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Chief Constable Pat Geenty: "Sometimes they [response officers] are being used as a taxi service and we need to break that cycle"
Police are to stop attending every report of a missing person to focus on cases where people are most at risk.
There are about 900 reports a day of those whose whereabouts are unknown and police have to investigate each one.
Senior officers say this blanket policy, which applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland, drains resources.
From April, police will launch a full investigation only for people whose disappearance is out of character or who are thought to be at risk.
Police deal with about 327,000 reports of missing people every year, with two-thirds of them involving children.
Chief Constable Pat Geenty, of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said that when a missing persons call was received, officers were dispatched "irrespective of the case" which was "a huge demand on police resources".
Under the new approach, police call handlers will divide reports into two categories.
People who are simply not where they are expected to be will be termed "absent" and the cases will be monitored.
Where there is a specific reason for concern, they will be classed as "missing" - prompting an investigation.
'Collection service'Pilots of the approach by Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Staffordshire police forces showed officers focused more on higher-risk incidents and saved thousands of officer hours over a three-month period.
End Quote NSPCCThe length of time a child goes missing is irrelevant because they can fall into the clutches of abusers very quickly"
About a third of missing person cases were likely to be classed "absent", figures from the pilots suggested.
Each force will have a missing persons co-ordinator whose responsibilities will include finding out if children are going missing regularly. They will work closely with care homes and local authorities to put together care plans to prevent the children from going missing.
Mr Geenty said police were, at times, used as a "collection service" for children who went missing from care homes and urged staff at homes to "act as responsible parents".
They should "do the initial work that's required in terms of trying to find out where the missing individual is and then, if they have concerns, ring the police", he said.
"Our response officers do a great job, they find the young people, take them back, they go missing again. What we want to do is break that cycle. This will improve safeguarding for young people and use our resources more effectively," he said.
"This approach actually gives more care and attention for these vulnerable young people."
But the NSPCC said it was concerned the new definition of a "missing" person would put vulnerable children at risk of being "groomed and sexually exploited".
Lisa Harker, head of strategy said: "These are very vulnerable people, who are three times more likely to go missing and they are very much at risk of sexual exploitation or physical harm.
"What needs to happen is a much more joined-up approach with other services, but unfortunately what's happening here is a change on guidance in the way police behave but it is not obvious that other agencies will be able to pick up the concern."
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