About the charity
The difference we make
Our credentials
Do you charge for your services?
Are you part of the police?
Fundraising
How do you decide the salaries of your staff?
Public figures
What are your Ethical Policies?
Why does Missing People sometimes require shift-workers?
About our appeals for missing people
How long does it take to find a missing person?
I've noticed that you're still sharing an appeal for someone who I think has been found. Why?
I asked you to share my appeal for a missing person and you said that you can’t. Why?
Is it safe for me to share appeals for missing people online?
My relative has gone missing abroad. Can you help?
Requests from external agencies and third parties
Can someone from Missing People give a talk about your work?
Will you share or endorse unofficial apps, websites and social media channels that feature lists of people missing in the UK?
I have been contacted by an unofficial support group, what should I do?
I am a third party (charity, organisation, media, school, community group). Can I promote your 116 000 helpline?
Will you endorse my Missing/Child Safety Product?
The difference we make
We exist to be a lifeline when someone disappears. We provide free advice, support services and ways to find missing people. Last year we found 1,126 missing people, safeguarded 4,105 missing children and adults, supported 1,981 families with a missing loved one, and responded to an average of 161 contacts a day to our 24/7 helpline.
Our credentials
We have more than 20 years' experience as specialists providing support to families and to missing people. Our partners include the National Crime Agency; police forces acorss the UK; voluntary organisations across Europe who share our Vision; and the University of Portsmouth's Centre for the Study of Missing Persons.
Do you charge for your services?
No. Thanks to our fantastic team of volunteers, pro bono partners, media partners, funders and individual supporters, all of our services are provided completely free of charge.
Are you part of the police?
No. Missing People is an independent charity funded by donations. We work in collaboration with a range of partners across the UK, including local police forces, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS). Find out more about our partners.
Fundraising
Missing People is a proud member of the Fundraising Standards Board and fundraises in accordance with the charity's Ethical Policy. As an independent charity we rely on public donations.
Every cash donation is matched with gifts-in-kind of the same value, or higher, from generous corporate supporters. This means the charity does not use cash donations to pay for many overheads such as office space, or legal fees, amongst many others.
On average the charity generates £3-4 of income for every pound it spends on fundraising. Total fundraising costs are normally no more than 20-25% of our total annual expenditure.
At Missing People, we never use the image or details of any current or former missing person without the express permission of that person’s family. This applies to both our appeals and fundraising activity.
How do you decide the salaries of your staff?
As a service provider, the charity's main cost is our fabulous staff team of around 60 people, and the training and support for almost 500 volunteers, all of whom make us a 24/7 lifeline, accredited in 2015 with the 'Helpline Standard' by the Helplines Partnership. The charity regularly benchmarks salaries with other voluntary organisations of our size to ensure our staff salaries are comparable.
Public figures
Patrons, Ambassadors and Family Representatives of Missing People are all volunteers. The expectations of people who represent the charity are considered carefully by Directors, Trustees and the individual prior to their appointment. Family Representatives are self-appointed following discussion with the charity.
The Board of Trustees are all volunteers recruited to provide governance and strategic oversight to Missing People. They ensure the Executive team work to meet the charity's Vision and charitable Aims.
Volunteers in all roles receive no payment for their time. Reasonable travel costs are of course offered.
What are your Ethical Policies?
The charity has an Ethics Policy to ensure decisions about our partnerships are consistent and in keeping with the charity's Vision and charitable Aims.
In addition, Missing People is developing a Green Travel Policy to ensure we minimise the impact of travel by staff and volunteers on the environment.
People work at Missing People to make a difference. We sometimes use zero hour contracts to allow flexibility on both sides, where we are not obligated to offer work and conversely, the contracted employee is not obligated to accept work. Whilst most of our helpline team are employed in part time or full time posts, an example of when we use these contracts is to help us cover our 24/7 helpline service. Often, flexible working fits around the employee's other commitments. Sometimes we need staff to cover at short notice or to work flexibly, like supply teachers. In these roles, our amazing bank staff know it helps us run our service. We don’t ask people to turn up and then send them home and we don’t expect them to work exclusively with us. We keep the dialogue open, ensuring this agreement works for both sides.
Most missing people are found safe and well within 72 hours. Sadly, some are not, and we will not stop searching until a person is found or their family or the police have asked us to do so.
I've noticed that you're still sharing an appeal for someone who I think has been found. Why?
I asked you to share my appeal for a missing person and you said that you can’t. Why?
Is it safe for me to share appeals for missing people online?
The charity does not share appeals for through social media or on missingpeople.org.uk without gaining permission from the police. We ask you to be equally conscientious about sharing appeals not issued by Missing People or the Police where the provenance is unclear.
In the UK, there are four main ways of joining the search through verified sources:
1. Your local police force website or Twitter/Facebook account
2. The Missing People website, Twitter or Facebook pages
3. The CEOP command of the National Crime Agency who host the Missing Kids website (all appeals fed directly by the Missing People gallery)
4. Child Rescue Alert which is the national alerting system used to quickly alert the public to an extremely high risk missing child
All of these sources come with the assurance that:
- The person is actually missing (and not being looked for by a person who may be abusing them)
- The certainty that the family/carer/next of kin has given consent to media being done (except in very exceptional circumstances when police will override this)
- The reassurance that the appeal is being shared having first considered if it's in the best interest of the missing person
My relative has gone missing abroad. Can you help?
We can give you advice regarding other organisations and international agencies that may be able to help. Additionally, we may be able to put an appeal for your relative on our website. Find out more.
Can someone from Missing People give a talk about your work?
If you would like Missing People to send a representative to talk at an event, please send details of the date, time, location, likely attendance and the purpose of the talk to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are very grateful for opportunities to raise awareness of our services, but attendance at events is subject to the availability of an appropriate staff member or volunteer.
Will you share or endorse unofficial apps, websites and social media channels that feature lists of people missing in the UK?
Missing People partners with the National Crime Agency to provide missingkids.com and to enable families to be referred to us for support. This also means that we can host online appeals for most of those missing in the UK at missingpeople.org.uk
Through the charity’s formal police partnerships and professionally run 24 hour helpline we are able to remove and update appeals at the request of families and the police. This avoids upset if someone has actually been found safe and well (or sadly found dead) and ensures credibility of the information.
We are therefore not able to endorse other sites.
I have been contacted by an unofficial support group, what should I do?
Occasionally the charity is made aware of people with an interest in missing persons who offer ‘support’ (in person, by phone or online) to families they don’t know. This type of involvement can lead to emotional harm to the family in question, and those offering the ‘support’, as often, the boundaries are not clear and the ‘support’ is not professional.
If you have a missing loved one, and are concerned about someone contacting you offering support and help, please contact your dedicated support worker, or our helpline on 116 000 (free, 24/7).
Anyone offering support independently is asked to make it clear on all materials they produce that they are not associated with the charity Missing People.
I am a third party (charity, organisation, media, school, community group). Can I promote your 116 000 helpline?
We want people affected by ‘missing’ to know that our services are here for them, so we welcome any efforts to promote the helpline. If you are able to do this, we ask that you acknowledge that the charity Missing People is the helpline provider and include our key information (free, confidential, 24 hour).
Our helpline number can only be displayed with appeals for missing people (i.e. to encourage public information and sightings) when the appeal is provided by the police or the charity. This ensures that potentially valuable information gets to the right place.
Will you endorse my Missing/Child Safety Product?
Missing People does not promote or endorse products to help in the search for missing children, other than its own and those of our partners. Unfortunately we are unable to reply to individual requests.