When a child goes missing, this can be linked to wider safeguarding concerns. Some of the risks associated with children who are missing from home and care include:

• Being in unsafe places, with unsafe or risky adults;
• Being more likely to be involved in substance misuse;
• Being more likely to be involved in anti-social or criminal offending behaviour;
• More likely to be involved in child trafficking or child exploitation;
• Less likely to be socially and educationally engaged

This means that children who go missing, particularly where this is regular and / or connected with other types of vulnerability are more likely to be suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm.

It is important to remember the risks faced by children who go missing are the same regardless of how often they have gone missing from home and care. Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, some of the additional vulnerabilities are listed below:

• A child being a victim of a serious crime
• A child being involved in any recent arguments or disagreements
• A child having been the victim of a recent violent, domestic, homophobic or racist incident
• Self harm
• Bullying
• Sexual Exploitation, Criminal Exploitation, Modern Day Slavery / Trafficking, Honour Based Abuse, Forced Marriage, Female Genital Mutilation or Stalking
• Whether a child is likely to visit someone who may be violent, sexually abusive, is known to pose a risk to children or likely to supply them with drugs or alcohol