SNAICC Early Years Support Evaluation – Final Report

Deloitte Access Economics

Acknowledgement

Deloitte Access Economics acknowledges the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea, and community. The country we live, work and travel on has been loved, celebrated, and cared for over many millennia by the people and their spiritual and physical ownership has never been ceded. We thank them and pay our respects to them, to their cultures, and to the Elders both past and present.
Deloitte Access Economics would like to pay respects to the following groups of people and individuals whose contributions to this project have been significant. Without their contributions, this evaluation would be undoubtedly much less rich, to the detriment of those working to support Aboriginal children and young people, and to sharing best practices and knowledge with Australia’s regional and remote communities.

• Early years services, who participated in consultations and the surveys. Their observations and feedback contributed to the research and evidence for this evaluation.
• The SNAICC Early Years Support team, who facilitated this project and its data collection process.
• Murawin, who supported data collection, data analysis and supported cultural integrity throughout the consultation process.

Executive summary

Deloitte Access Economics has been engaged by SNAICC – National Voice of our Children (SNAICC) to undertake an independent evaluation of SNAICC Early Years Support (previously known as THRYVE), over its pilot phase from 2022 to 2024.

SNAICC Early Years Support is a community-controlled intermediary program that represents and supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early years services. This support is centred in enabling high-quality and culturally responsive service delivery, which flows through to improved outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families, and communities. In line with this, the stated aspiration of SNAICC Early Years Support is: “to support and represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled early years services to deliver high quality, responsive, accessible and culturally strong supports for our children, families, and communities.”

The purpose of this evaluation has been both developmental (to support formative insights to improve and strengthen SNAICC Early Years Support in its establishment) and summative (seeking to isolate and articulate the impact and effectiveness of SNAICC Early Years Support). The first two years of the evaluation had a greater developmental focus, in line with the establishment and early implementation phase of the program. In the third and final year of the evaluation, this report brings a more summative perspective, providing an overview of the evidence supporting the program’s emerging impact and the conditions that contribute to outcomes being achieved, and examines the implications for the future impact of SNAICC Early Years Support.