COMPLETED RESEARCH

Infoline mini review

Project team

Prof Gwynnyth Llewellyn
Assoc Prof David McConnell
Dr Alison Wicks

Project funding

The Infoline Mini Review is being funded by the Early Childhood Intervention and Coordination Program, Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care.

Overview

The Early Childhood Intervention Infoline is a telephone service available across NSW. It provides information about local early childhood intervention services for parents who are concerned about their child's development and for service providers for children with disabilities. The Infoline, which was established in 1998, is financially supported the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care, The Department of Education and Training and NSW Health.

The Infoline Mini Review is being undertaken to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the current service in providing information to parents and service providers about early childhood services. The Review is also an opportunity to identify the most appropriate means of transferring information to families.

There are 4 main stages to this Review:

• Stage 1: Review of current operations and Infoline reports
  The purpose of this stage is to establish a clear picture of current operational procedures, use of the service and reliability of information provided.
• Stage 2: Literature review
  The literature relevant to telephone information services will be accessed and reviewed using on-line databases, websites, and through communication with national and international colleagues.
• Stage 3: Consultation
  This stage involves consultation with Infoline users, including families and service providers. The aims of this stage are to:
  1. canvas the level of satisfaction with the current Infoline service
  2. identify alternative approaches and their relative advantages and disadvantages
  The primary research tool in this stage will be a questionnaire. Participants to complete the questionnaire will be recruited from Infoline users during a four week period and from service agencies througout NSW. Additional participants wil be recruited from exisiting agency meetings where the Mini Review is discussed.

• Stage 4: Recommendations for future directions
  This stages involves synthesising the information obtained in the previous stages to formulate recommendations regarding future structure and operation of the Infoline.

Anticipated outcomes

This project was completed in January 2004.