FOI request (FOIR-729032869)

Children in Care Missing from Placement

Requested Mon 07 July 2025
Responded Tue 08 July 2025

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting the following information regarding children in the care of your local authority.

1. For each of the last five calendar years (2020–2024), please provide:

a. The number of children in care (Looked After Children) reported missing.

b. Of those, the please provide the number who received a statutory return home interview.

c. The total number of individual missing incidents involving children in care.

d. The number of children who went missing more than 10 times in a single year.

e. The average length of time these children were missing before being located.

2. Of the missing children:

a. How many were placed in unregulated or semi-independent accommodation?

b. How many were placed out of area (that is, outside the boundary of your local authority)?

c. How many remain unaccounted for/are still classified as missing as of today?

3. For the five-year period:

a. Please provide any serious incident notifications or referrals made to the Department for Education or Ofsted regarding missing children in care.

b. If held, please provide any anonymised risk assessments or internal reviews following cases where children in care went missing for more than 7 days.

---

Response

Information not held.

This area is dealt with by East Sussex County Council Children's Services, please visit their website for further information:

https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk