In the UK, a child is reported missing every three minutes. Research suggests that even more children are going missing but not being reported as missing to the police - this could be as many as one every minute.

With one in five of these children potentially being subject to child sexual exploitation (CSE), we are preparing to do everything that we can to raise awareness, prevent this from happening, and ensure that children know where to turn to if they feel they have no choice but to run away. (CEOP 2015)

Our Return Vision for Missing Children:

Step 1 is to develop an evidence based training package to support children and young people that are at risk of significant harm through running away from home or care, so that interviewers can;

1. Understand the risks that the child was exposed to during a missing from home episode

2. Enable trained interviewers to share relevant and important information with the right professionals to safeguard the child from further harm

3. Explore the underlying causes for the missing episode and the associated ‘push/pull’ feelings

4. Help to reduce and prevent the risks of further episodes of running away

5. Provide risk reduction and ‘Stay Safe’ advice if a child chooses to run away again

Step 2 (once Step 1 has been funded and achieved)

1. Develop and provide an evidence based programme of pre and post missing intervention and support

2. Campaign to ensure that high quality missing return interviews for all children and young people are scheduled and undertaken by an accredited and fully competent professional, and reported to all relevant agencies within 72 hours of the child's return