This webinar is about children who go missing, the harm they experience while they are missing, and how we care for them when they return.
Conversations with Sabrina Hewitt, Richard Eastwood and Charlie Hedges will provide deep insight into how children experience being missing and returning, and will help us to feel what's at stake. They will also help us develop an understanding of the push and pull factors that influence whether a child goes missing and the degree to which they are at risk of harm when they are missing. We'll be challenged to reflect on the language we use to talk about children who go missing and to consider how it influences our approach to them.
We'll critically reflect on the use of – and approaches to – return home interviews, and ask whether they help us to understand what has happened to children and prevent further missing episodes.
We'll question why we believe some children are more at risk of harm than others when they are missing. Importantly, we'll reflect on our shared responsibility to acknowledge, and to be intentional about addressing, the disproportionate number of Black children who go missing and the known disparities in the responses to Black and Asian missing children.
There's a lot at stake. Those who harm and exploit children rely on us not taking episodes of missing seriously enough and not forming the kinds of trusted relationships with children that can disrupt patterns of abuse. We have to know and do better if we want to stop children from going missing and being at risk of harm.
