New WorkSafe Victoria funding targets psychological health and safety for the early childhood education and care workforce
A project from the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Education, Flourish ECEC, has received $1.76 million through WorkSafe Victoria’s Psychological Health Industry Trials program. Flourish ECEC isone of four industry trials supported by WorkSafe over the next three years.
Led by Professor Tricia Eadie and Dr Lisa Baker from the REEaCh (Research in Effective Education in Early Childhood) Centre, Flourish ECEC will develop and test practical strategies to support psychological health and safety in workplaces across Victoria’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector.
The project brings together University of Melbourne researchers, four Victorian ECEC not-for-profit providers – Early Childhood Management Services (ECMS), Early Learning Victoria, Eureka Community Kindergarten Association (ECKA) and Gowrie Victoria – and the Australian Education Union Early Childhood Victorian Branch. WorkSafe Victoria will remain an active partner throughout the project.
The Flourish ECEC project will explore the psychosocial hazards and risks relevant to the ECEC sector, including high job demands, low job control, work related stress and their impact on the psychological health and safety of the workforce.
Dr Baker said the research is particularly important at a time when Victoria’s ECEC sector is facing significant workforce pressures.
“Victoria’s ECEC sector is at a critical stage, and we need to develop effective sector-specific strategies and information that can support educators to thrive in their work,” she said. “ECEC professionals undertake highly skilled and emotionally demanding work, supporting children’s learning, development and wellbeing while working within complex organisational environments.”
The research will use a co-design approach to develop strategies that respond to the needs and circumstances of individual workplaces.
“Co-design brings together the evidence from the literature with the lived experience of the people working in each setting. That makes the interventions more relevant to their context and more likely to be sustainable beyond the life of the trial,” Dr Baker said.
The research team will work with participating services to identify appropriate strategies including areas such as leadership, coaching, workplace belonging and organisational practices. The interventions will be tailored to each setting, recognising that ECEC services differ in size, location, workforce stability and community context.
Twenty ECEC services across metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria will take part in the trial, providing a diverse range of workplace contexts in which to understand what supports ECEC professionals’ psychological health, safety and wellbeing.
Professor Eadie said, “By testing evidence-based strategies that address psychological health and safety, Flourish ECEC demonstrates a commitment to strengthening and sustaining the ECEC workforce. When educators thrive, children and families thrive, and Victoria’s early childhood sector is strengthened.”
Flourish ECEC will commence work with partner ECEC services in 2027, with findings and resources to be made available to the broader ECEC sector upon the project’s completion.
For further information email: Flourish-ECEC@unimelb.edu.au
