What is the Return Interview Service?
The Return Interview Service is a team of youth workers who offer Return
Interviews to any Leeds child or young person aged 17 or under who have been
reported to West Yorkshire Police as ‘missing’.
This includes children and young people who do not have an allocated social worker,
such as children subject to child in need or child protection plans as well as those who
are children looked after and those children and young people who are not open to
social work. If a young person is looked after, the Return Interview Service can offer
them a Return Interview anywhere within West Yorkshire.
The team provides this service seven days a week during daytime and evenings.
What is a Return Interview?
Local authorities have a statutory duty to offer all young people who have been
reported as missing to the Police with a return interview; interviews should be
offered within 72 hours of them being returned ‘home’ or to a place of safety.
The reason for the 72 hours timescale is that although not all missing young
people are at risk of harm, until they have had the opportunity to discuss what
happened and why, this may not be known. Therefore, it is important to have this
conversation as soon as possible.
Although all missing young people must be offered a Return Interview, they may
choose not to accept this. If a young person declines a Return Interview, the
service needs to hear this directly from them.
Due to the timeframe most Return Interviews will take place in an educational
setting, and would be arranged with a designated safeguarding lead, but some
take place at home or within the community.
A Return Interview is an opportunity for children and young people to talk to
someone independent (from where they live) about the reasons they were
reported missing, where they have been, who they have been with and what they
were doing. This is important to identify if the young person has been at risk
during the time they were missing or are vulnerable to harm in any way, and
identify any support they might need to help keep them or others safe.
Parental consent is not required because Return Interviews are a statutory
safeguarding function, however a discussion with parents will take place for
primary school age children or where it is felt that a young person is unable to
provide their own consent.
What happens after the Return Interview?
Following a Return Interview it is best practice to feed back information to another
relevant practitioner (school safeguarding staff, social worker etc.) or a parent or
carer depending on what has been discussed. If safeguarding concerns are
identified, there will be a referral made to Duty and Advice Team, or the concerns
will be communicated to an already allocated social worker. In addition, and if
appropriate, information will be shared with the Police and / or other agencies.
If support for the young person is needed, a conversation will be held with someone
already working with them such as staff at school or college, a social worker, early
help practitioner or youth justice worker to agree who will carry out the work to
access the support for the young person. It is usually more appropriate for this work
to be carried out by those with a more holistic and comprehensive understanding of
the needs of the young person and their family but the Return Interview Service will
also make referrals wherever necessary.
At a strategic level, data on all the Return Interviews carried out in the city is
collated centrally and analysed to understand the reasons why young people go
missing, and to identify any emerging trends and themes that can inform future
service planning.
What can other practitioners do to help?
Being able to offer children and young people a Return Interview within the 72 hour
timescale is a significant challenge. The longer it takes to offer a young person a
Return Interview the greater the chance they may forget important details.
Care givers such as parents, foster carers, social workers and children’s home staff
can help by encouraging young people to engage with the Return Interview Service,
as part of the overall plan to help keep them safe, and do all they can to help
facilitate a prompt Return Interview.
It is equally important for educational establishments to ensure that all their staff
understand the purpose and importance of Return Interviews and facilitate prompt
access to appropriate staff such as safeguarding leads, to help arrange Return
Interviews and feedback concerns they have about the young person.
Key contacts or for more information
For more information about the team you can contact the Return Interview Service on
tel: 0113 3786840, or email: youth.service@leeds.gov.uk
For more information on children who go missing, including more information about
Return Interviews, you can access the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership
website. In addition you can read the Children’s Society and National Police Chief
Councils document: The First Step: How return home interviews can improve support
and safeguarding for missing young people.
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