Goodstart Early Learning has formed a research partnership with the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne and CoLab – Collaborate for Kids at Telethon Kids Institute to evaluate the Enhancing Children’s Outcomes (EChO) program.

EChO is a targeted approach within Goodstart’s Social Inclusion Strategy that builds on the organisation’s universally available early learning and care programs. It uses an enhanced service delivery model to provide wrap around intensive and sustainable resources to Goodstart Early Learning Centres located in communities where children are vulnerable to poor outcomes.

Led by CCCH, the EChO evaluation aims to demonstrate how and to what extent the program is achieving its intended outcomes and is creating the right conditions for:

• high quality provision of early learning
• high family engagement
• strong links between in-centre and home learning
• better links to community resources
• high staff engagement through mentoring
• strong leadership; and
• better outcomes for children.

The findings will inform Goodstart’s ongoing program implementation, as well as the continuing development of the organisation’s inclusion policy and practices. It is anticipated that the research findings will be of relevance to other early learning and care providers and will make a contribution to the literature in relation to service provision in communities where children are vulnerable to poor outcomes.

This work strongly aligns with the CCCH commitment to building a robust evidence base for how early years services can support the wellbeing of vulnerable children and families in our community.

For more information visit the Enhancing Children’s Outcomes Program (EChO) Evaluation website.