Best Start Indicators

Indicators are used to monitor and measure the outcomes of the Best Start project.

There are 15 Best Start indicators that are grouped under the domains of:

• Health and wellbeing;
• Learning and development; and
• Safety.

These Indicators sit in the broader outcomes framework.

Health and wellbeing

• Increased rate of breastfeeding
• Decreased rate of women smoking during pregnancy
• Decreased rate of children exposed to tobacco smoke in the home
• Increased rates of immunisation
• Increased attendance at maternal and child health
• Increased rate of children who are protected from summer sun
• Increased rate of children who participate in physical activity
• Proportion of children who clean their teeth at least twice a day

Learning and development

• Increased rate of parents reading to their children
• Increased participation in kindergarten
• Reduced absences from primary school
• Improved reading, writing and numeracy

Safety

• Decreased rate of re-notifications to child protection
• Decreased rate of unintentional injury
• Proportion of children whose parents report high levels of social support

The Catelogue of Evidence provides evidence based interventions for each of these Best Start indicators, see: Catalogue of Evidence 

The indicators used to monitor and assess outcomes have been chosen as the Best Start measures because they:

• are known to have a strong evidence base linking them to improved health, development, learning and wellbeing outcomes for children
• are collected regularly through existing data processes
• are susceptible to change within the short to medium term
• provide consistent measurement across diverse project sites.