Active Kids Evaluation Report (2018-2020)

Abstract

This report presents evaluation findings from the independent evaluation of the New South Wales (NSW) Government’s Active Kids program. Data are presented from the first 3 years of the Active Kids program delivery (2018, 2019, and 2020). Active Kids, the first universal voucher program of its kind, is an innovative approach to promoting participation in organised sport and physical activity outside-of-school among all school-enrolled children in NSW, Australia. Evaluation of the program was designed to help us understand the extent to which a universal voucher program can reach and engage children in organised sport and physical activity. The evaluation affords a unique opportunity to learn more about influencing the physical activity participation behaviours of children in NSW, the factors that affect participation and to understand health and well-being outcomes associated with participation. These population-level program evaluation data have not previously been collected throughout the sport sector. This evaluation also makes an important contribution to the evidence base on how, to effectively design, implement and evaluate complex, at-scale programs, underpinned by evidence, and reported in a way that is readily accessible and appropriate for policy makers and practitioners. The SPRINTER1 Group is a specialist academic research group within the Charles Perkins Centre and the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney. In 2016, the Prevention Research Collaboration established a policy-focused partnership with the NSW Government Office of Sport, entitled SPRINTER. SPRINTER led the pragmatic evaluation design of the Active Kids program in close collaboration with the Office of Sport. Through this collaboration, SPRINTER influenced routine data capture within the registration process for the Active Kids program led by the NSW Government - Service NSW and Office of Sport. The evaluation of Active Kids is registered with the Australian and New Zealand clinical trials registry: ACTRN12618001148268. The evaluation protocol was designed using the TIDieR (Template for Intervention Description and Replication) Checklist. A complete outline of the evaluation protocol can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.17061/phrp301220062. This evaluation received ethics approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Sydney (Project number: 2017/947).