Children at risk
Understanding risk factors
Purpose
This resource provides an opportunity for teachers
to understand risk factors.
It is recommended that you allow approximately
30 minutes to read, reflect and respond to the
questions.
Risk factors
Risk factors fall into three categories:
• environmental, which may include poverty/income,
parental style, number/quality of parents/carers,
housing, family circumstances and lifestyle, nonEnglish speaking or dual language families, rural
and remote communities
• physical, which may include diet, nutrition, safety,
health and neglect
• emotional, which may include verbal abuse,
resilience, social literacy and psychological health.
Impact of risk factors
It is important to note that the presence of one or
more risk factors is not necessarily associated with
abuse or neglect.
Awareness of risk factors can, however, help services
to build a picture of a situation in conjunction with
known circumstances, observations or disclosures.
Strategies to support children at risk
Ways to identify and respond to potential risks:
• analyse existing information
• build relationships with families
• create a local community/client profile
• follow service policy
• communicate with parents/carers.
Analyse existing information
Start with the enrolment interview, which is the first
point of contact to begin to develop a relationship with
parents/carers and children.
An enrolment interview provides useful information
such as family structure, family members’ occupations
and language/s spoken at home.
Build relationships with families
Creating a supportive environment is a major step
towards identifying and supporting children and
families in need.
Engage in open discussion with parents/carers, where
appropriate, to invite sharing.
Create a local community profile
Strategies for creating a community/client profile
might include:
• researching support groups available in your local
community
• considering local community characteristics that
may impact on children in your Kindergarten
program.
The sites below have useful information for creating
a local community profile:
• the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI)
for a national collection of information on
children’s development
http://ww2.rch.org.au/aedi/index.cfm?doc_id=13051
• the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
for additional census data
www.abs.gov.au
Follow service policy
Consult your service policy about gathering
information on indicators of possible risk.
Consider:
• how you might record this information
• who you should include in discussions
• what action/s you might take.
Communicate with parents/carers
Consider extra information that may provide insight
into a child’s circumstances.
For example:
• health, physical issues
• living arrangements
• custody issues
• home language.
Reflect
What actions might your service take to raise
awareness of children at risk?
How might you approach issues that arise in a
way that is respectful, professional and involves
the appropriate people to support your actions?
Support agencies
• Department of Communities, Child Safety and
Disability Services
www.communities.qld.gov.au/gateway
• Kids Matter
www.kidsmatter.edu.au/early-childhood
• Child Care Exchange
www.childcareexchange.com
• A Guide to Special Child Care Benefit
http://foi.deewr.gov.au/documents/guide-special-child-care-benefit
More information
For more information and resources on understanding
risk factors please visit:
• Office for Early Childhood Education and Care
http://deta.qld.gov.au/earlychildhood/
• Queensland Studies Authority
www.qsa.qld.edu.au/12974.html