To ask the Minister of Health how many looked-after children have been reported missing in the last five years.

The number of children who have been reported missing from Care 1st April 2020 - March 31st 2025.

The above table shows the total number Looked After Children who have been notified as being absent or missing from care settings broken down, by Trust over each of the years specified in the.

My Department receives untoward events notifications from the individual HSCTs when a child goes missing from care. The particular vulnerabilities of children who are reported as missing to potential Child Sexual Exploitation have been successively identified in the Marshall Inquiry 2014 followed by the Pinkerton Review 2015 and the Leonard Consultancy Audit 2020.

The above table can be further broken down by the number of children reported missing in excess of 24 hours and the number of Looked After Children who have been notified as being absent or missing from care settings who were identified as being at risk of Child Sexual Exploitation. The Trusts have an obligation to report these young people missing given their vulnerability and assessed risk.

In collaboration with the PSNI and Trusts, my Department has developed new Regional Guidance ‘The Interface Protocol between HSC Trusts and PSNI’ (October 2023). This Guidance sets out a broad operational overview of interface arrangements between PSNI and the Residential Children’s Home sector including arrangements for reporting when a child or young person goes missing. The aim of this guidance is to promote an effective joint agency response to missing children.

The data collated in respect of missing young people displays a degree of Regional variation with BHSCT reporting significantly higher numbers of children missing including children at risk of CSE on a consistent basis over time when compared with other Trusts. My Department is working in collaboration with the Trusts to further interrogate this pattern and to promote greater consistency across the Region. This variation may in part be associated with operational cultures within the HSCTs, however distinctions between urban and rural contexts may be influencing this metric. These patterns may also be impacted by annual trends associated with significant public holidays such as 12th July and with periods of civil unrest.