Introduction

Up to Closing the Gap: Northern Territory

Table of contents

Executive summary

Success Works has been commissioned by the Department of Health and Ageing, Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) to evaluate the Northern Territory Mobile Outreach Service (MOS) and the Mobile Outreach Service Plus (MOS Plus), collectively referred to as the MOS Projects.

The objective of MOS (implemented July 2008) was to implement the Sexual Assault Referral Centre Mobile Outreach Service for Aboriginal children, adolescents and their families in remote communities through the roll-out of culturally safe sexual assault counselling services. In November 2009, the scope of the service was expanded to become what is known as the MOS Plus program. The objective of the MOS Plus expanded the MOS objective to provide equitable access to timely, culturally safe responses to Aboriginal children, adolescents and their families living in remote communities, affected by trauma associated with any form of child abuse and neglect.

The stated outcomes for the MOS Projects are:

Improvement in social, emotional and psychological wellbeing and reduction in child abuse-related trauma of Aboriginal children in remote communities through access to, and provision of best-practice clinical and psychosocial counselling services and mobile forensic sexual assault medical services; and
Increase in the safety of families and communities for children.

The evaluation is to assess the implementation of the MOS Projects model and its impact and outcomes for the target population. The research will identify the strengths and achievements of the MOS Projects, as well as the challenges and areas where changes could improve outcomes for Aboriginal children and their families in remote areas of the Northern Territory.

This document provides an overview of the evaluation process:

The project logic provides a summary of the logic underpinning the program. The project logic is a visual representation of the relationship between the various components of a program. The components include the program inputs, the program activities, the outputs of the program and the outcomes expected in the short, medium and long term. The project logic is a schematic representation highlighting the "logic" by which the program is expected to work. The outputs and outcomes identified in the logic model become the evaluation questions which in turn drive the data collection tools.
The project interactive framework provides another key process to understand how the program works. This Framework was developed by Success Works and recognises that program outcomes will be affected by a range of variables at a range of levels and by the interaction between those variables. The Interactive Framework is an acknowledgement of the complexity of attributing and understanding program outcomes and ensures that data is collected which allows each of the variables at each level and location to be identified. In this regard, the Interactive Framework is a tool that allows the capture and consideration of the influences of factors outside the direct control of the program.
The evaluation questions indicate the range of questions to be answered, and data sources and evaluation tools that will be used to answer each question.
The project timetable indicates the key activities of the evaluation and their timeframes.

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