MPs are to launch an inquiry into the record number of children missing from care in England. Ann Coffey, who heads the all-parliamentary group for runaway and missing children and adults, is inviting people from this area to give their views about the risks faced by children who go missing after being sent miles away from their home for care.
Coffey also wants to explore how many of these children are lured into drug gangs as part of the so-called county lines. Data collected through parliamentary question by the MP shows an increase of 1,000 children going missing from care homes since 2015 after they were moved to new areas often miles from their homes.
Numbers have doubled from 990 in 2015 to 1,990 in 2018. This compares with a 31% increase for children who go missing from homes within their own town.
Ann Coffey, the chair of the APPG and the inquiry, said: “It shames us all that thousands of vulnerable children continue to be farmed out to live miles and miles away from home despite a government promise to clampdown on numbers.
“Isolated and alone without family, friends or local social workers to help protect them, they become sitting ducks for those who wish to prey on them. They are targeted by paedophiles and drugs gangs and can become trapped in a brutal world.
“The children’s homes system is broken. It is catastrophically failing children and young people and is instead working in the interest of private providers.
“Most children’s homes are bunched into three regions of the country with 25 per cent in the North West alone. Local authorities have their hands tied with little choice about where children should be placed because of the uneven distribution of children’s homes.
“This is a shocking state of affairs.”
Sam Royston, director of policy and research at the Children’s Society, said “Children should only be placed away from their home area if it is in their best interests, but too often this is happening simply because local placements are unavailable.
“We are deeply concerned that the number of children being placed out of their home area rises year on year and that many of them go missing repeatedly. Going missing is an indicator of risk and a cry for help from children.
“By supporting this APPG inquiry we hope we can help identify viable, long-term solutions that will prevent an already vulnerable group of young people from being put at increased risk of harm through placements that should be keeping them safe.”
In Stockport, 81 out of 110 missing children were from a children’s home in 2018. The inquiry by the MPs will focus on the risk faced by children and young people who go missing out of placements and how their safety can be ensured. Evidence suggests that being placed away from family, friends and social workers leaves children feeling isolated and this is what can cause them to run away.
