Preventing grooming in early childhood settings: Building a safeguarding culture

Every day, parents across Australia place their trust in early childhood education and care centres. They do so with the belief that their children will be nurtured, cared for, and most importantly kept safe.

But as we have seen from recent events, trust can be easily shattered. Abuse doesn’t begin in the open; it often begins with grooming. Grooming behaviours are subtle, calculated, and designed to manipulate both children and adults into a false sense of security. These behaviours can include crossing boundaries, forming inappropriate relationships, or exploiting organisational blind spots.

When staff don’t have the knowledge or confidence to recognise grooming behaviours, or when organisations don’t foster a culture that reduces opportunities for grooming to occur, the risks to children increase significantly.

Training and culture go hand in hand

Spotting grooming behaviours requires more than an individual’s intuition, it demands training, clear codes of conduct, and an environment where concerns can be raised without fear. It also requires organisations to actively reduce risks by embedding safeguards into their everyday practices.

That’s where cultural transformation becomes vital. Our Safeguarding Children Accreditation Program works hand in hand with organisations over two to three years to build the systems, training, and culture needed to keep children safe. Organisations who achieve accreditation are awarded the ACF Safeguarding Children Stamp, a visible mark for parents and communities that the organisation has undergone a rigorous assessment and committed itself to child safety at the deepest level.

A childcare provider’s journey

One early childhood provider we worked with illustrates what change can look like. When they began their accreditation journey, staff were uncertain about how to recognise and respond to grooming behaviours. Some weren’t confident in applying the code of conduct, and safeguarding was often seen as a compliance exercise rather than a lived culture.

Through the accreditation process, the provider changed their practice to include:

• Specialist training for all staff on grooming behaviours and the code of conduct.
• Establishing safeguarding champions at every level of the organisation to keep conversations alive and support their peers.
• Developing a safeguarding action plan that mapped clear steps and accountability across the service.
• A Safeguarding Board Champion to act as the lead Director and champion strategic safeguarding.
• Over time, the culture shifted. Staff became confident in calling out unsafe behaviours, parents were reassured by visible commitments, and the provider built a reputation in their community as a safe and trusted place for children.

A responsibility we all share

Grooming thrives in silence. By equipping staff with the skills to recognise the signs, and by embedding a culture that closes down opportunities for grooming to occur, we can dramatically reduce the risk to children.

For parents, the ACF Safeguarding Children Stamp is a sign they can look for, a signal that a childcare provider has gone above and beyond compliance to embed genuine child safety. For organisations, accreditation is not about a certificate on the wall, it’s about giving every child the right to grow up safe, protected, and free from harm.

For more information, please contact [email protected] 

Author: Phil Doorgachurn, Director of Safeguarding for Australian Childhood Foundation.