The involvement of the dental team in child protection and safeguarding was initially reported in the scientific literature in the 1960s and 1970s. One of the current concerns is that despite at least 50 years of research, there remains a worldwide ‘gap’ between suspicions of child abuse and neglect by members of the dental team and the reporting of those suspicions appropriately. Current approaches to the teaching and training of the dental team in child protection
and child safeguarding may not be reducing the gap and overcoming the reported barriers to closing the gap that have been identified in the literature. This research project investigates how serious games might provide an effective support for teaching and training of dental team professionals in child protection. Following a triadic game design approach all the factors related to the referral of child protection concerns by dental teams in Scotland were explored by a comprehensive investigation of the literature and by qualitative in-depth interviews with dental team professionals throughout Scotland. The interviews were thematically analysed, and all themes considered as potential areas for intervention. This is the first study of this type done with dental team professionals in Scotland. One of the overarching themes identified was that of fear and this was identified as the priority area to be targeted. Based on these results a serious game intervention to support the teaching and training of child protection/safeguarding to dental team professionals was then designed and created using Learning Mechanics-Game Mechanics. No previous examples of a game targeting this area have been reported. Finally, this serious game intervention was play tested and evaluated with dental students by way of pre and post-test questionnaires, the Game Experience Questionnaire and focus
groups, which again has not previously been reported. These provided evidence that the game was fit for purpose.