Accountability framework

Guiding principles

Accountability and evaluation are central to achieving the Strategy’s vision that Aboriginal children in South Australia thrive. They help to increase the likelihood that commitments made through this Strategy lead to lasting, positive change for children, families and Communities by ensuring that:

• Government systems and partners remain answerable for the outcomes they aim to achieve; and
• impact is maximised by tracking whether reforms and initiatives are working as intended and, where needed, making timely corrections.

Accountability

Accountability is about clarity of roles, responsibilities, and authority. It establishes a system where commitments and actions are answerable, where it is clear who is responsible for what and the parties or stakeholders to whom they are answerable, and who makes decisions. It outlines who follows up when actions are not completed, and how progress is transparently and respectfully shared and responded to over time. It includes clear agreed approaches for sharing, interpreting and acting upon findings with Aboriginal people, Communities, and organisations.

Improving early childhood outcomes for Aboriginal children occurs within a complex system, with responsibilities shared across governments, organisations, services and Communities. In this landscape, accountability is essential. To achieve our vision, we need a shared understanding of who is responsible for delivering actions, who is accountable for achieving results, and how progress will be monitored and acted upon. Strong accountability creates the conditions for commitments to translate into meaningful action, continuous improvement, and better outcomes for Aboriginal children, families and Communities.

Evaluation

Evaluation helps us understand what works, for whom, in which contexts, and why. Under the Strategy, it supports Aboriginal self-determination, strengthens decision-making, improves practice and systems, and identifies barriers and inequities. Evaluation under the Strategy is positioned as a tool for learning, improvement and shared responsibility — not compliance. End-to-end evaluation will be conducted in partnership with Aboriginal people, Communities, and organisations so that findings are relevant, meaningful, and support the people the evaluation is intended to serve.

Notably, accountability and evaluation are separate but interrelated concepts. You can be accountable even when outcomes are difficult to measure, and you can measure outcomes with shared or unclear accountabilities. The greatest impact occurs when these concepts work together: accountability ensures clarity about who will take actions, guided by insights gained from what we measure.

The Strategy’s accountability framework brings together governance, evaluation, monitoring, reporting and communication, aligned to the Theory of Change.

Governance

The ACGG provides strategic oversight of accountability and evaluation, guides priorities, advises on measures of success and supports shared decision-making throughout implementation. Further governance will be critical to the success of the Place-based Self-determination Funds and further co-design will be required in implementation planning, and delivery of many initiatives.

Communications

A critical piece in remaining accountable to Community is to ensure regular, clear and transparent communications and reporting on implementation progress and evaluation findings. This will encompass a wide range of fora, including preschool and Community amplification of progress, successes, and further opportunities. The practical detail for how this will be done, including communication channels, formats and intended cadence, will be informed by the ACGG.

Measures & reporting

Progress will be tracked using Closing the Gap Outcomes 3 and 4, alongside additional success measures and lead indicators identified through the development of an Evaluation Framework. Quantitative measures, such as enrolment and attendance data will be collected alongside qualitative data collected via stories, yarning, family feedback and Elders’ insights to provide a holistic picture of what success looks like for Aboriginal children, families and Communities.

This Strategy is also underpinned by a commitment to grow understanding and incorporation of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Aboriginal data governance in the work of the OECD, in line with Priority Reform 4: Shared access to data and information at a regional level, including through:

• Aboriginal involvement in deciding what data is collected and why
• shared authority over how data is interpreted and reported
• clear protocols for data access, storage and use; and
• a focus on data as a tool for Community empowerment, truth-telling and system improvement.

Over time, the Strategy will support strengthening of Aboriginal capability and leadership in evaluation and data governance.

Evaluation Framework

The Strategy is complex, comprising multiple cross-cutting long-term initiatives with distinct aims and objectives. This complexity requires a carefully considered and clearly articulated approach to evaluation that sets out what will be evaluated, how it will be evaluated, and when. The OECD will partner with an Aboriginal-led business or ACCO to develop an Evaluation Framework.

The Framework will guide how we measure success by providing clear direction on assessing the Strategy’s impact. It will articulate the expected outcomes, identify appropriate indicators, outline the methods for data collection and interpretation, and establish a timeframe for when each evaluation activity should occur. This will then ensure we are targeting our efforts to achieve the best outcomes for Aboriginal children and their families. The Framework will enable us to understand the overall effectiveness of the Strategy by examining its projects and initiatives in a cohesive, integrated way.

The Framework will:

• articulate how the Strategy is intended to work and the outcomes, noting the links between the projects and initiatives and how they collectively contribute to Strategy-level impact
• note the timing and phasing of initiative-based evaluations, by identifying how to sequence evaluation activities, including how formative and summative evaluation will be implemented over time and guiding future procurement activities
• set out the evaluation activities required to be able to assess effectiveness, implementation, and outcomes, and to support learning and continuous improvement across the Strategy
• describe the methods and data sources to be used, including the use of Community data sources and experiential evidence alongside quantitative data
• set out how evaluation findings will be used and reported, including how evidence will inform policy, program refinement, and accountability; and
• articulate the approach to Indigenous Data Sovereignty across the Strategy’s evaluation activities, ensuring they are aligned with data sharing commitments under Closing the Gap.

This approach recognises that meaningful change may be experienced locally before it is visible in population-level data.

Learning and iterating

Aboriginal-led research is critical to evolving our understanding of what works for Aboriginal children, families and Communities to achieve our vision that Aboriginal children thrive. The OECD has also allocated a 5-year funding stream for medium to long-term Aboriginal research projects, to be shaped by the ACGG and led by Aboriginal research bodies.

These components of the Accountability Framework together will enable reflection, adaptation and growth across all phases of implementation of the South Australian Aboriginal Early Childhood Strategy, and ultimately support adjustment to approaches or initiatives as needed to deliver on our vision that all Aboriginal children in South Australia thrive.

⁹ The South Australian 2024 baseline was 28.7%