During November two charities whose focus is on the needs of trafficked children and reuniting families produced an important report called “Heading back to Harm”. The report encompassed the whole of the United Kingdom and it sought to assess how effectively local authorities throughout our nation are treating looked after children who have been trafficked or who have no family and have ended up in the care of a Council. Sadly large numbers of these children have gone missing from the care homes and foster carers which have been tasked with looking after them on behalf of the rest of society. The national picture is distressing on several levels, the first of which is the news from the local authorities that actually responded to the questionnaires and Freedom of Information requests sent by the two charities. A large number of these children have gone missing during the time in which they were being looked after and many remain missing, meaning that some of these very vulnerable children remain at great risk in our country. However what was potentially just as disturbing was the lack of response from a large numbers of Councils. The questions were sent to all Upper Tier Councils so in our area that was East and West Sussex along with Brighton and Hove. To their credit East Sussex appears to have fully responded to the questions, while West Sussex ignored the requests altogether and Brighton & Hove appear to have responded to just one of the many questions. It is very disappointing that two of our Councils have shown themselves to have such a disregard or partial regard for this important subject.