Advice needed on schools policy on missing childrennot being followed

[SammieJP]

Hi all, this is my first time writing so I am unsure if I have put this in the right section, apologies if I have. Apologies also for this being quite long.
I am looking for some advice on what I should do and who to complain to about my son's school not following their own procedures set out in their policy for missing children.
I'll try to keep it short but this is what happened.
About a month ago I had arranged for my friend to pick my son up from school for me (we have done this countless times between us). When it come to collecting him, he came out to her and said he would wait by the tree (always does this) while her daughter comes out. In the time of him saying that and her daughter coming out they have lost track of each other. My friend then goes searching for him, shouting his name and asking teachers if they had seen him. After 5 minutes of looking for him she then goes to the school reception to report him missing, one teacher checks his classroom and says he's not in there and does absolutely nothing else. To cut it short he was found by my brother 45 minutes later safe and well walking to his nannas, which is where he was originally going to be dropped off. The following school day I spoke to his teacher and the schools safe guarding teacher to inform them of what had happened and ask why the school did nothing to help seeing as he was still on school grounds when he went missing. They were appalled that any of the staff that my friend spoke to never informed them he was missing, they informed me of their policy and pointed out that not one of the teachers followed it. Whilst I am having the conversation with these 2 teachers another child is reported missing and I witness them follow the procedures to the letter! Anyway I rambling, the conversation ended with them saying they will investigate what happened and why the proper procedures weren't followed. They would then let me know the outcome of the investigation and they would be speaking to all children in assembly to tell them to come back into school if they cannot find who they are supposed to go home with.
I hadn't heard anything from either of them for 2 weeks following this incident so I spoke to my son's teacher last week, she informed me that she has heard nothing from the safe guarding teacher and nothing has been said to the rest of the school in assembly, she said she would speak to her and get back to me.
Yesterday was the last day of term and I've heard absolutely nothing, I've not even seen his teacher to able to speak to her since our last chat.
Normally the school is very good with communication and I'm getting the feeling that they think I'll just let it go, I don't want to let it go because if this happens to another child and procedures aren't followed again then the outcome could be very different!
I'm just not sure on what I do next, on the schools complaints procedure online it says to write to the schools head teacher, the head teacher is currently off sick and it is the safe guarding teacher that is acting head teacher. I can't very well write to her to complain about her so I'm unsure on who I write/speak to next seeing as schools now finished for 6 weeks.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I think your issue here is that he had been handed over to your friend. She had spoken to him and he was told to wait by the tree. He then decided to wander off and walk to his grandparents. I think you really ought to ask yourself why you or your friend didnt report your ds missing to the police. Once your child has been handed over he is your or in this case your friends responsibility. I would also be pretty furious with my ds for wandering off.

The only thing school could have done was call the police but I am assuming your friend did this as she had taken on his care for you??

Agree. I think this one's on your friend.

Yes, agreed. School didn't follow their policy because they didn't lose a child, your friend did!

Your friend should have called the police if she was concerned.

He was in your friend's care. It would have been good for the school to be more helpful but ultimately it was your friend's responsibility. You seem to be focussing on being cross with the school rather than with your ds who took himself off on a long walk when he was specifically told to wait by the tree. Have there been consequences for his behaviour? Your outrage is misdirected, sorry.

And I think it's unlikely that the school will do anything more anyway, as it's now officially closed until September.

Not the school's responsibility once he had made contact with your friend. They could have offered to call the police form the office, but maybe they assumed your friend had already done that.

What exactly would you expect the school to do in this situation?

Your son should know always to wait where he is asked to wait or to return to the school office if he is unsure.

Maybe I should of explained a little more. I wasn't Informed of him being missing until he was found otherwise the first thing I would of done was call the police myself, one of the first things I did was have it out with my friend and come to the decision there's blame in several places. I spoke to her and my son and it seems they were looking at opposite sides of the school for each other, he's gone looking for her car when he couldn't find her, not knowing she had a courtesy car that day, not seeing her car he has then decided to walk to where he was expected to be, so not exactly wandering off!
I thought the same as you that because he had been handed over already that he was then my friends responsibility, which is why I had the conversation with the 2 teachers to find out what the exact policy is. If the child is reported missing while still in the grounds no matter what time of day, their policy is for the safe guarding teacher and head teacher to be informed, then a certain number of teachers to drop everything and have a full search of the school grounds (inside and out) for said child, if not found within 10 minutes then to call the police. My friend spoke to 4 teachers and the receptionist and the only place they looked for him was his classroom, that's hardly a full search!
If they had done the investigation they said they were going to do and inform me of their findings I would be ok with this, but from speaking with his teacher none of this has been done. There is a certain child that goes missing at home time probably once a month and each time the teachers are out looking for that child, I've seen the police several times looking for her, I just want to know why this was not done for my son.

And I imagine that when they said that the Safeguarding Policy hadn't been adhered to, they perhaps assumed that the child had gone missing from their care, not your friend's. And then they dropped the investigation once they realised it wasn't actually them at fault.
But agree that it would have been nice if they'd helped to look for him.

You need to let this go. The school did nothing wrong and presumably are now on holiday.

Be thankful that it all ended well and use it as an opportunity to talk to your son about what he should do in future. Oh, and don't ask that friend to collect your son again!

If you weren't there, how do you know how much searching was going on? Or indeed how much fuss your friend made about him being missing? I think you need to let this one go, and enjoy the summer holidays.

If an investigation was done and the school found they did everything they should have done then honestly I would be more than happy to accept that, but from the information I have been given from his teacher is that no investigation has been done at all which is why I've not been informed of the outcome. Surely if the outcome of an investigation was in their favour then they would be more than happy to inform me of this.
Trust me I have spoken to my son numerous times about this and drilled it into him on what to do and what not do should a similar thing happen again, and yes there has been reprocussion for him but that's hardly the topic of this thread!

I would let it go too. Certainly the school should have called the police (depending on his age? I'm assuming very young), even if he had been safely handed over to your friend, as per your instructions. You have let them know that this did not happen, and there honestly is not going to be much to add to that.

Your friend of course should have called you and the police immediately.

I am surprised that the school have a proper procedure regarding safety of children after handover. This is completely out of their control and although they will be helpful and do all they can, they can't be held accountable I wouldn't have thought. Don't most schools just open the gates at home time and parents etc swarm in? We certainly don't check for strangers. We do a formal handover and expect the child to be kept safe by them at that point.

Nope still not seeing what the school have done. He was handed over to the person they knew was picking him up. at that point he becomes the responsibility of that person

Fgs, you are being totally ridiculous. You want a policy of what to do after children are handed over to the person you have nominated? I have about a million more things to do, I'm afraid.

I'm thinking there was crossed wires and the procedure they are talking about is at handover time. E.g. if no one collecting, return to building etc.

"Maybe I should of explained a little more. I wasn't Informed of him being missing until he was found otherwise the first thing I would of done was call the police myself, " once again it was your friend's responsibility to inform you not the school.

"he's gone looking for her car when he couldn't find her," perhaps teach him to stay put rather than wandering off or alternatively go himself to the school office and tell them he's lost, then they could have contacted you.

"but from the information I have been given from his teacher is that no investigation has been done" there won't be an investigation your child was in the care of your friend.

How old is your son? Why was he not waiting by the tree as agreed?

I presume the 'investigation' took the form of, "Child handed over to designated pick-up person, she loses him, check classroom/school building, child found off-site, incident resolved, no further action."

Had your friend already called the police when she realised your DS had disappeared?

And to be honest, any message/warnings given out in Assembly at this stage of the school year are futile. They go in one ear and out of the other. Better to wait until September.

Is this for real. Your friend picked up your child and then promptly lost your child? How and why is that the schools fault? I'm truly baffled by this.