Like others working across the social and policy sectors, CEI has had a busy few months responding to the changes and challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our multi-disciplinary team has quickly adjusted to new ways of working that support practitioners and services and minimise disruption to our global projects and partnerships. We are also closely following how the crisis is creating new social challenges and leaving already vulnerable communities facing further disadvantage. Read on to learn about how we are changing our methods to adapt in these unprecedented circumstances, how we are supporting our partners to make an impact, and how our diverse team helps us tackle new challenges.
Evidence and Implementation Summit rescheduled to March 2021
CEI and our co-hosts Monash University have rescheduled the Evidence and Implementation Summit to Tuesday March 30 and Wednesday March 31, 2021. We are pleased to confirm that our keynote speakers and various other presenters are all available for our new dates. Our program will continue to develop and we welcome the ideas and innovations that will inevitably come out of this complex time.
We will continue to add details to our updated EIS2021 website, so be sure to register there for updates.
Abstracts for the Evidence and Implementation Summit are open!
The review panel is currently receiving abstracts for the 2021 Evidence and Implementation Summit. We welcome abstracts for presentations, panels, and posters that address our five Summit themes, which range from tackling context differences to core competencies in evidence and implementation and approaches to systems change. Abstract submission details are available here. Abstracts close 23 August.
CEI hiring: two new roles in London office
We’re looking for two exceptional people to join us as a Senior Advisor and a Research Assistant in our London-based team. For the Senior Advisor role, we’re looking for someone to lead high quality evaluations and other work applying evidence and implementation science to service development and improvement. For the Research Advisor role, we’re looking for someone with proven skills in qualitative and quantitative research and evidence reviewing.
Common Elements: supporting a shift to online practice
CEI has been supporting a trial of the Common Elements Approach with frontline child and family service practitioners in Victoria since 2018. The Common Elements Approach uses discrete, evidence-informed practices to respond flexibly to the needs of clients. This approach helps build programs and services that can be better tailored to the needs of children and families.
The emergence of COVID-19 has seen a dramatic change in the way that agencies involved in the trial are working with their clients, with most shifting rapidly to delivering services via telephone. The Common Elements approach has been a key strength in supporting this shift in practice.
UNICEF Serbia: Evaluating UNICEF’s programmes for scale-up
CEI is currently supporting UNICEF Serbia, evaluating the processes the organisation uses to move from testing to scaling up programmes for children and families, and appraising the readiness for scale-up of key programs. “Modelling” – or testing – at larger scale in real-world settings is a key part of UNICEF’s scale-up strategy in Europe and Central Asian regions, and this evaluation of their approach aims to address the significant disparities in opportunities for children in Serbia.
Supporting a leading Singapore-based foundation to use an evidence-informed approach in its grant making
CEI’s team in Singapore has been supporting Singapore-based donor, Octava Foundation, to build capabilities in evidence-informed grant making and grant management. This will enable more robust sourcing and diligence of potential grantees and outcomes-focused monitoring and evaluation.
Randomised controlled trial of Family Drug and Alcohol Court intervention to increase parental engagement
CEI in the UK will be undertaking an implementation analysis and randomised controlled trial for What Works Children’s Social Care to test the impact of an initiative to support parental engagement with the Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC).
Developing an implementation science-based evaluation toolkit for domestic and family violence workers
Putting an evaluation and monitoring system into practice can be just as challenging as implementing a program. A poor system will result in data gaps and insufficient information to support decision making, while a strong system can be used to continuously improve initiatives and deliver widespread benefit. CEI is working with The Healing Foundation, a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation, and ANROWS (Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety) to develop an implementation science-based evaluation toolkit for WorkUP - the Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Workforce Capacity and Capability Building initiative. Specific emphasis on implementation strategies will enhance the likelihood domestic and family violence workers engage with, use, and benefit from evaluation.
Spotlight on CEI’s multidisciplinary team
Problem-solving at CEI is different because our team brings strength in a range of disciplines, from health economics to physiology to psychology, design, and strategy consulting. What our people have in common is their shared commitment to seeing policy and practice reflect the best evidence and ensuring effective implementation of what works. In this update, we highlight the diverse experiences of three of our team members in Australia and Singapore:
- Mian Yee Choy, Senior Advisor in Singapore: Mian Yee is a seasoned occupational therapist with more than 15 years of management and clinical expertise, who has worked with children, adults and the elderly across multiple disciplines and in both clinical and community settings. Mian Yee works on a range of projects at CEI including design, implementation and evaluation of effective programmes, practices and service models.
- David Taylor, Senior Advisor in Sydney: David is an economist with a background in public health and consulting. At CEI, David uses his quantitative and consulting skills to engage in a range of projects involving implementation, impact and economic evaluations. David is a PhD candidate (2022) at Monash University.
- Abhishek Easwaran, Advisor in Melbourne: Abhishek is an epidemiologist with experience in human centred design and has worked across sectors to deliver innovations – for example in national education agencies and hospitals – giving him a strong understanding of the challenges being faced across different areas of public policy.