Evaluation of the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership
Yamagigu Consulting Evaluation Report
April 2026
Overview
The Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership (the ECCDPP) was established in August 2022 under Priority Reform One of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, which commits governments to formal partnerships and shared decision-making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is one of the first five national policy partnerships and the first to focus specifically on the early years.
The ECCDPP provides a shared table where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and government representatives jointly identify priorities, commission research and evidence, and advise all governments through the Joint Council on Closing the Gap. Co-chaired by SNAICC – National Voice for Our Children (SNAICC) and the Australian Government Department of Education (Department of Education), the ECCDPP brings together officials from every jurisdiction alongside a First Nations caucus representing the Coalition of Peaks and other independent members. Its purpose is to improve early childhood outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children by embedding community leadership in national policy.
The ECCDPP operates as a national shared decision-making mechanism across systems that influence early childhood development including child and maternal health, early childhood education, family support, and child protection. Its annual workplans focus on driving the development of reforms under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (the National Agreement), such as Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisation (ACCO) funding models, workforce capability, data sovereignty, and integration across child and family systems.
About the evaluation
This evaluation was commissioned by the Department of Education on behalf of the ECCDPP as part of its scheduled three-year review. Its purpose was to assess how effectively the ECCDPP is operating as a shared decision-making mechanism, to identify enabling conditions for success, and to support continuous learning as the partnership matures. The evaluation focused on both visible outputs such as governance structures, decisions, and coordination mechanisms; as well as the relational elements that sustain them, including trust, legitimacy, and reciprocity.
Yamagigu Consulting Pty Ltd (yamagigu), an Aboriginal-owned organisation, led the evaluation using a strengths-based, participatory, and learning-oriented approach. Oversight and validation were provided through ongoing engagement with the Co-secretariat and the ECCDPP members and partners.
The evaluation was conducted over three phases between June 2025 and January 2026. Data collection included document review (Meeting One through to Meeting Eleven), observation of the ECCDPP Meeting Ten and Eleven, 36 stakeholder consultations with the ECCDPP members, partners, Co-chairs and the Co-secretariat, and external interviews with sector representatives. Analysis combined inductive and deductive methods, using thematic coding against the Expanded Theory of Change and collaborative sense-making with the ECCDPP members to test emerging findings.
This evaluation captures the ECCDPP at an early and formative point in its lifecycle and therefore prioritises understanding Partnership Health, influence, and enabling conditions over definitive outcome measurement. Its findings should be interpreted as a grounded assessment of early system change and contribution, to be built on through subsequent evaluation as reforms embed and mature.
Key insights
The evaluation found that the ECCDPP has built strong foundations for shared decision-making and relational trust across governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, representatives and organisations. Members described it as a credible and maturing partnership that has strengthened coordination across national reforms such as Safe and Supported: The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-2031 (Safe and Supported). At the same time, the evaluation highlights that the ECCDPP’s influence remains shaped by the broader authorising and resourcing environments in which it operates. While shared priorities can be developed at the ECCDPP table, the translation of those priorities into action depends on how advice travels through government systems, budget processes, and ministerial decision-making. Variability in internal coordination, authorisation pathways, and system readiness across jurisdictions continues to affect the pace and consistency of implementation.
The findings show that system pace is shaped not only by bureaucratic process but by political timing. Government systems can move quickly when issues are framed as politically urgent; the ECCDPP’s strength lies in how it mobilises, sequences, and defends reform across these shifting conditions. The ECCDPP’s influence is not only in the reforms it designs but in the way it positions them such as building evidence, timing proposals, aligning partners, and maintaining legitimacy, so that when political windows open, solutions are ready to move.
The evaluations recommendations focus on strengthening the ECCDPP’s relational and structural architecture: embedding shared accountability and data transparency, formalising Partnership Health monitoring, clarifying authorising pathways, and building a federated reasoning framework to sustain reform. Together, these steps would support the ECCDPP as a model of mature, transparent, and enduring shared decision-making, translating the intent of the National Agreement into operational practice.