Parents have stopped reporting missing children to the Met as they have ‘low trust’ in force

By Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

A lack of trust in the Met is discouraging some parents from telling the force that their children have gone missing, a new report warns.

The issue of missing children in the capital was recently investigated by the London Assembly’s police and crime committee.

The cross-party group of City Hall politicians concluded as part of their inquiry that “low trust and confidence in the police may make parents and carers reluctant to report children missing, and encourage them to search for their children themselves”.

The committee also found that when families and carers do report a missing child to the Met, they can sometimes receive inaccurate information from call handlers.

Kevin Southworth, the Met’s Public Protection Commander, said that investigating missing children “is treated with the utmost seriousness and we have teams in every local policing area dedicated to the task of locating people who go missing”.

Although every incident of a missing child requires a full safeguarding response, the committee’s investigation has found that this is not always being delivered.

The committee heard how assessments and responses to missing children are inconsistent across the Met’s Basic Command Units and that police respond in a disjointed way when a child goes missing across police service boundaries.

Susan Hall, the committee’s Conservative chair, said: “Children who go missing from home or care are exposed to the most appalling harms, including gangs, sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking.

“A child going missing is understandably a hugely distressing time for families and carers. Adding delays and inaccurate information from the police to that anguish is unacceptable.”

In 2022-23, some 9,370 children went missing in London. Many of these children went missing more than once, resulting in 29,455 separate missing incidents being recorded by the Met.

The figure is probably much higher, as many incidents of missing children are not reported to the police.

Mr Southworth, of the Met, responded: “Parents and carers must have trust and confidence in the Met to locate and safeguard our young people, and the onus is on us as a police service to earn that trust.”

A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “It’s crucial we tackle the root causes of why children go missing and that’s why the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit is working to provide support networks for parents and carers in almost every borough, and investing in programmes to keep young people in school and funding youth work and mentors to provide children with that important stable, trusted adult relationship.

“Alongside that, the Mayor is working closely with the Met Commissioner to rebuild trust, improve the Met’s performance and enhance their response to Londoners, including reports of missing children.”

(Picture: The Met)