Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of recent changes introduced to improve safeguarding of children who go missing from care on the number of children who go missing from (a) care, (b) placements outside the local authority boundaries and (c) distant placements; and if she will make a statement.

Statutory guidance on missing children was revised in January 2014 and can be found online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-who-run-away-or-go-missing-from-home-or-care.

It is not possible to draw conclusions about the impact of the changes in guidance on the number of children missing from care as many factors contribute to this. However, we are working, with support from local authorities, to better understand their responses to missing children and the effect of recent changes. All local authorities must now inform the Department for Education about all incidences of children going missing from care as part of their annual statistical return to the department on looked after children. This, along with more accurate figures on the number of children missing from care available in September 2015, will inform future policy on missing children.