missing for a range of complex and interconnected reasons. Evidence consistently highlights
that children who go missing are at increased risk of significant harm including exploitation, substance misuse
and becoming involved in criminal activity as both victims and perpetrators.

In Barnet, there has been a noticeable increase in missing episodes from both home and care. During 2025 there were 1260 missing episodes involving total of 193 young people, representing a 20% increase on the
previous year. While the number of individuals going missing rose by 11%, the frequency of repeat episodes continues to present a safeguarding concern. Disproportionality remains evident with children and young
people from Black and Global Majority backgrounds, overrepresented with missing data compared to Barnet’s wider child population. Responding effectively to children requires tenacious child centered practice.
Professionals must understand the ‘push and pull’ factors, contextual risks and lived experiences that influence why children go missing, while working in partnership with them to build trust, resilience and safety. This protocol sets out the London Borough of Barnet’s procedures and practice expectations for responding to children and young people who go missing from home or care. It is informed by learning from audits, research and best practice, and applies to children under 18 (and up to 25 for care leavers and those with
disabilities/SEN). Its purpose is to promote timely, consistent and effective safeguarding responses that reduce risk, prevent repeat missing episodes and improve outcomes for children and young people. This protocol builds on previous protocols and introduces the following key improvements:

• Clear arrangements for how Missing Episodes must be managed on duty including arrangements whenthe allocated social workers are unavailable or away.
• Clearer expectations on the professional network and how partner agencies can actively support the Police to locate missing children during strategy discussions,
• Introduction of Return Home Care (RHC) information‑sharing meetings following completed RHCs, to ensure effective reflection on safety planning and care planning
• Introduction of RHC engagement meetings to support creative engagement methods for children who are refusing or not engaging with their RHC offer.
• Alignment with updated national guidance and best practice guides

Our Missing protocol can be found here