The cross-government strategy aims to encourage closer partnerships between police, councils and health services to identify those at risk of going missing earlier.
It also calls on local services to step up the support and advice they offer the families of those who go missing and to ensure those missing are found swiftly.
Councils are encouraged to work closely with the charity sector to provide support to families as well as to those who are found.
Children and young people who go missing are at a far greater risk of being sexually exploited, the strategy states.
Enver Solomon, policy director at The Children’s Society, said: "Hundreds of children go missing or run from home or care every day across the country. Yet way too often their behaviour is ignored or considered to be a nuisance, rather than a cry for help.
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