Background: Currently early childhood educators, such as the participants in the research, submit only 2% of overall child protection reports made (AIHW, 2024), despite this age group being the most likely to be harmed or abused, suggesting a gap between knowledge and practice. Early childhood educators have a key role in fostering children’s safety and well-being as they have the greatest potential for identifying child maltreatment and intervening due to the daily interactions they have with children. However, despite child protection knowledge being available from research, scholarly and grey literature, information on how to access and enact this crucial knowledge is limited.

Aims: To explore the findings and implications of a recent early childhood child protection research project that used a strengths-based methodology and conceptual framework. The project aimed to understand from a small sample of educators in one Early Childhood Education service how child protection research was enacted in their service to support the continuing practice of keeping children safe. It is hoped that recommendations and strategies arising from this research can assist practitioners more broadly to enact evidence-based, best-practice strategies that support them when working with children and families experiencing child abuse and neglect. This research aims to understand the current knowledge and practices of early childhood educators regarding how they keep children safe and to build capacity and support them to respond more readily to violence, abuse, exploitation, neglect and harmful practices against children.

Method: Qualitative methodology, with a singular holistic case study research design was as well suited to answer the research question and gaps identified within the literature review. A purposive sample of participants was recruited and consented to participate in the ethics-approved research. The research site was a real-world context of one early childhood education service in New South Wales, Australia. The research design drew on a strengths approach framework that acknowledges the importance of collaboration between the researcher and the participant through a constructive “power-with” not “power-over” model. To allow rich data to be collected for the case study, the research involved three data collection techniques – electronic interviews (EViews), semi-structured face-to-face interviews (Open Views), and a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis. The data analysis used thematic analysis linking to literature sources and strengths approach principles.

Results: The early childhood educators in the service confirmed that child protection is an increasingly prominent issue in their work and educators are confronted daily with the reality of child maltreatment. The project revealed multiple barriers and opportunities for early childhood educators to increase child protection and reporting. For instance, some research recommendations are not readily available and are written for an academic audience. However, professional development in evidenced-based research and the use of Open Access scholarly practitioner publications may be beneficial. (Note: results pending at time of abstract.)

Conclusions: By considering and ‘translating’ child protection research recommendations, early childhood educators can improve this crucial area of their practice beyond the obligatory-mandatory reporting workshops to ensure that pedagogies align with the well-being and safety of children. This area of practice is in dire need of further support and research.

Implications for children and families: It is important that children do not experience child abuse and neglect and that families receive help and support in child protection from knowledgeable early childhood educators.

Implications for practitioners: Child protection research recommendations are not always readily available or grounded in practice strategies – they are ‘lost in translation’. These recommendations could, however, positively assist early childhood educators in their complex role of working with children and families experiencing child abuse and neglect. We present some strategies to assist.

Key words: children’s voices, professionals’ voices, qualitative methods, well-being

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

• • SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions