Evaluation of an evidence-informed physical activity policy for early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Western Australia.

The Play Active program intervention involves providing ECEC services with a copy of a previously developed and tested evidence-informed physical activity policy template (“Play Active Early Childhood Education and Care Physical Activity Policy”).This will occur after baseline data collection has been completed. ECEC service staff (centre director and educators within centre) will personalise the policy so it is adapted to the suit the needs of their centre and attending children and families. This will occur over a two month period and is important for ownership and implementation of the policy. Once adapted, the physical activity policy is submitted for review and approval by the research team to ensure minimum criteria are met. The minimum criteria are for the policy to include: two (out of two) key statements; nine (out of nine) recommendations; and at least five (out of 25) procedural strategies. Once approved, the policy implementation period will run for three months. At the commencement of the three month implementation period ECEC services will be provided with a supporting informational resource guide (hard copy and digital) with practical tips on implementing their physical activity policy into practice as well as online access to free professional development training for educators provided by a partner organisation. The professional development training focusses on developing children’s fundamental movement skills and improving physical activity levels. This will involve six, 30-60 minute online training modules which educators can complete at their own pace over the three month implementation period. Intervention fidelity will be measured via an educator survey (and observation) to determine the degree to which strategies included in the physical activity policy are being implemented as intended as well as the use and utility of the implementation supports (i.e., resource guide and professional development training). To improve fidelity within the relatively short three month implementation period, ECECs will be provided with information on strategies in the physical activity policy which are likely to have high impact and require less effort. ECEC’s will identify which high impact, low effort strategies they will focus on during the three month implementation period.