National Centre work on strengthening child safeguarding in early childhood

The National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse is contributing to Strengthening Child Safeguarding in Early Childhood, a national professional learning series led by Early Childhood Australia (ECA) and funded by the Department of Education in Victoria.

Early childhood educators, leaders and teachers work hard every day to ensure children and young people are safe and thriving, and they must be empowered and supported to do so.

Strengthening Child Safeguarding in Early Childhood was developed in direct response to the growing complexity and increasing scrutiny facing early childhood services and aims to provide support for educators and service leaders navigating this reality.

The National Centre’s involvement in this series reflects our ongoing commitment to strengthening sector capability and builds on our existing work as a member of ECA’s Rapid Response Taskforce. The Taskforce is a group of specialist organisations brought together to strengthen child safety practice in early childhood settings and includes Act for Kids, Bravehearts, Dellamarta Consulting, Hydon Consulting, Talarico Early Years Consultant, Safeguarding Training Australia and the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. As part of the original Taskforce, the National Centre contributed to its first webinar, Children’s Safety and Safeguarding in Early Childhood Settings, in July 2025. This new series is a continuation of that work.

The learning series, which involves six webinars, will focus on building the knowledge and confidence of early childhood educators and service leaders on child safety and safeguarding. Rather than focusing on compliance alone, the series is designed to invite deep reflection and support real-world application, helping educators and service leaders embed safeguarding into everyday practice.

The National Centre is contributing as a subject matter expert on two webinars in the series, with our Director of Sector Capability, Jo Warneke, presenting alongside sector experts.

Grooming and sexual abuse prevention: Tuesday 2 June, 11.00am – 12.00pm AEST. Catharine Hydon, Kate McGill and Jo Warneke will discuss how grooming occurs and what early childhood professionals can do to prevent child sexual abuse. The session will outline common grooming behaviours, why they can be hard to recognise and how services can respond in safe and appropriate ways. 

Responding to concerns raised by educators and families: Tuesday 9 June, 1.30pm – 2.30pm AEST. Catharine Hydon, Sam Melching and Jo Warneke will explore how concerns raised about a child’s safety or wellbeing by families or staff often show up in small or unclear ways and why responding well early makes such a difference. The session will include practical examples of what concerns can look like in everyday early childhood settings, what to say in the moment, and what to do next.   

Learn more and register for the upcoming webinars