Quality Assurance

Early Days takes quality seriously. All aspects of program development and delivery are subjected to quality assessment and continual improvement. 

Quality assured workshop programs

To ensure our programs meet the needs of parents and carers, Early Days workshops are developed in partnership with our providers, and undergo continuous review following facilitator and consumer feedback.

In addition, all Early Days workshops are subjected to rigorous quality assurance to ensure they reflect the best available scientific evidence and accepted clinical practice in caring for and promoting the development of children on the Autism spectrum.

The process includes internal review by members of the Early Days Content Group and independent external review by at least two members of the Early Days Expert Panel.

Members of our Panel include nationally and internationally recognised figures in Autism, disability, parenting and early childhood intervention.

• Dr Gina Green, San Diego State University
• Emeritus Prof Alan Hudson, School of Health Sciences, RMIT University
• Assoc Prof Deb Keen, Deputy Dean Research Faculty of Education, Griffith University
• Christine Kendall, Speech Pathologist, Spectrum Speech
• Prof Sue Leekam, Durham University, UK
• Dr Janine Manjiviona, Psychologist
• June McLoughlin, Director of Policy and Service Development at the Centre for Community Child Health
• Dr Jacqui Roberts, The University of Sydney
• Prof Sally Rogers, MIND Institute at UC Davis
• Val Spence, Consultant

Quality assured workshop delivery

The Early Days National Coordinator, the Parenting Research Centre, is responsible for ensuring that participants of Early Days workshops receive a high quality learning experience. Key elements of this part of our quality assurance include:

• Selecting providers who have recognised experience and capability to work with families of young children who have an Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Approving only Early Days facilitators who have appropriate professional training and experience, and have completed Early Days facilitator orientation and training requirements
• Establishing and monitoring basic standards and requirements for workshop delivery
• Creating and supporting a quality self-assessment process to ensure Early Days providers can engage in continual improvement in service delivery
• Centralised collection and analysis of consumer feedback
• Engaging in ongoing evaluation of workshop usefulness and effectiveness. Read more about our evaluation process