Big rise in 'missing' fostered children

According to latest fostering figures published by Ofsted today, there were 5,055 children recorded as missing between April 2014 and March 2015, compared with 4,245 in the previous year.

The number of missing incidents also increased by 29 per cent to 17,175 between 2014/15 and 2013/14.

The figures show that children placed through independent fostering agencies were more likely to be reported as missing than those in council-run placements. Ofsted found that 55 per cent of children reported as missing were placed with an independent agency.

Ofsted says the rise is “likely to reflect improved reporting around missing children” with the number of missing incident reports from council fostering services increasing by 40 per cent between 2013/14 and 2014/15, much higher than the 28 per cent increase between 2012/13 and 2013/14.

Children were also going missing for longer periods during 2014/15 than previous years, particularly those placed through council fostering services. In 2014/15, 68 per cent of children who were missing for more than 28 days were in council placements, compared with 60 per cent in 2013/14.

Despite the figures suggesting an improvement in reporting of missing incidents, Ofsted flags up a concern that too many services are still failing to understand why children go missing.

In a quarter of reports the fostering service concerned did not know the reason for the missing incident, with Ofsted adding that “this was particularly the case” for council fostering services.

Children in foster care in London and the South East of England were the most likely to go missing a number of times. In these areas children went missing an average of four times.

The largest regional increase in reporting of missing incidents was the South West where 1,035 instances were recorded in 2014/15 compared with just 420 in 2013/14. The only region that saw a fall in reports of children going missing over the period was the East of England, where reported instances fell from 422 to 300.

This week, the all-party parliamentary group on missing children and adults launched an inquiry into how children’s services, schools and police can better support children deemed to be absent from home, care or education. This follows the introduction in 2012 of a two-tier police reporting system that categorises when a child runs away whether they are “absent” or “missing”.

The latest Ofsted figures also show there were 85,890 children and young people placed in foster care in 2014/15, up two per cent on 2013/14. Over the same period, the number of fostering households fell by one per cent, while the use of family and friends as carers for looked-after children increased by six per cent.