Missing People is currently commissioned to conduct return home interviews with children and young people across Surrey, Hertfordshire, Brighton and Hove, East and West Sussex.

A return home interview provides a child or young person with a confidential space to talk about their missing episode. The space allows them to talk about anything which may be worrying them or anything they feel they cannot tell anyone else. A child or young person may feel as though they need support but  are not sure where to go to get help , Missing People is there to listen, to be a helping hand and provide a voice for children and young people to help get them the support they need.

The Department for Education defines return interviews as ‘in-depth discussions’ and their purpose is to ‘identify and deal with any harm the child has suffered… understand and try to address the reasons why the child or young person ran away, help the child feel safe and understand that they have options to prevent repeat instances of them running away [and] provide them with information on how to stay safe if they run away again, including helpline numbers’ (DfE, 2014:15).