Peterborough sees sharp rise in numbers of children in care going missing over last year

The number of times children have gone missing while in care in Peterborough has increased sharply over the last year.

In June 2022 alone, there were 12 incidents involving children going missing, which more than doubled to 30 incidents in June 2023.

Peterborough City Council’s (PCC) care services say the increase is likely due to the end of Covid restrictions keeping families at home.

Most of the incidents involve young people going missing for fewer than 24 hours, often while they are out with friends.

But of the 321 instances in which children went missing over the last 13 months, 29 were linked to gangs or criminal exploitation, PCC says, while 27 were linked to sexual exploitation.

PCC says where there are risks of children being exploited, there will be multi-agency meetings to discuss these followed by plans to mitigate them.

There were also a small number of instances in which children went missing for longer periods of time: three were for more than 28 days over the last 13 months.

They add that most instances involve 15 to 17-year-olds, but there were a small number of younger children: 49 aged 10–12 and one aged 5–9.

Slightly more girls than boys have had episodes in which they went missing in the last year.

While the number of children going missing has increased overall over the last year, there have been spikes in particular months.

For instance, in October last year 17 children went missing 34 times; higher than at any other point between June 2022 and February 2023.

But the most dramatic rise has been over the last few months: in March this year, 18 children went missing 38 times, while in April 20 children went missing 52 times and in May 24 children went missing 41 times.

Number of children in care rising overall

As well as the phasing out of Covid restrictions, this rise can also potentially be linked to the number of children in care in Peterborough overall which has similarly risen over the last year.

PCC aims to keep the number of children in care below 332 each month – with fostering and adoption among preferred outcomes – but has not met this target at any point in the last 12 months.

In June 2022, there were 357 children in care, which rose to 371 six months later and 410 six months after that.

While adoption numbers have remained stable, the number of people agreeing to foster has reduced, PCC says, which it attributes in part to cost of living issues and post-pandemic health issues.

In 2022-23, 15 new fostering households were approved across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, down some 45 per cent on the previous year.

Meanwhile, 31 households left fostering in the region in the same time period.