When a child in care is missing

Sections on this page:

• When a child is absent
• When a child is missing
• Reporting a missing person to police
• Providing a photograph of the missing child
• Publishing a photo to social media
• While the child is missing
• When a missing child is located
• When a child is frequently missing

If a child in your care goes missing, you will need to know how to respond in this situation. Sometimes there are early warning signs, such as when the child is absent without permission.

When a child is absent

An ‘absent’ child is a child who is absent for a short period without permission, and the child’s location is known or can quickly be established.

In some circumstances, a child may be absent from where they should be for a short period, and then return. As the child’s carer, you should make all reasonable attempts to locate the child, and consider the seriousness of the situation and respond like any reasonable parent.

It is important that you take actions to quickly establish the child’s location and their safe return. This could include:

• searching the house and premises, including the garage, grounds and surrounding area
• asking friends or neighbours if they have seen the child
• contacting the child’s school to find out if they have information about the child’s whereabouts
• checking places where the child frequently attends, such as shops, the park, friends’ homes or other special places they may go to
• alerting the child’s friends and networks that you are looking for the child and asking for their help to find the child (where this is appropriate)
• calling and leaving messages on the child’s phone and posting messages through the social networking sites used by the child
• engaging with other members of the child’s safety and support network.

It may also be appropriate to contact the child’s parents or family members to ask if the child is with them. Alternatively, it may be preferable for the Child Safety Officer to talk with the child’s parents.

If you have doubts about how to respond, you should contact your foster and kinship care service or the child safety service centre for advice.

An absence may be an early indicator that a child is missing. The child’s absence will need to be carefully monitored and escalated if the child becomes ‘missing’.

When a child is missing

A missing child is any child whose location is unknown, and there are fears for the child’s safety or concern for their welfare.

Regardless of the type of order or care agreement the child is subject to, if a child in your care goes missing, you must take immediate action to locate them.

It is vital that you respond quickly and appropriately when a child goes missing, even for short periods, to secure the safe return of the child.

As soon as possible after all reasonable attempts to find the child have failed, you must contact the police to report the child as missing. You are the person most likely to have current information about the child’s immediate circumstances, even if the child has been in your care for only a short period of time.

You must also contact your foster care agency and your Child Safety Officer to tell them that the child is missing. They can help you work out what else is needed.

Reporting a missing person to police

To report the child as missing, the police will require you to go to your local police station in person to complete a ‘missing person report’.

It is important to provide the police as much relevant information as you have, as soon as possible, to assist them in making a risk assessment and locating the missing child.

A missing child checklist must be completed and given to the police. The checklist can be completed online or as a hard copy, and does not replace the need to make a missing person report. Where information is not known, it can be added at a later time, so there is no delay in making a missing person report to police.

Locate the missing child checklist within the Reporting missing children: Guidelines for approved carers and care services (PDF), Reporting missing children: Guidelines for approved carers and care services (RTF) or get a copy from your local child safety service centre or your foster and kinship care service.

Child Safety will also contact the police to provide any other relevant information about the child that you may not have been aware of at the time of completing the missing child checklist.

If you are unable to go to the police station in person, you must contact the Queensland Police Service to discuss another way to lodge the missing person report.

As soon as practical after making the missing person report, you must ask for and record the following details:

• The date and time the missing person report was made
• The name of the police officer who received the missing person report
• The QPRIME number (the Queensland Police reference number) provided by the police officer taking the information.

Immediately after the report has been made, you should provide these details to the child safety service centre or, if after hours, call the child safety after hours service centre on 1800 177 135.

You should also contact your foster care agency, if you have not already notified them.

Providing a photograph of the missing child

Police may request a recent photograph of the missing child to assist with their search to locate the child. You can provide a recent photograph of the missing child to the police without permission from Child Safety.

Police will decide whether to release information to the media (including newspapers, television and radio) to help locate the child. In these circumstances, Child Safety will lead the development of the media strategy.

If police need to release additional information with the photograph that will identify the missing child as being a child in care, the police must obtain written authorisation from the Director-General, Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services. Child Safety Regional Directors or Regional Executive Directors have the statutory delegations to provide written permission in these circumstances.

Publishing a photo to social media

You can post a photograph of the missing child on social media as long as the child is not identified as being a child in care. For example:

• You can post a photo on Facebook and say ‘Johnny Smith plays football with my son and he has gone missing. Here is a photo of him’. This does not, or is not likely to, identify him as a child in care, and it does not identify any other person.

• You cannot post the same photo on Facebook and say ‘Here is a photo of Johnny Smith, a foster child that I am caring for. He has gone missing’, as this identifies him as a child in care.

While the child is missing

During the time a child is missing, it is important that the child’s safety and support network and police work together, and continue to share information about the actions being taken to locate the child.

When a missing child is located

When a missing child is located or returns on their own, you must immediately inform the police and Child Safety. Call Policelink on 13 14 44 and state the QPRIME number provided by police when the missing person report was made. All members of the child’s safety and support network should also be informed of the child’s return.

The Child Safety Officer will talk to the child.

The Child Safety Officer may also arrange a meeting with members of the child’s safety and support network to discuss the reasons why the child went missing, assess whether the child experienced harm while missing, and identify any actions to reduce the likelihood of the child going missing in the future. This meeting may be undertaken with the police, and within 48 hours of the child being located.

This may include reviewing the placement agreement, the child’s safety and support plan, and the child’s case plan.

When a child is frequently missing

If a child is frequently missing, the child’s safety and support network will work together to identify actions to reduce the likelihood of recurrence of the child going missing. These actions may be recorded in a new placement agreement or case plan.

In this situation, it may be a good idea to complete the missing child checklist with the required information. You should keep the checklist in a safe place, and up to date, in case you need to give it to police.