Effect of Activated OSHC on physical activity and screen time in children attending Outside School Hours Care (OSHC)

The newly developed Australian Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) physical activity and screen time guidelines are intended to support children to achieve 15 minutes of physical activity before school and 30 minutes after school by scheduling 45 minutes and 90 minutes respectively of opportunity for active play. Screen time scheduling should be limited to no more than 30 minutes during before school care and no more than 60 minutes during after school care. “Activated OSHC” is an online training and accreditation program, aimed at improving adherence to the guidelines. The Activated OSHC program provides the following custom-designed resources: a) “Becoming an Activated OSHC” how-to guide: This guide describes the process of completing the components to become an “Activated OSHC” (i.e., all staff to complete training modules, develop an approved physical activity, and screen time policy). It is expected that the OSHC director and OSHC educators will read the “how-to guide”. The “how-to guide” takes approximately 25 minutes to read. b) Online training resources: A series of four online training modules using written information, interactive activities, short videos and quizzes will be provided. 1. Importance of Change describes the benefits of becoming an “Activated OSHC”. It describes the OSHC physical activity and screen time guidelines, the benefits of physical activity for children, and the importance of staff role-modelling of healthy physical activity behaviours. It identifies and addresses barriers and enablers that OSHC educators face when trying to get children to engage in more physical activity. 2. Making physical activity fun describes how to make physical activity fun and increase physical activity scheduling, including practical tips on increasing children's participation (e.g., avoiding lines or elimination games) and enabling children to choose how to be active (e.g., which games and how they're played). 3. Savouring screen time describes how to reduce screen time (e.g., when to schedule screen time) and how to provide active screen-based games rather than passive, sedentary screens. It also describes how to inform and involve families in the new scheduling changes. 4. Becoming an Activated OSHC examines staff knowledge of the OSHC physical activity and screen time guidelines, including scheduling, guideline limits, and ways to increase physical activity and reduce screen time. c) Posters: Printable posters reminding staff, children and families about the guidelines will be provided for display in OSHC services. It is recommended that services use at least one poster, located in a high traffic area, in direct view of children and staff. The posters will have a strong visual focus, with limited text. The purpose of the posters is to remind and reinforce the new physical activity and screen time guidelines for OSHC. d) Family communication resources: OSHC services will receive printable resources (brochures plus newsletter-suited text) they can use to help families understand OSHC programming changes, and support integration into positive physical activity and screen time practices at home. Services will be encouraged to hand out the resources to all families during the intervention period. The brochure will take approximately 3 minutes to read, and the newsletter content will take approximately 30 seconds to read. After completing the baseline assessments, participants in the intervention group will be emailed the web address to the Activated OSHC website. The email will include directions on how to complete the Activated OSHC training modules, and a video link to demonstrate use of the website. The training modules are self-paced and enable users to save their progress and return to the website as work capacity allows. Each module will take approximately 15 minutes to complete (60 minutes in total). OSHC Directors and Educators will be encouraged to complete the training. The online training modules are not intended to be time structured program so that it enables services flexibility to complete the training according to their scheduling, staffing and other commitments (e.g. National accreditation assessments). Instead, services will be encouraged to complete the training within 3 months of starting the study; with a reminder sent at 3 months if not completed. At the end of the study, website analytics including number of logins and module completions, and views of videos/content will be used to monitor use of resources