The number of times children ran away from foster care increased by a third in the past year, with many of those who absconded being put at risk of sexual exploitation, according to new Ofsted figures.
Children and young people went missing from foster care 13,305 times between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014, an increase of 36% on the previous year, amounting to 900 more children, according to the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills.
Almost 530 incidents were linked to sexual exploitation, although 3,189 further incidents (almost a quarter of the total number) were recorded as having happened for “reasons unknown”. It was the first time Ofsted had asked fosterers to record reasons for the disappearance of children from their care.
The report from more than 450 fostering services across the UK comes after the Rotherham child abuse cases highlighted the risks to children missing from care. At least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in the South Yorkshire town over a 16-year period, from 1997 to 2013.
“We know that children in care, particularly those placed outside their local area are very vulnerable to abuse and exploitation,” said Lily Caprani, director of strategy and policy at The Children’s Society. “Many of these children will run away to see their family and friends and may be targeted by predators because they are isolated from their usual social network.”
Of the children who went missing, the majority, 54%, vanished for less than 24 hours. Almost a third, however, went missing for between one to six days, while 13% were absent for longer than one week.
The Children’s Society, which helps children who leave carers, and victims of abuse and exploitation, is campaigning for the government to create a national register of missing and absent children to help identify those most at risk.
“Councils, the police and social services must do everything they can to protect children in care but they need to understand the extent of the problem and the reasons why these children are running away,” said Caprani. “We are calling on the government to create a national register and we want the agencies who deal with runaway children to offer them an interview on their return to identify and address the cause. All children deserve to be protected from exploitation, abuse and neglect.”
Independent fostering agencies (IFAs) accounted for 59% of those who went missing, an increase of 43% on the previous year, amounting to 7,805 children. This was despite IFAs accommodating just 33% of children in placements.
The number of incidents reported by local authority foster services also increased, by 28% to 5,500 cases.
A Department for Education spokesman said: “We are absolutely clear that there is nothing more important than keeping children safe. That is why we have placed a duty on councils to interview children who return from going missing within 72 hours.
“And for the first time ever we are collecting national data for all children who go missing from care, not just those missing for 24 hours. We have also repeatedly written to councils telling them they must improve the quality of data on children missing from care.”
