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Promising Practice Profiles

About the Promising Practice Profile process

Current process | Contact details | History | Reference group

The promising Practice Profile Process has been in operation since 2006 with three previous submission rounds and a fourth round announced in March 2009. The original Promising Practice Profile process was highly structured, incorporating a range of strategies aimed at introducing practitioners to the concept of Promising Practice Profiles and how to support a claim for a practice to be accepted as ‘promising’. The process has been simplified for the current round of submissions, with published profiles serving as a guide to examples of promising practice.

The current process – what happens after you submit your proposal

Proposals will be checked by the CAFCA Promising Practice Profile Officer for completeness and to determine that sufficient evidence is attached to support the claims of promising practice. If more supporting material is required, the CAFCA Promising Practice Profile Officer will contact the authors of a proposal so that more information or evidence can be provided.

All promising practice proposals will be assessed by an independent Promising Practice Profile peer review panel. The panellists’ job is to determine whether the practice suits its aims and is proven to work (the essential criterion). The panellists will also determine whether the practice demonstrates replicability, innovation, sustainability and/or whether it contributes to the evidence base, if this information is provided. When examining each proposal, the panel looks closely at whether the selection criteria are adequately addressed and whether there is sufficient evidence to support claims of promising practice.

The review process is semi-blind, meaning that the names of the review panel will remain anonymous. The details of projects will remain strictly confidential. Project details will only be revealed if a proposal has been deemed promising.

Projects that are not assessed as promising will receive confidential feedback from the review panel. Once a proposal has been assessed as promising, the Promising Practice Profile team at AIFS will use information contained in the proposal form to develop the Promising Practice Profile. The Promising Practice Profile team will remain in close contact with the projects while the profiles are being prepared, and projects will be asked for their endorsement before profiles are published on the CAFCA website.

Following the initial review by the CAFCA's Promising Practice Profile Officer, submissions requiring additional material or amendments will be returned to their authors. Authors will have two weeks to revise their submission and return it to the CAFCA Promising Practice Profile Officer. The peer review process and validation of practices as promising is expected to be completed by June 2009. Promising Practice Profiles will be published following final revisions and approval from authors.

Contact details

Please feel free to contact the CFCA team if you have any queries about the Promising Practice Profile process.

Fax - (03) 9214 7839

Post - Level 20, 485 La Trobe Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

The history of the Promising Practice Profile process

In the first three rounds, the Promising Practice Profile process involved five key aspects:

Call for proposals

Proposals were sought each year between 2006 - 2008. Figure 1 highlights the major activities undertaken across the first three rounds.

Communication and support

Over the three rounds, the Promising Practice Profile process was promoted in a variety of ways to ensure relevant information reached project workers and local evaluators in a timely fashion.

Communications strategies included:

Support strategies included:

Workshops and teleconferences

Practice profiles are a new concept to some practitioners in Australia, and the Promising Practice Profile is groundbreaking in its particular approach. As such, projects and services required some assistance to understand the Promising Practice Profile process and prepare a proposal. In Rounds 1 and 2, workshops were conducted in key metropolitan locations, while teleconferences were included in Rounds 2 and 3.

All project managers and local evaluators were invited to attend the Promising Practice Profile workshops and teleconferences, which were held according to demand. The workshops and teleconferences were designed to provide the participants with:

A Promising Practice Profile Information Pack was used to guide participants through the workshop and serve as a handy reference to assist with preparation of proposal. Half-day interactive workshops were held in Rounds 1 and 2. Teleconferences were also organised in Rounds 2 and 3 in order to engage more projects and services in the Promising Practice Profile (particularly those in rural and regional areas).

Internal review

Once proposals were received, they were checked for completeness and to determine whether evidence was attached to support claims of promising practice. Projects were given the opportunity to provide additional information prior to the validation process, and support and guidance were provided where necessary.

External validation process

All proposals were reviewed by an independent peer review panel. The Panel comprised three reviewers whose individual expertise, background and interests complemented each other and reflected important domains of the SFCS. The Panel had expertise in project evaluation, child development, parenting, social work and Indigenous issues.

A semi-blind peer review process was adopted, whereby the identity of the applicants was known to the panel but not vice-versa. The peer review process was applicable to evidence-based practice rather than academic review. The focus of the peer review was on the appraisal of the evidence of promising practice. In relation to each proposal, the panel was asked to do two things:

For each proposal the panelists completed a Validation Template which was developed specifically to assess the extent to which a project addressed the criteria in the Promising Practice Profile Proposal form. The template ensured consistency of approach in assessment and assisted in reaching a consensus view about each proposal. The Validation Template was based on the UK Quality in Qualitative Evaluation: A Framework for Assessing Research Evidence which was relevant for a range of types of qualitative evaluations including practice evaluation, policy development and appraisal, as well as evaluation of particular interventions, schemes and programs.

Dissemination

With the assistance of the project contact person, successful submissions were developed into Promising Practice Profiles. Projects approve all Promising Practice Profiles before they are presented on the CAFCA website.

Flowchart - Promising Practice Profile proposal process: Rounds 1 to 3

flowchart

Promising Practice Profile Reference Group

An integral component of the Promising Practice Profile process was the formation of a Promising Practice Profile Reference Group. At Round 1 workshops and through the e-valuate discussion list, a call was made to all Local Evaluators interested in joining the Promising Practice Profile Reference Group. The Reference Group met monthly via teleconference to:

The Group comprised:

Together the group represented a broad range of expertise relevant to the diversity of project initiatives.

Footnotes

1The E-valuate e-list was removed from the CAFCA website in February 2009. The Evaluator’s National Newsletter is now known as Evaluate in Brief.

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