Inspiring SafeCall Impact Breakfast
Last week to the stunning backdrop of the London skyline, we had the privilege of hosting an Impact Breakfast focused […]
90 seconds
Someone is reported missing every 90 seconds in the UK
80%
of missing adults are experiencing mental health crisis
2 in 3
Missing child incidents involve children who have been missing before
14%
Black people make up 14% of missing incidents, despite making up around 4% of the population in England and Wales
1. Cross-government leadership on missing people
Going missing can be linked to many different issues, including mental health, abuse, exploitation and problems at home. Supporting someone who goes missing often requires several services to work together, but responsibility can be unclear.
We’re calling for a national framework that sets out the role everyone should play in missing, so that services work together to prevent people from going missing again and make sure they get the right support.
Scotland has introduced a framework like this to help services coordinate their response to missing people. The proportion of missing incidents involving someone who has gone missing before has fallen from one in two to one in three, demonstrating that this approach works. Now we want to see this happen across the UK.
2. Updated guidance for children missing from home or care
Children are more likely than adults to go missing more than once, and going missing can be a sign that a child is experiencing problems at home, abuse or exploitation. Children need the right support after they return to help them address the issues behind them going missing.
The government’s guidance on what this support looks like hasn’t been updated since 2014. Missing people is calling for updates to the guidance so that it reflects the current risks to young people and best practice for supporting them.
Clear, up-to-date guidance would help ensure that services work together to protect children, understand why they go missing and provide support that reduces the risk of it happening again.
3. Equitable outcomes for Black missing children and adults
Our research on Ethnicity and Missing shows that Black people are going missing at disproportionately high rates. It also shows Black people go missing for longer and are less likely than white people to be found by police or flagged as vulnerable to harm.
Missing People and Listen Up have developed a toolkit to address disparities in police responses. It calls on police to monitor outcomes by ethnicity and improve how forces identify, assess and respond to risk, vulnerability and exploitation of Black missing people.
We’re working with police forces to put the toolkit into practice and help ensure that every missing person receives a fair and effective response.
4. One meaningful conversation when someone returns
Going missing should raise a red flag that something is wrong. Being found is not always the end of a missing person’s difficulties.
Every missing person deserves the opportunity for a proper, supportive conversation after returning from a missing episode. This should help them talk about what happened, identify any risks or support needs, and access the right help.
These conversations should be carried out by appropriately trained professionals, with clear arrangements for referring people to further support when needed. This is an important opportunity to protect people from harm and help prevent them from going missing again.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Runaway and Missing Children and Adults seeks to raise awareness of the issues faced by children and adults who run away or go missing.
The Coalition for Missing Children is a coalition of organisations that work with children and young people who have gone missing from home or care.
People who have been missing, and families of missing people, have long spoken out about the need for clearer guidance on what happens when someone is reported missing to the police. These 13 principles, developed with those who have been missing or reported a loved one missing, set out what everyone should be able to expect from the police.
This framework aims to set out a good practice approach for multi-agency partnerships in every area across England to ensure that they are working together to prevent and respond to missing incidents from hospitals and adults care settings.
The campaign for presumption of death law reform is part of Missing People’s wider Missing Rights campaign.
As well as experiencing emotional trauma, families can also face practical, financial and legal problems as a result of their loved one being missing.
Last week to the stunning backdrop of the London skyline, we had the privilege of hosting an Impact Breakfast focused […]
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