Records & plans
What is missing from care?
Missing from care describes a child looked after who is absent from their placement and whose whereabouts are unknown. It triggers defined procedures including reporting, searching and a return interview afterwards.
Use this diagram+
Free to use on your own site, in training material or in a handout, as long as the credit link stays on it. Paste this where you want the diagram to appear.
<figure>
<img src="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/missing-from-care/diagram.svg" alt="missing from care — diagram from CareOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
<figcaption>
<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/missing-from-care">What is missing from care?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk">CareOptix</a>
</figcaption>
</figure>Guidance distinguishes between a child who is missing and one who is away from placement without authorisation, and the response differs. Making that distinction correctly in the moment is the part homes find hardest.
The return interview is the part with the most value and the part most often reduced to a form. It is an opportunity for an independent person to find out why the child went and what happened while they were away — which is frequently how exploitation is first identified.
Patterns matter more than episodes. Repeated absences to the same place or at the same times are information about risk, and they are only visible if each episode was recorded consistently.
What goes wrong in practice
- Return interviews conducted by staff from the home rather than independently, which limits what a child will say.
- Interviews treated as a form to complete rather than a conversation to have.
- Episodes recorded inconsistently, so patterns cannot be seen across months.
- Push and pull factors identified in interviews but never acted on in the care plan.