Evaluating systemic change is difficult for various reasons. Systems have lots of different elements so change is not always obvious and happens at different times and at different speeds. Change isn’t linear so can sometimes seem to be going backwards as well as forwards. This means understanding the impact of the Early learning centres (ELCs) on children’s speech and language and emotional development could take years. Even when change is observed, it can rarely be attributed to specific activities or causes. As a result, we have chosen to take a developmental evaluation approach that focuses on helping the ELCs learn and adapt as they go. We are mainly focusing on how the whole system is changing rather than directly evaluating specific interventions or services. 

TA key part of our response has been the development of a Systems Change Maturity Model, capturing 10 systems change conditions which we believe will enable collaborative, long-term and sustained change. The maturity model sets out four levels of maturity with indicators of what progress looks like at each level for each system condition. Our evaluation methodology includes interviews, focus groups and document reviews to look for evidence of these indicators in the ELCs. This helps us assess their current level of maturity and identify particular areas of practice that need to be strengthened.