Furthering the work on missing persons – the National Missing Persons Conference 2023
Recently, several of the Restorative senior team attended the National Missing Persons Conference, held by West Yorkshire Police at Bradford City AFC Stadium. This important event, to identify challenges and learning around how we deal with missing persons, was sponsored by COMPACT, the missing person case management system by WPC Software.
Mark Powell, our Senior Manager of Supported Accommodation, Jo O’Donnell, Senior Manager of Residential and Chris Kershaw, Restorative Director, set up a stand with the Calderdale missing from care team, working together to answer attendees’ questions.
The conference’s main aim is to assist professionals working with missing people identify the challenges they face in preventing and investigating instances of missing persons, as well as explore key initiatives in missing person policies.
Commenting on the conference afterwards, Jo said, “There were a lot of other likeminded professionals in attendance, so it was great to discuss and share information. The conference also provided an insight into the proposed changes to the missing persons protocols to be trialled throughout West Yorkshire”.
Mark added, “The conference was informative, and it was great to see a presence from various police forces, authorities and professionals. It also provided information on the direction the new national protocols are moving in”.
“The conference helps support the continuing development of our missing policies and procedures, and also covered the Philomena Protocol we follow at Restorative when a young person in care goes missing. It was a really useful day,” said Chris.
The Philomena Protocol involves a living document that must be retained by carers, and updated regularly, especially after a missing incident. When a child moves placement, a copy of the most up-to-date version of the Philomena Protocol must go with them to their new carer.
WPC stated, “We wish to thank the many exhibitors at this conference, who we view as partners working in the field of missing and vulnerable people across the UK”.