Evaluating behaviour support services
This project developed a monitoring and evaluation framework for the Mansfield Autism Practitioner (MAP) service.
Evaluating behaviour support services provided in-home for Victorian children with autism and their families under NDIS
Mansfield Autism Statewide Services (MASS) commissioned the Centre for Program Evaluation (CPE) to develop a monitoring and evaluation framework for the Mansfield Autism Practitioner (MAP) service. The MAP service provides home based practical support to families living with autism. The framework is a plan that will help MASS evaluate the service and understand how well it is working and what can be improved.
To prepare the framework, the research team completed the following activities:
- talked to MASS to understand how the MAP service works and how it can support children with autism and their families.
- looked for research about how to evaluate autism services and programs.
- looked at how MASS was evaluating the MAP service.
- suggested a plan for MASS to evaluate the MAP service, and talked to MASS and parents to see what they thought about it. The plan includes questions for children with autism and their families, and activities that MASS can do to better understand how well the MAP service is working for children and their families, and if there are aspects of the service that MASS can improve.
Findings
The research team found that it is important to know if the MAP service is helping children and their families improve their quality of life.
A better quality of life means that they are happy and satisfied with their lives, and they are able to participate in the community in the way they want to. The team found several ways to measure quality of life that MASS can use (see the full report for details).
Next steps
These are the activities that MASS can do next to continue the evaluation of the MAP service:
- Adapting the questions about quality of life so it is easier for children and their families to let them know what their quality of life is. This will help MASS understand if the MAP service is helping families improve their quality of life.
- Doing interviews with children, parents, and other people in their communities. This will help MASS understand how helpful the MAP service is, and if there is anything they could improve.
Access the plain language summary here
Research Team
Centre for Program Evaluation