Child Protection Guidance 2021

Part 4: Specific support needs and concerns 185 National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 Version 1.0 September 2021 case of an unborn baby. A copy of the Missing Family Alert should be sent to all relevant health areas/staff and the practitioner/caseload holder raising the concerns. A copy should be placed in the child/children’s health records (or in the mother’s record in the case of an unborn baby) and an entry made on the chronology record • Child Missing from Education alert • other health or education ‘flagging’ systems locally agreed to alert services when a child or family re-appears • process and timescales for co-ordinated review of notifications if a family is not found including inter-agency decision-making on further actions that can be taken • process for notifications when a family is located (which may include protocol for recording) and follow-up with family concerned as appropriate 4.314 Each agency needs to develop its own policies and protocols to manage risk and track missing children. Local areas should consider a strategic multi-agency collaborative framework, including relevant Third Sector agencies and independent schools, to support individual agency procedures for responding to and tracking missing children. 4.315 Stranger abduction. A child may fail to return because they have been the victim of a crime. Police Scotland will give consideration to the relevance of section 171 of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (offences related to children absconding from places where they are being kept by virtue of orders by a children’s hearing or court or by virtue of a warrant) when there is evidence that a person has assisted them to abscond, concealed them, or prevented them returning. Previous guidance in this section on child sexual exploitation, trafficking, female genital mutilation and forced marriage may be relevant, alongside Part 2b on assessment and contextual safeguarding. 4.316 Missing across borders. When there are concerns about a child who may be at risk of significant harm moving back to their country of origin or elsewhere abroad, it may be necessary to liaise with overseas social work services to ensure that the child has returned, and that their safety is being assessed locally. The relevant embassy or consulate may be able to provide contacts for appropriate authorities. International conventions provide a framework to assist professionals seeking to collaborate with their counterparts in other countries. Local Authorities should use the 1996 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children for international child protection cases, including those involving EU countries. Local authorities should already use the 1996 Hague Convention for non-EU child protection cases with those countries who have signed up to the Convention. Under the Convention, contracting states can ask each other for information or other types of help when a child’s welfare or protection is at issue. The different types of requests include, for example: • asking for another state’s help in tracing a child • asking for a report on a child habitually resident in another contracting state • asking another state to take measures to protect a child’s welfare • seeking the agreement of another state for a child to be placed there in foster or residential care • asking for the transfer of jurisdiction for a child from his/her home state, enabling an authority to make decisions about a child’s welfare if it feels it is best placed to do so