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Evaluation of the AEDI community implementation

Between 2004 and 2007 the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) facilitated the evaluation of the Australian Early Development Index: Building Better Communities for Children project. A concurrent comprehensive evaluation alongside the national implementation of the AEDI was a critical component of the AEDI implementation.

The evaluation of the AEDI project had two components.

1. The first component was the more formal outcome evaluation.
2. The second component was the process evaluation, monitoring the day-to-day progress and learnings of the project.

Each community that became part of the project was asked to become part of the national evaluation and were followed over the period of the project. This enabled the investigation of a medium-term and sustainable community-level response to the AEDI.

The purpose of the evaluation was to:

• Monitor the implementation of the project.
• Investigate the effectiveness and utility of the AEDI as a community-planning tool to support children’s health, development and wellbeing.
• Identify any barriers the project encountered and suggest possible solutions.
• Document exemplary or innovative practice related to the AEDI that could be transferred to other sites.
• Make recommendations regarding the further support and implementation of the AEDI.

Download Final AEDI Evaluation Report (PDF 500KB)

Key evaluation findings

The evaluation found that there were a variety of enablers and barriers that impacted upon the relative success of the project. These were divided into pre-implementation, during implementation and post-implementation.

Pre-implementation

From the time communities selected to implement the AEDI until they entered the AEDI data

Enablers to community AEDI implementation were:

• Existence of early childhood initiatives in the community that fostered the work of the AEDI.
• Availability of a local leader.
• Cooperation from schools to complete the AEDI.
• An easily identifiable geographic location making identification of key players more straightforward.
• Support provided by the AEDI National Support Centre.
• State based champions of the AEDI.
• Encouragement for the project by other external bodies such as state government and regional educational bodies.

Barriers to community AEDI implementation focus on essentially two areas that were seen as pivotal for successful AEDI implementation:

• Engaging schools in the project.
• Accessing funding for teacher relief.

In overcoming the barriers, communities reported using multimodal methods to engage schools, such as meetings, phone and email contact and schools forums. Many communities were successful in obtaining the teacher relief funding. Examples of funding included state and federal government community capacity building funding, local businesses and in kind support from regional educational authorities.

This second barrier to implementation has now been overcome as the Federal Government is now funding teacher relief to support the national implementation of the AEDI.

Implementation

Completing AEDI Checklists in schools

The results from the teacher survey (completed at the end of the web-based data entry) indicated that teachers did not have difficulty completing the AEDI and that they can see the benefits of the AEDI for their own work in the classroom and for the wider community in promoting a better understanding of children in their area. From a process point of view completing the AEDI was regarded as a manageable task. The following table shows the feedback provided by teachers between 2004 and 2007.

Post-implementation

Dissemination of the results

Local AEDI Coordinators reported:

• They were satisfied with the AEDI Community Profile; they rated all sections of the report and the findings useful and generally found the report easy to understand.
• AEDI results were able to be disseminated to a wide range of organisations within their geographic areas.
• Forums were held to disseminate results and typically these forums were used to explore the results in greater depth, with a focus on understanding the local context of the results.

Community mobilisation and actions

There were four key outcomes noted in geographic areas that have implemented the AEDI. These were:

• The implementation of the AEDI increased community awareness of the importance of early childhood development.
• The implementation assisted communities to build stronger relationships and work more collaboratively.
• The AEDI results were helpful in promoting strategic development and both specific and general planning for the needs of children.
• The AEDI results supported funding grant applications.

Overall the AEDI evaluation highlighted that professionals were keen to respond to the AEDI findings with action, however many communities found that responding takes considerable time and resources. Communities varied considerably in their response to the AEDI results, with some initiating a great deal of action and some yet to demonstrate any action. There are two common themes that appear to be important within a community in order to promote action:

1. That at least one person within the community is a ‘champion’ of the AEDI; and
2. The community can identify a process for moving forward after they have received their results.

Read about the Development and Evaluation of the AEDI for further details.