Date: June 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009), Cycle 2 (2012), Cycle 3 (2015), Cycle 4 (2018), Cycle 5 (2021)
States: NSW, QLD, VIC
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: The Paul Ramsay Foundation
The Paul Ramsay Foundation is interested in learning more about the applicability of synthetic control modelling to its various initiatives. Synthetic control method analysis of The Hive intervention in four NSW communities: Bidwill, Lethbridge Park, Tregear, Willmot. The Hive is a place-based collective impact initiative focused on the early years of a child’s and is guided by a community-centred approach. It focuses on ensuring access to health screening and quality early childcare education and creating safe, empowered communities. The Hive operates in four communities in Sydney: Bidwill, Lethbridge Park, Tregear, Willmot. The goal of the project is to conduct evaluation of The Hive initiatives by comparing the trends in the relevant educational outcomes (such as share of students developmentally on track in all the domains) by comparing them with a synthetic counterfactual, algorithmically constructed from all other communities in NSW and Victoria.
Date: June 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009), Cycle 2 (2012), Cycle 3 (2015), Cycle 4 (2018), Cycle 5 (2021)
States: VIC
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: Victorian Department of Health
The aim of the project is to develop and maintain a sustainable Power Bi dashboard to report on measures documented in the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Outcomes Framework. The purpose of the outcomes framework, and this dashboard, is to provide a single point of access to contemporary population health and wellbeing outcome data that illustrates changes in outcomes and inequalities over time and by demographic breakdowns. This dashboard will also be used to guide policy decisions, local level planning and to provide data for use in key reports. The outcomes framework includes 118 measures compiled from existing data sources, covering a wide range of population health and wellbeing topics, including determinants of health. One of the measures in the outcomes framework is 3.1.1.1 Proportion of children at school entry who are developmentally on track on all five domains of the Australian Early Development Census.
Date: June 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 3 (2015), Cycle 4 (2018), Cycle 5 (2021)
States: ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: Inside Policy
Inside Policy has been engaged by the Commonwealth Department of Education and Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care to undertake a mid-term evaluation of the Connected Beginnings program. Inside Policy is evaluating 25 of the Connected Beginnings sites nation-wide.
Date: January 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 5 (2021)
States: SA
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: SA Department of Education
This project will display the geospatial layer of the 2021 AEDC data on Location SA - https://location.sa.gov.au/viewer. Location SA is the output of a collaboration of South Australian government agencies and related organisations, working together to use geospatial data – data that has an associated geographic component – to improve community services and support South Australia’s economic priorities. It houses a web platform of authoritative geospatial data in the ‘Map Viewer’. This is a public-facing application enabling stakeholders to visualise data in the Location SA repository to inform policy, planning and programs.
Date: January 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009), Cycle 2 (2012), Cycle 3 (2015), Cycle 4 (2018), Cycle 5 (2021)
States: ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA
Data Linkage Project: Yes
Organisation: Department for Education, South Australia
Analysis and description of trends over time for jurisdictions, SES factors and geographical spread/range.
Research questions include:
- What are the trends over time in AEDC outcomes (vulnerability plus special needs counts and
proportions) for jurisdictions, across changes or stability in community and parent education
SES indicators? - How wide (what was the range) and how consistent (common patterns in same area over
time) was the geographical spread / distribution of AEDC results over jurisdictions and within
SES indicators?
Date: January 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 2 (2012), Cycle 3 (2015), Cycle 4 (2018)
States: VIC
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: Sexton Consulting as a contractor of Greater Shepparton City Council
Greater Shepparton has been utilising AEDC data since a pilot project in 2008 and subsequently in every national roll-out since to inform its Municipal Early Years Best Start Plan.
Date: January 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009), Cycle 2 (2012), Cycle 3 (2015), Cycle 4 (2018)
States: NSW
Data Linkage Project: Yes
Organisation: University of New South Wales (Sydney)
The NSW Child E-Cohort Project for Healthy Child Development will generate real-world evidence to inform policy and practice that supports better health, development and wellbeing outcomes for all children in NSW, particularly disadvantaged children. Health and human services data will be ‘joined up’ for >1.6 million NSW children born since 2001, and their parents. These data will be used to gain a better understanding of the health, social and economic circumstances of children and families, including their health and human services use, and how these experiences relate to the health, development and wellbeing of children and families. These data will also be used to develop risk prediction models that identify children and families at high risk of poor health, development and social outcomes, who may benefit from targeted interventions.
Date: January 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009), Cycle 2 (2012), Cycle 3 (2015), Cycle 4 (2018)
States: ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: Department of Home Affairs
Understanding the early development outcomes of Australian children (domestic status- Australian citizens, permanent migrants and eligible NZ visa holders) by Country of birth using data on the 5 AEDC domains (Physical health, Social competence, Emotional maturity, Language and Cognitive skills, and Communication) compared to other Australian children.
Date: January 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009), Cycle 2 (2012), Cycle 3 (2015), Cycle 4 (2018)
States: NSW
Data Linkage Project: Yes
Organisation: Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney.
This program of research is a continuation of work by the research team, who were previously situated at the Kolling Insitute examining emerging issues of child health, prenatal origins and early childhood development and beyond. The overall focus of this program of work is to produce policy-relevant evidence to improve health and development of children and young people.
The aims of this project are to:
- Assess the burden of disease, describe the frequency and annual trend of infants with each condition/intervention in NSW
- Assess maternal and infant characteristics and risk factors of infants with each condition (maternal, labour and birth characteristics, demographic and socioeconomic factors, care received)
- Examine health outcomes, health service utilisation and associated costs for infants with and without each condition/ intervention
- Investigate association between presence of condition/ intervention and developmental, educational, neurodevelopmental and mental health outcomes.
Date: January 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 4 (2018)
States: VIC
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
The primary objective of the project is to evaluate to what extent Goodstart Early Learning's Enhancing Children’s Outcomes (EChO) program is achieving its intended aim to enhance vulnerable children’s learning, development and well-being, so that they successfully transition to school. The evaluation study involves comparing a cohort of children who attended Goodstart centres where EChO is implemented with a comparison group from Goodstart centres where EChO is not implemented.
Date: January 2024
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009), Cycle 2 (2012), Cycle 3 (2015), Cycle 4 (2018)
States: WA
Data Linkage Project: Yes
Organisation: Western Australian Department of Treasury
Target 120 is a Western Australia-wide early intervention and intensive support program. The program is delivered by the Department of Communities (Communities), and provides young people at risk of becoming repeat offenders and their families with coordinated and timely access to the right services, with the goal of reducing reoffending. The Departments of Justice and Education, and WA Police have partnered with Communities to assist with the practical delivery of the program.
The Department of Treasury's (Treasury) role is to perform specialist analytical work for Communities to set baselines for the Target 120 program, better inform program managers about the way young people at risk engage with government services, and evaluate the program’s performance. Treasury is requesting access to selected AEDC variables for the Target 120 analysis.
To inform and refine the Target 120 program, the research questions are:
- What service use characteristics, risk factors, and protective factors are most closely correlated with the risk of reoffending in children and young people?
- How are children who are at risk of offending (and qualified to participate in the Target 120 program) distributed geographically and demographically in Western Australia?
- Based on actuarial projections, what are the likely future costs to the government of Target 120-eligible young people?
Date: December 2019
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009)
States: NSW
Data Linkage Project: Yes
Organisation: University of New South Wales, Sydney
The New South Wales Child Development Study (NSW-CDS) is an established state population cohort of 91,635 children being followed from pre-birth into early adulthood via successive waves of record linkage to determine risk and protective factors for health, educational, social, child protection and criminal justice outcomes in adolescence and adulthood (Carr et al., 2016; Green et al., 2018). This umbrella program of research uses linkage for an intergenerational cohort, to bring together State and Commonwealth administrative records up to the child’s age ~16 years – spanning vital statistics, education, health, community and social services, and criminal justice system contacts for children and their parents – with two cross-sectional assessments for the child cohort at age 5 years (i.e., the 2009 Australian Early Development Census [AEDC]; Brinkman et al., 2007) and age 11 years (i.e., the 2015 Middle Childhood Survey [MCS]; Laurens et al., 2017).
Date: December 2019
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 3 (2015)
States: TAS
Data Linkage Project: Yes
Organisation: Telethon Kids Institute
All Australian States and Territories provide universal health and education services for children under the age of five. The need for these services is underlined by the latest AEDC national figures, which show that one in five children are behind in their development when they start school at the age of five.
This project will assess the impact of universal health and education service use on child development at age 5 in Tasmania. The information will provide partners with a whole of population view of the impact of service use on child outcomes, taking risk and protective factors into account.
Only when children's pathways through services are known and linked to child outcomes can Tasmania begin to address service gaps and usage rates, tackle inequalities and improve children's health and wellbeing, education and care before they start full time school.Date: October 2016
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009), Cycle 2 (2012), Cycle 3 (2015)
States: NT
Data Linkage Project: Yes
Organisation: Menzies School of Health Research
Using AEDC data with a range of other datasets, including health and child protection data, this project examines the population dynamics of early childhood development and learning pathways in the Northern Territory. The project, led by the Menzies School of Health Research, is driven by the Northern Territory Government’s policy focus on the improvement of children’s health, wellbeing, and learning outcomes. The findings from the study will provide the evidence-base to guide policy and programs and contribute to the enhancement of child development outcomes in the region.
Date: October 2016
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 3 (2015)
States: WA
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: Centre for Social Impact, University of Western Australia
This study, commissioned by the Western Australian Department for Regional Development Regional Services Reform Regional Services Reform Unit (RSRU), aims to map, evaluate and analyse levels of expenditure and outcomes based on the indicators outlined in the Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (OID) report.
As the AEDC is an indicator for the Early Child Development target area in the OID report, the study uses AEDC data to evaluate and assess outcomes in early childhood development in Kimberley and Pilbara, regions identified as having high levels of government expenditure and low performance on a range of outcomes, including health, education, employment and imprisonment.
The study will inform policy and funding decisions, and evaluation of the effectiveness of education and training programs in these regions. In the long-term, the study aims to build a database to track progress towards overcoming Indigenous disadvantage.
Date: May 2015
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 1 (2009), Cycle 2 (2012)
States: QLD, TAS
Data Linkage Project: Yes
Organisation: Australian Bureau of Statistics
The project aims to inform decision making by providing a solid evidence base around educational pathways and outcomes and how they are moderated by socio-economic, demographic and familial characteristics. The study will link data from the Australian Early Development Index Dataset to data from the 2011 Census of Population and Housing, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection, and Government school enrolments data from Tasmania and Queensland. Linking AEDI and Census data will provide a more comprehensive assessment of the impact of personal, family, social and economic characteristics on early childhood development and educational outcomes (such as school achievement) over time.
Date: November 2014
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 2 (2012)
States: NSW
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: NSW Ministry of Health
The Health of People in NSW: Report of the Chief Health Officer series has been produced regularly since 1996. The 2014 edition highlights the health of children and young people aged 0-24 years in NSW. It applies a data-driven, population health approach to describe key health issues and health risk factors for this population group. It also provides information on available interventions for improving the health and wellbeing of NSW children and young people.
NSW at a Glance, which provides an executive summary of the report, can be downloaded here.
Further details about indicators related to the health of NSW children and young people can be found on Health Statistics NSW.
Date: May 2014
AEDC Cycle: Cycle 2 (2012)
States: NSW
Data Linkage Project: No
Organisation: Debbie Plath Consulting
Got It! is a NSW specialist mental health early intervention pilot program for children in Kindergarten to Year 2 (5-8 yrs) who display emerging conduct problems at a time when intervention is likely to be most effective and in a context where children and families can be actively engaged within the school setting.
A comprehensive mixed-method methodology was used to independently evaluate the Got It! program and process, outcome and cost analyses were completed. Results indicate that Got It! has demonstrated the capacity to produce positive outcomes through a combination of universal and targeted components.
AEDI data informed the evaluation of Got It! by providing background, contextual data on the prevalence of externalising behaviour concerns amongst children at school entry age in Australia. The data is presented alongside other Australian and international data on behaviour concerns and conduct disorder in children.
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