Goodstart offers Protective Strategies Kit free of charge to ECEC sector

In honour of National Child Protection Week Goodstart Early Learning has released its award-winning protective strategies kit, Feel Safe, Be Safe free of charge to the broader early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. 

The protective strategies kit helps educators and teachers empower children with the understanding that they have a right to be safe and feel safe all the time and can talk to a trusted adult about anything, highlighting Goodstart’s commitment to being a Child Safe organisation and to preventing, detecting and addressing child abuse, neglect and harm.

When children are taught age-appropriate strategies (sometimes also called protective behaviours) they are equipped with the skills to recognise and respond to potentially unsafe situations (including online), understand their bodies, emotions and early warning signs, set boundaries and persist in seeking help from trusted adults when needed, Goodstart’s National Lead for Safeguarding Children Sara Evans said. 

“Teaching children protective strategies is not new but Goodstart’s Feel Safe, Be Safe Protective Strategies Kit protective strategies are woven into everyday teaching and learning, routines, transitions, play experiences and relationships,” she said.

“Importantly, our Feel Safe, Be Safe Protective Strategies Kit is for children aged from birth to five years and also includes resources and strategies that families can use at home.”

The Protective Strategies Kit draws on national and international contemporary best practice and is underpinned by the Early Years Learning Framework (Version 2) and the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations and state-based Child Safe Standards.

For find out more, or download Feel Safe, Be Safe, use this link.