Table 1 Description of Play Active strategies and process measures for intervention services
Intervention | Mode of delivery | Dose and timeframe | Description | Process measures and results | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Â | Â | Â | Â | Fidelitya | Reacha | Acceptability |
Physical activity policy | Email and word document | One email as part of group allocation notification | ECEC service directors were sent the policy document when being notified of their group allocation | 100% of services were sent the policy | At post-intervention, 75% of educators knew their service had a policy and 99% of these knew where to find their policy | 83% of educators and 78% of directors were satisfied or very satisfied with Play Active. 58% of directors found Play Active very useful or extremely useful. Directors also reported their educators found Play Active useful (75%), were willing to engage with Play Active (85%), understood the policy recommendations (83%), were confident to apply the recommendations (75%), were enthusiastic about Play Active (63%)b |
Implementation support strategies | ||||||
 (i) Personalise policy | Email and phone | After receiving the policy document, services were contacted weekly to a maximum of 2 months to remind them to personalise their policy and return it for review and approval | ECEC directors were asked to personalise their policy template to suit their service and then return a copy to Play Active team. Services were asked to select a minimum of 5 of 25 practices to prioritise during the implementation period. ECEC services were encouraged to select their five practices from seven ‘high impact and low effort’ practices identified in previous testing [19] | Overall, 100%: 95% of intervention services were contacted for policy personalisation and review and two services were not contacted as they returned their policy prior to the planned first contact | 100% of services personalised the policy. Services took a mean of 32 days to return their policy (min 7, max 62, median 27, IQR 26) | N/A |
 (ii) Policy review & approval | Review/approval process completed within one week of receipt of personalised policy. Approved policy document sent back to directors | Two Play Active project officers independently reviewed and approved policies. A third project officer resolved any concerns or disputes The minimum approval criteria were the personalised policy contained: two (out of two) key statements; nine (out of nine) recommendations; and at least five (out of 25) practices | 100% of policies were reviewed and approved | 100% of services selected at least five practices | N/A | |
 (iii) Resource guide | Post and email | After policy approval, services were mailed a hard copy resource guide. A PDF copy was provided upon request via email | The resource guide was evidence-informed and included practical strategies educators could use to implement each of the 25 practices in the physical activity policy, evidence-informed explanations of what each procedure means, and signposting to various evidence-based resources for more information | 100% of services were sent a hard copy resource guide | 54% of educators reported they had used the resource guide. Of these, 4% used it once, 4% used it less than once a month, 51% used it a few times each month, 21% used it once a week, 14% used it more than once a week, and 7% used it daily | 68% of educators who reported using the resource guide found it very useful or extremely useful |
 (iv) Brief energetic play assessment tool | Post and email | Printed copy provided via mail. PDF available upon request via email. Included as part of baseline and post-intervention data collection | Educators were encouraged to use the brief energetic play assessment tool to monitor and assess children’s physically activity whilst at ECEC | 100% of services were provided with the energetic play assessment tool as part of the resource guide and as part of data collection | 80% of intervention services completed the energetic play assessment tool at baseline. 75% of intervention services completed the energetic play assessment tool at post-intervention | N/A |
 (v) Professional development | Email and partner websites | Provider 1: Six online training modules (30–60 min each). Individual educators completed at own pace. Provider 2: Five service-level self-paced e-learning modules (3–4 h each), including up to 40 segments of content. Estimated six weeks to complete | Two study partners provided the professional development (Provider 1 and Provider 2). Training was designed to upskill educators in providing more physical activity opportunities for children in their care, including specific skills on developing fundamental movement skills and active play-based learning. Provider 1 training was provided to services for free as part of the trial. Provider 2 training was offered as part of the trial at a discounted cost of $99 per module (5 modules total) per service | 100% of intervention services were provided with welcome emails from the providers and access to the professional development | Educator level: 39% of educators self-reported they had used the Provider 1 training. Provider 1 website data showed only 11% of educators registered and enrolled in the course and only 5% completed the training. 13% of educators self-reported using the Provider 2 training. Service level: 30% of services had at least 1 educator complete the Provider 1 training. No services completed the Provider 2 paid e-learning modules | 84% of educators who reported using Provider 1 training felt the training was very useful or extremely useful; 12% felt it was moderately useful. 85% of educators who reported using Provider 2 training felt the training was very useful or extremely useful |
 (vi) Project officer implementation support | Phone | Mid-implementation (1.5–2 months) phone call to directors, maximum three phone call attempts | A mid-implementation ‘check-in’ with service directors to determine whether policy implementation had commenced, discuss any challenges they were facing, and check they had received the resources and professional development providers welcome emails | 100% of intervention services were attempted to be contacted at mid-implementation | 88% of services provided information on their implementation of Play Active at the mid-implementation check in | N/A |