‘I reported my child as missing then heard nothing’: The young people who fall through the gaps when they disappear
A vulnerable child has fallen into a county drug-trafficking ring after authorities failed to act for 10 days after his family reported him missing, a charity has warned.
Missing People, the UK’s only charity dedicated to reuniting missing people with their loved ones, said the boy was cared for while he was away and continued to be targeted even after he was found and brought home, leading to repeated disappearances.
“The risks were overlooked early on but then escalated and his family felt their concerns were not taken seriously enough when they first spoke to the police,” said Josie Allan, the charity’s head of policy and partnerships. Independent.
Missing People shared the story of this boy who warned that disappearing children were being allowed to fall through the cracks. It was stated that the risk of exploitation is high even if they are missing for a short time.
The charity blames what it describes as the “de-prioritisation” of missing persons by both the government and the police, which it says has left forces without the resources to respond to the scale of the crisis.
Independent Joining forces with Missing People, they are launching a new service that will save lives for struggling children. Co-designed and piloted by young people themselves, SafeCall will deliver the support, security and connection they need.
Our aim is to raise £165,000 to help fund this free service so the 70,000 children reported missing each year can be found safe no matter what. The charity currently reaches a quarter of these children, and with your support SafeCall will reach many more.
donate Here or text SAFE to 70577 to donate £10 to Missing People, enough for one child to get help.
Ms Allan said: “We are very concerned that some children are not identified as at risk when they go missing and are allowed to fall through these gaps, get harmed during the loss or remain missing for days, even weeks. If you ignore the disappearance then exploitation is one of the most serious serious things that can happen as a result of this.”
“You hear of examples where parents try to complain but are told to call back within a few hours,” Ms Allan said, adding that some reports were never logged.
“We certainly heard from families who tried to make a report and thought they did, but it turned out the police didn’t register it as a missing person and didn’t disclose it, so the family thought the person was wanted but didn’t.”
While he emphasized that it was unusual for a case to go completely unrecorded, he said it was “not that uncommon for relatively few incidents to occur” because of assumptions that sometimes the child would return voluntarily.
He said the consequences could be severe. “It could mean that someone has suffered further harm. The impact on families is a real sense of betrayal. When you contact them you expect the police to help. People feel very let down.”
Independent We have previously reported on the case in which Nerissa Tivy’s 16-year-old son, Alexander Sloley, disappeared from a friend’s house in Islington, north London, in August 2008 with his wallet, spare clothes and very little money.
He said it took more than two years for police to give him any information other than the reference number. “What are you going to do next?” asked Miss Tivy. “My child is missing and no one is telling me anything. You report your child missing and no one cares. It took them two years and three months to contact me. If they had done something sooner, maybe we would have had answers by now.”
Ms Allan said the police were facing chronic under-resourcing and unmanageable demand. According to the National Crime Agency, 160,000 people were reported missing in approximately 330,000 incidents between 2023 and 2024; this includes 72,000 children missing in approximately 210,000 incidents.
However, he said that sometimes cases are not handled appropriately: “We hear parents ask us, ‘If you can’t keep an eye on your child, how can we?’ We hear it said. Or children are told they are wasting the police’s time.”
He said both the government and the police force had deprioritised the issue, which overlooked the fact that getting lost was often a warning sign of serious underlying problems. “We would all be deeply concerned if someone we loved went missing,” he said. “This must be replicated on a societal level. Getting lost should never be seen as normal. It must be a trigger for activity, resources and response. It needs to be taken seriously.”
Deputy Chief Constable Damien Miller, the national policing chief for missing persons, said: “If a missing person is at any risk of exploitation, police will always prioritize finding them as quickly as possible and will take safeguarding measures in conjunction with other agencies to minimize the risk of harm in the future.
“Research, including that carried out by the charity Missing People, has shown that police involvement when children are out or with friends without permission can stigmatize young people and lead to unnecessary police intervention in children’s lives. “Police involvement is not always the right answer, so we consider the wider context of each case and work with other agencies to give the right support to those involved.
“We recognize there will always be room for improvement in investigations, which is why the national Missing Persons Policing Group is working to improve the police and partnership response to missing persons.”
The government was also approached for comment.
Please donate now SafeCall campaign launched by The Independent and charity Missing People to help raise £165,000 to create a free service to help find new, safe futures for vulnerable children.
If you or a loved one is lost, text Missing People or call 116 000 for advice, support and options. It’s free, confidential and non-judgmental. Or visit: misspeople.org.uk/get-help
