Monitoring and evaluation will take place at two levels for the TIS program. It is expected that all TIS funded organisations will monitor their activities and evaluate project outcomes at a local level. In addition, a national evaluation of all the components of the TIS program will be carried out. There are two evaluators of the National TIS program. Part A of the evaluation will be conducted by the Cultural & Indigenous Research Centre Australia (CIRCA). Part B of the evaluation will be conducted by the Australian National University (ANU).
Six National Indicators will be used to assess TIS program progress. Each of these indicators is described below, along with the data sources described by CIRCA and examples of data collection methods. Click on any of the data collection methods listed under each indicator to learn more about that specific data collection technique. You can also find more monitoring and evaluation resources to help you here: Resources to monitor and evaluate your program
NBPU TIS strongly recommends that you collect both quantitative and qualitative data. This will allow you to address the National Indicators in full and tell the story of your successes. It will also ensure strong data for your own internal monitoring and evaluation of your activities as part of your continual quality improvement (CQI) process.
The outcomes related to this indicator are:
Data sources described by CIRCA are:
This indicator focuses on two aspects of your activity:
Numerical data (counts) of the number of community members and community leaders involved in or attending your activities/smoke-free events is a simple way of addressing this indicator. Social media analytics are also important. This indicator is concerned with increasing the reach of your activity, so if your project is working, the number of community members and leaders involved in your activities should increase over time. If they don’t then you will need to think about why this is happening. Do you need to find new ways to engage community interest? You might also want to think about how representative of community the people you do see at your activities are. For example, are there certain groups in your community you are just not reaching, such as full-time workers? How could you make sure your activities are accessible to everyone? Or it might be that all community leaders are now involved in your activities. In this case, maintaining their involvement will become a key task for you.
You also need to find out what people think about your TIS activities and if they have learnt anything new about smoking, such as ways to quit, or support for quitting that is available in your community. This is because reach is not just about the number of people who attend your activities, but about how many listen to and understand the message (the third outcome under this indicator). This kind of data can be either quantitative or qualitative, and can be collected through:
As this data is not directly captured by the six monthly progress report, it will be important to provide this information as part of the story around your activity (case study or success story). You should also give a description of what you did to engage the community, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t work and why. What are the strengths of your community and its leaders that have made this activity a success? You will also need to consider what the risks and challenges have been for your team, and how you have worked to overcome them.
Simple numerical data (counts) for each type of evidence-based population health promotion activity you do will address this part of the indicator. You will also need to record the location of your activities (e.g. neighbourhood, town or region). Activities of specific interest under this indicator are:
To avoid repetition, partnership working and collaborations developed do not need to be reported here. This information will be captured under Indicator 2. It will also be important to demonstrate (through your Action Work Plan) that these activities are evidence-based.
The outcome related to this indicator is:
There is simple data you can collect around the number and type of organisations, services or individuals you have partnered with as part of your population health promotion activities. Of specific interest are partnerships with:
As you can see from the data sources described by CIRCA, it will be useful to think about the purpose of these partnerships, for example if they increase your reach into areas within the region you are contracted to service, or priority populations including pregnant women, or people who do not typically attend ACCHS. You should also collect more detailed data which describes the quality and extent of your collaboration with different partners and how these partnerships have improved geographical or priority group reach, for example through case studies of the partnership journey.
Think about the quality of your relationships with the different organisations you have entered into partnership with as well. Different ways of doing this include tools that involve the grant recipient organisation and their partner/s individually assessing the relationship and then coming together to discuss and move forward. Examples of these tools include:
This information will be an important part of providing the story around your activity (case study or success story). What did you do to engage the organisations, what worked, what didn’t work and why? What are the strengths of your organisation and those you have partnered with that have made this activity a success? What were the risks and challenges and how have you worked to overcome them?
This indicator is concerned with community access to quit services. Access to healthcare services is only possible if:
If both of these are in place, we should see good uptake of services.
From the data sources described by CIRCA, you can see there is simple data you can collect around the number and percentage of staff in your own organisation or others, who have a focus on tobacco control.
This will provide information about the availability and capacity of appropriate services.
You will need to collect simple data (counts) of:
From these data sources you can see there is simple data you should collect around the number of events locally that you have supported to be smoke-free, how many organisations you have worked with to develop/improve smoke-free policies or to increase worker compliance with policies. You can also count how many homes and cars are smoke-free or, how many people have pledged to be smoke free. Good ways of doing this include:
You will also need to report on your own organisation’s smoke-free policy, including whether or not staff and board members comply with smoke-free policies:
You should also collect more in-depth data on understanding about what being smoke-free means and how important it is to people to try to be smoke-free. You can ask the people who smoke if they go without smokes at home, in the car, near their children, at work, or on other occasions, and how they handle smoke-free times. Good ways to get this information are:
Finally, you should describe how you have supported the communities in your region to become more smoke-free and how people have responded to these activities. You will also need to report any risks and challenges for your team in delivering against this indicator, and how you have worked to overcome these challenges.
This indicator is concerned with whether your activities are reaching and engaging priority groups in your service area. Some of these groups have been described nationally (e.g. pregnant women), however there may also be other groups of people which are a priority for your community (e.g. older men).
A simple count of the priority groups you have identified for your service delivery area, and the number and type of targeted activities you do for each of these groups will also be important (e.g. targeted health education sessions, targeted social marketing or targeted events). You will also need to report the number of people participating in these activities. Activities of interest include:
You should also collect more in-depth data to tell the story of the difference your activities are making for priority groups. This could include questions about new knowledge about the benefits of being smoke free, what being smoke-free means to them, and how important it is to your priority groups. You might ask mums-to-be what they are doing to keep their home and car smoke-free, if they are trying or intending to quit, and if so has anyone else in the family joined them on their smoke-free journey. Good ways to get this information include:
This will provide good data to support your case study or success story.
You will also need to report any risks and challenges for your team in delivering against this indicator, and how you have worked to overcome these challenges.
This indicator focuses on geographical reach. You need to show that the activities you do extend across your contracted service area and include community members who do not routinely use ACCHO services. Simple numerical data (counts) will address this indicator, and include the number, type and location of your activities. You will also need to report the number of people who attended. Specific activities of interest include:
You should also provide a detailed description of what you did to engage the communities across your service area, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t work and why. It will be useful to report this as part of your case study or success story. You will also need to report any risks and challenges for your team in delivering against this indicator, and how you have worked to overcome these challenges.
