When a Young Person Goes Missing
Missing policies are very important to understand for staff. You need to be able to identify what classifies as a missing young person and how to appropriately respond to a missing young person.
All young people are free to come and go, as long as they are back by their curfew, this varies from person to person but is normally no later than 11:00pm (the curfew is set or agreed by their social worker and should be in the young person's file).
If the young person doesn't come home at 11pm, call them and see where they are if they are on the way home no further actions required unless they do not arrive and become unreachable.
If the young person states that they are not coming home that day and it wasn't pre - agreed get an address from them, ask to speak to someone who can verify where they are staying, and have the young person send their live location. Simply call managers and let them know.
If the young person isn't contactable, we report them missing by calling 101 ensuring we receive and note down a CAD number and then inform the young Person's EDT. A missing report form should be filled and the incident recorded in the log and the chronology. no further action required.
If a young person isn't home by curfew but he is in communication with you, you don't have to report them missing or absent until half an hour after you're unable to reach them anymore.
If a young person hasn't informed you that they aren't coming home today and to your knowledge it wasn’t previously planned and agreed with other staff members or social worker. But after communicating with them they are willing to tell you where they will be staying e.g. they send you an area, or a postcode, or a road name, or someone we are already familiar with or already know to be there associate such as at my "grandma’s house" or at my "boyfriends house" or at "my parents’ house" 1) try to speak to someone there to verify that they indeed are there. If that's verified, then you only need to report it to their boroughs EDT as unauthorised absence. If you aren't able to speak to someone but they gave you an address it is still unauthorised absence, and you report it to EDT.
Missing incidents have their own type of report form and require you to complete return interviews. Police may attend the property to do a room search etc.
once a young person has returned to the placement you must let the social worker and the police know.
