The Government do not collect details of individual children who have gone missing from local authority care and we do not plan to collect this information centrally in future. Local authorities have the legal responsibility for safeguarding children in their care and holding a central register would serve no real operational purpose and would not offer value for money as the register would have to be maintained and updated on a daily basis. We do collect information once a year about the number of children who are missing from their agreed placement for 24 hours or more, which we use to develop Government policy and guidance.
New ‘Statutory Guidance on Children who Runaway and go Missing from Home and Care’ was issued in July 2009. This requires that local authorities collect information about missing from care incidents. Local Runaway and Missing from Home and Care (RMFHC) protocols will set out the arrangements for sharing this information with the police to make sure that action is taken to locate the child and minimise the likelihood of their going missing in future. Local authorities must identify a senior manager to take responsibility for monitoring compliance with RMFHC protocols. This task will involve authorities maintaining a record of the numbers children that they look after who are missing from their care placements and the actions being taken to locate them and make sure that they are safe. Children's services must make regular reports to council members with responsibility for "corporate parenting" on patterns of children going missing from care.