Exam Pass Notes

Use these notes for a final review before the assessment. They summarise the main course messages but do not replace the home's missing-from-care procedure, the child's placement plan, local safeguarding processes or multi-agency protocols.

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Core safeguarding messages

• Treat missing episodes as safeguarding incidents, not routine behavioural issues.
• Child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation and county lines are forms of child abuse.
• Extra-familial harm can come from peers, specific places, transport routes and online contacts.
• A child’s apparent cooperation, gifts received or repeated returns do not rule out abuse.
• Different types of harm can affect the same child at the same time.

Frontline practice basics

• Look for early changes such as secrecy, new phones, unexplained gifts, tiredness, risky travel or sudden new contacts.
• Follow the home's missing procedure promptly when a child is absent or away without permission.
• Share current risk information: people, places, vehicles, devices and recent triggers.
• On return, prioritise safety, health and welfare. Use calm, curious questioning rather than shame.
• Update placement and safety plans to reduce repeat risk instead of only closing the incident record.

Recording, sharing and role boundaries

• Record times, locations, devices, associates, actions taken and the child's own words where possible.
• Share relevant safeguarding information promptly; do not use data protection as an automatic reason to withhold it.
• Challenge vague or minimising explanations when the pattern of harm is clearer than a behaviour-only account.
• Stay within role boundaries: observe, protect, record, share and escalate appropriately.
• In England, an independent return home interview should be offered after missing from care; elsewhere follow the local return arrangement.

For the exam, remember the shape of safe practice: notice, act, record, share, welcome back and reduce repeat risk.