Supporting Parents Healthy Children (SPHC) evaluation 2020

The purpose of this document is to share the key findings from the 2020 evaluation of the Supporting Parents Healthy Children (SPHC) initiative. Emerging themes are presented to guide ongoing implementation of the SPHC Guideline and help inform a future workplan for the SPHC Across-Workforce programme project team.

Themes emerging from these interviews indicate that the SPHC project has made good progress in helping services implement the Guideline into practice. Interviewees identified a wide range of ways this has been implemented, including successfully establishing SPHC champions and dedicated project teams, supplying resources for staff and people accessing services and embedding the Guideline into workplace policies, service delivery and plans. Factors such as training, access to resources and alignment of values and priorities between workplaces and the SPHC initiative facilitated implementation of the Guideline in interviewees’ workplaces.
Similar to most implementation processes, staff experienced some challenges when embedding the Guideline. Resistance from staff and people accessing services, staff retention and continuity, lack of resources and time posed barriers to Guideline implementation and to achieving best practice. Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 created unique challenges and exacerbated some existing ones.