This area is designed to inform early childhood services about
the progress of the evaluation of KidsMatter
Early Childhood and to provide a collection of useful
evaluation information
to access and download.
Evaluation Update
Regular updates are posted here or check them out at Twitter
Evaluation Newsletters:
Find out some preliminary results and how the evaluation is progressing
The KidsMatter Early Childhood Evaluation Team
KidsMatter have appointed an
evaluation team of representatives from Flinders
University, the
University of South Australia and the South Australian Department of Education and
Children's Services.
The purpose of the evaluation
The KidsMatter Early
Childhood Evaluation is
gathering information about the initial trial of KidsMatter Early
Childhood in 110 pre-school services across Australia. It will provide information about the
implementation process and whether the initiative leads to improved
mental health for young children. The evaluation will inform the
subsequent national roll-out of KidsMatter initiatives.
KidsMatter Early Childhood has been developed in collaboration with
the Australian
Government Department of Health and Ageing, beyondblue: the national
depression initiative, the Australian
Psychological Society, and Early
Childhood Australia.
The evaluation process
Information for the evaluation is being collected on four
occasions: May 2010, November 2010, May 2011 and November 2011.
Most of the information will come from responses to a
questionnaire completed by the parents and staff of children aged
between 1 year and up to 5 years in each early childhood service. The
questionnaire aims to measure outcomes from the KidsMatter Early
Childhood initiative
for staff, students, and parents. The questionnaire also focuses on aspects of the implementation of
KidsMatter Early Childhood and how this changes over time.
State-based KidsMatter Facilitators are also completing
questionnaires on each of their services on the four occasions.
Service leadership will provide an executive summary at the end of
the evaluation.
A small number of staff, parents and students from selected services
will participate in the Photo Study.
Brief timeline
A brief time line is presented below.
|
Key
deliverables
|
Timeline
|
|
Arrange
ethics approvals
|
Jan-March
2010
|
|
Initial
Report
|
March
30th 2010
|
|
Obtain
written consents from all participants
|
April
2010
|
|
Collect
Time 1 survey data and Facilitator reports
|
May
2010
|
|
Progress
Report 1
|
July
30th 2010
|
|
Collect
Time 2 survey data and Facilitator reports
|
Oct
2010
|
|
Progress
Report 2
|
Feb
28th 2011
|
|
Collect
Time 3 survey data and Facilitator reports
|
May
2011
|
|
Interim
Report
|
June
30th 2011
|
|
Progress
Report 3
|
July
30th 2011
|
|
Collect
Time 4 survey data and Facilitator reports
|
Oct
2011
|
|
Collect
Photo-voice data
|
Nov-Dec
2011
|
|
Collect
Leadership summaries
|
Nov-Dec
2011
|
|
Progress
Report 4
|
Feb
28th 2012
|
|
Draft
Final report and presentation
|
May
31st 2012
|
|
Final
Report and Short Report
|
June
30th 2012
|
Research Design
For further information contact
Dr Katherine Dix
KidsMatter Evaluation Manager
Phone: +61 8 8201 5878
Fax: +61 8 8201 3184
 Email: kidsmatter@flinders.edu.au
|
