Empowering educators: developing and piloting transformative safeguarding through a child rights-based public sector innovation

Child sexual abuse is a global public health issue and a violation of children’s rights. An increasing share involves children displaying harmful sexual behaviour (HSB), creating complex challenges for professionals since all involved are minors. This underscores the need for child rights‑based primary prevention strategies for educators, including strengthened relationship and sexuality education (RSE) training to support safeguarding. This article reports on phase one of a Norwegian public sector innovation project (2024–2028) designed to improve systemic responses to HSB in schools through transformative safeguarding. The project applies a four‑phase transformative action research model to reinforce teachers’ safeguarding responsibilities and promote interdisciplinary collaboration. Phase one (2024) focuses on developing a prototype for interdisciplinary, child rights‑based RSE training, piloted in three schools. Guided by the transformative paradigm and design thinking, the article outlines the prototype’s development, integrating municipal initiatives, grounded theory and teacher input to empower educators and strengthen cross‑sector cooperation.