The latest figures from the UK Missing Persons Bureau revealed 306,000 people went missing in 2012/2013,

Sir Peter FAHY Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) responding to the BBC on these figures said that his officers were unable to deal with other police work as a result and said work to trace runaways costs his force £30m a year.

“When you have somebody who constantly goes missing, it is not really for me a police issue. It is really, absolutely, a social work issue,” he said.

It is commendable the GMP has a dedicated unit, the Protecting Vulnerable People Team, and that Sir Peter stressed the priority must be to protect children. The safeguarding and protection of children must be a multiagency response and Police have a role within that response, as do social workers and other partners. The reasons that children and young people repeatedly go missing are multifaceted and complex, the root causes of which cannot be addressed by a single agency.

Absent or missing from home or care is a significant indicator that children or young people may be at risk of CSE, which needs a proactive response.

The NWG in partnership with Missing People have created a free and anonymous 24/7/365 helpline, 116000, providing help and assistance to children and young people that may be at risk of CSE.

The NWG fully supports the statement from Karen Bradley the Minister for preventing Abuse and Exploitation response.

She said she expected all agencies, including the police, to work together to identify and protect missing young people.