Question to Kent County Council [with answer], 6 April 2011: Missing Care Children in Kent (Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council)

Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council <info@kentlibdems.org.uk>

Question to Kent County Council [with answer], 6 April 2011: Missing Care Children in Kent

April 6, 2011 4:27 PM

Question by Trudy Dean to Jenny Whittle, Cabinet Member for Children's Special Services

Can the Cabinet Member please explain the circumstances under which 286 children in 2008/9, and 327 children in 2009/10, went missing out of care in Kent?

Answer

During the years 2008/09 to 2009/10, looked after children who were missing from placement without permission for more than 6 hours were formally classed as 'missing children'. The vast majority of those children subsequently returned safely to their placements. For those who did not return quickly, further action was initiated to locate them.

Our system for recording these incidents was previously inadequate because the details of the child's return were only recorded in the child's case note. Therefore retrieval of the information in aggregate form was very difficult to achieve. During recent months this deficiency was identified by staff and a new system to record missing children is being developed and will go live on 9^th May 2011.

Information relating to all children and young people who are reported as missing is now recorded by Kent police on their computer system called COMPACT. A joint protocol has been in place between Kent police and Kent and Medway Children's Social Services (since 2006) to share information about children/young people who go missing. Kent Safeguarding Children Board are in the process of reviewing the protocols relating to all children/young people who go missing; not just looked after children, but also those who live at home with their families.

Following a successful pilot in the East Kent Police Area, a best practice model has been developed whereby the police and children's social services meet monthly to review and identify the TOP 10 children/young people (not just KCC LAC) who have been most frequently reported missing from that area, so that these high risk children have appropriate support and interventions in place. It is intended for this model to be replicated in all police areas across Kent.

In addition Kent Children's Social Services have in place an Alert system to inform the responsible District Manager and Head of Service when a KCC LAC goes missing.