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<p>The Department for Education currently collects information on children looked
after by local authorities in England who went missing from their agreed placement
for a period of 24 hours or more.</p><p> </p><p>The table attached shows the number
of children who went missing from their agreed placement whilst looked after by Hampshire,
Portsmouth or Southampton local authority, during the years ending 31 March 2012 to
2014. Children who went missing on more than one occasion during the year have been
recorded only once for that year. The table also shows the number of these children
who were still missing at 31 March 2014, the latest date for which data are available.
In addition to these, there will also be some children who have turned 18, and therefore
ceased to be looked after whilst missing. In such cases, information is not collected
on whether these young people are still missing.</p><p> </p><p>Comparisons with other
data sources, including numbers of missing children reported to the police, indicate
that the number of children missing from their agreed placement may be an undercount
of the true figure and should be treated with caution. Extensive work on improving
the quality of this data has been undertaken during the past two years’ data collections.
An increase in the number of children missing from their agreed placement over recent
years may therefore be due to improved recording rather than a true increase. From
2015, the information will be collected differently to improve the quality.</p><p>
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