A new report from the charities ECPAT UK and Missing People has revealed high numbers of trafficked children are still going missing from local authority care – and many have never been found.

From September 2014 to September 2015 28% of trafficked children (167 children) in the care of local authorities went missing at least once during that year (with an average of 2.4 missing incidents per child). A third of these children were missing for longer than a week and some were still unaccounted for when the information was gathered.

It has been well known for a number of years that children who have been trafficked are at risk of going missing, whether out of fear of the authorities or because of the threats or promises of their traffickers. Sadly, when they do go missing they fall prey to exploitation either by their original traffickers or other unscrupulous people who take advantage of their precarious situation.

It is disappointing and disheartening that, despite increased awareness of the issue, this research reveals that many trafficked children are still going missing. It also showed that many councils still do not have adequate record-keeping processes and that there is inconsistency in identifying children as possible victims and referring them to the National Referral Mechanism. Unless these referrals are made, many children will miss out on the special protection and assistance that they need and are entitled to.

Taken together this evidence suggests that there is still a lot of improvement needed in the level of training and understanding of human trafficking that professionals working with vulnerable children have, and the measures that should be put in place to protect them.

The report identifies three key areas for improvement:

• Creating a culture of trust
• Responding to risk
• Taking a coordinated approach

CARE welcomed the announcement earlier this year of special Home Office funding available for projects aimed at preventing trafficked children going missing. However there is much more that needs to be done to address the three challenges identified by this new report.

Robust measures should be put in place at local and national level to prevent children being re-trafficked. As a priority, we must review how police, social workers and foster carers can work together more effectively to ensure that children are protected and kept safe. This must include making sure children are placed in appropriate accommodation and working on faster responses to reporting missing children and making sure they are found.

We also urge the government to speed up plans to roll out specialist independent child trafficking advocates in England and Wales – trials have shown that these advocates have played a key part in building trust, highlighting potential risks, pushing local authorities to provide safer accommodation, and tracing children who have gone missing.

Far too many children have gone missing, put at risk of further exploitation. The government and local authorities must act urgently.