At least 230 missing person cases in Sheffield managed by police every month

Papers that went before the Public Accountability Board on January 9 this year showed that between 70 and 80 per cent of the 230 – 270 people reported missing in Sheffield every month are found within 24 hours.

The report to the Board, which is hosted by South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, states that the ‘most frequent missing people’ are often ‘looked after children’ – a phrase which refers to children who have been in local authority care for at least 24 hours.

The top frequent reported missing individuals are reviewed every two weeks, the report states, with plans put in place and managed, while the top frequent locations are ‘regularly reviewed’.

The top frequent locations ‘do correlate with the most frequent missing persons and therefore plans are victim and location focused’, according to the report, which has been prepared by Sheffield District Commander, Shelley Hemsley.

It continues: “Much partnership work goes into reducing the factors which contribute to this. Child abduction warning notices are used to break associations where this may be a contributing factor to the missing episode.

“The force is engaging in research around problem solving to reduce missing demand cause by looked after children. This is with Leeds Beckett University and officers from the missing team will be involved in this. The force has developed a truancy policy to address missing reports which in fact are truancy episodes. This is currently being rolled out and will be reviewed to ascertain the impact on missing reports.”

In the Sheffield district, South Yorkshire Police is also currently engaged with a project around utilising GPS tagging for those who are missing with dementia, and a number of tags have been distributed over the last quarter, the report states.

It adds: “Work is ongoing with the charity RECONNECT who support families that experience missing family members. We are working with this charity to develop a referral pathway for first time missing children with a view to increasing support and intervention to prevent further missing episodes.”