Safer pathways through Childhood Framework: Strengthening child safety and wellbeing in early learning settings

Protecting children and preventing harm is a shared responsibility, one that extends well beyond compliance to child protection legislation. The Queensland Family & Child Commission’s Safer Pathways Through Childhood framework offers early childhood education and care (ECEC) services a powerful roadmap for reducing risk, understanding trends, and embedding safety and wellbeing across all levels of practice.

Safer Pathways Through Childhood is a framework developed by the QFCC based on research into child deaths, safety trends, and risk factors. It includes a longer‑term strategic plan (2022‑27), as well as action plans for shorter cycles (e.g. 2023‑24, 2024‑25), designed to guide efforts in prevention, intervention, and systemic change. 

Some key components include:

• A legislated role for QFCC to maintain the Child Death Register, report on trends, identify patterns of harm and risk, and conduct investigations aimed at preventing further harm. 
• Publications and insights into how certain risks (e.g. pool drownings, supervision, environmental risk, etc.) contribute to child deaths and injury, particularly for young children. 
• A series of action plans that outline targeted strategies, measurable outcomes, and priority settings for government, service providers, and communities.

For early childhood services, several elements of the Safer Pathways framework are especially relevant:

1. Evidence‑based prevention
   For ECEC services, this helps clarify where to target effort, whether it’s physical environment safety, supervision practices, water safety, or staff training.
2. Continuous improvement
   The action plans are structured with measurable outcomes and timeframes. ECEC services can align their policies, quality improvement plans, and risk assessments with these goals to ensure they’re responsive to the most current evidence.
3. Shared responsibilities and partnerships
   Child safety is not just the responsibility of regulatory bodies; it depends on leadership, service delivery, community, and family engagement. Early childhood educators can play key roles in identifying risks, talking with families, shaping safe environments, and advocating for supportive policy.
4. Using insights to inform practice
   Some of the published materials involve specific risk topics which are directly applicable to early learning settings (for instance, ensuring fences, supervision, water safety policies). These insights can help services review and strengthen their existing safety procedures.

Here are some concrete ways ECEC services can make use of the framework:

• Review the QFCC’s most recent action plan (2024‑25) and identify two or three risk areas relevant to your service (for example, physical environment hazards, supervision, safety in access/egress, water hazards).
• Embed in your Quality Improvement Plan actions that align with those risk areas (e.g. upgrading fences, training staff in specific safety practices, developing or reviewing family information about supervision expectations).
• Use data (incident reports, near misses) to see where safety risks are recurring, then map those to the insights published by QFCC to understand whether best practice or additional regulation might help.
• Engage families in discussions about safety and risk — using accessible materials and shared decision‑making so that safety plans reflect families’ perspectives and lived experiences.
• Build staff capacity via regular training and reflective practice: ensure that educators understand the relevant data, why safety procedures exist, how child death and injury prevention works, and how their role contributes.

The Safer Pathways Through Childhood framework provides a robust, evidence‑grounded roadmap for protecting children and reducing harm. For ECEC providers, it offers actionable insights, priority areas, and tools for ensuring that safety and wellbeing are woven through all aspects of early childhood programs. With proactive engagement, alignment with action plans, and strong partnerships with families and communities, services can help ensure that early learning settings are safer for every child.