Program Evaluation: Act for Kids
Status: Completed March 2021
Client: Act for Kids
Background
Flourish Education is a school-based counselling service delivered by Act for Kids that supports vulnerable children and is delivered in seven schools in the Moreton Bay region. The program, funded by Brisbane North PHN, responds to an identified need within the region to improve outcomes for students who are living with or at risk of neglect, trauma or abuse.
Act for Kids engaged Beacon Strategies in mid-2020 to undertake an external evaluation of the program in order to:
demonstrate the program’s impact
provide recommendations to strengthen the model
inform potential replication and expansion of the service model into other regions.
Approach
Our partnered approach to program evaluation meant we worked closely with program staff and stakeholders to develop an evaluation methodology to suit the program’s context.
We developed a theory of change and evaluation plan to outline the scope and intent of our approach, focusing on the program’s appropriateness, effectiveness, implementation, impact and sustainability. We then analysed program and client data collected by program staff, combined with insights collected through qualitative interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders including program staff, school stakeholders, participating students and their parents, and the program's funder.
The findings were then considered in the context of the evidence base around delivering mental health support in school settings and presented in a detailed evaluation report with a set of recommendations for consideration by Act for Kids.
Outcomes
The Beacon Strategies program team collated, analysed and reported on all relevant data sources supplied or otherwise made available, which were aligned to the evaluation plan submitted by Beacon Strategies to Act for Kids at the end of 2020.
The final evaluation report delivered in early 2021 outlined our findings, including that the service leads to positive outcomes for the children with complex mental health needs it can support, particularly around improved emotional regulation, reduced emotional and behavioural issues, improved social functioning, and improved attendance and participation in school learning activities. Other findings identified that:
embedded support within the school setting contributes to greater accessibility
the design of the program could be strengthened through a broader whole-of-school approach
the program is responding to a genuine unmet need identified by the PHN and could be expanded.
We identified recommendations to strengthen the model, particularly relating to deeper integration within the school setting and exploring a sustainable model of funding to sustain and expand the reach and impact of the Flourish Education program.
A summary version of this report to inform potential replication and expansion of the service model into other regions will be available soon.