However, 34 per cent of the evaluations did involve a pre-test/post-test design used to assess a program's effect on clients - the vast majority without a comparison or control group (Effects on users - outcome evaluation); 40 per cent focused their assessment on the effectiveness of the program at attracting participation from targeted populations and/or the generalisability of the program (Characteristics of the intervention); and 19 per cent of the evaluations attempted to document changes to the host agency that resulted from running the prevention program (Characteristics of the agency). While characteristics of the intervention or agency may be important facets of a comprehensive systems evaluation (Pietrzak et al. 1990), in isolation they do not constitute evaluations of the extent to which the program was able to reduce the likelihood of child maltreatment and/or promote positive child and family relationships.

Implications

It was apparent from the Audit that there had been an increasing acknowledgment by service providers of the importance of assessing program performance. From an empirical perspective it was apparent that a number of agencies had attempted to incorporate a degree of methodological rigour in the evaluation performed, although none could be classified as 'rigorous'. Given the previously mentioned limitations of applying empirical designs in situ (see the next section for further discussion), and the degree of expertise required to conduct such outcome evaluations, this is not a surprising result. Particularly when the majority of the programs were being run by grass roots agencies or groups (the so-called 'fleet' programs, Weiss 1988), who often had neither the financial nor personnel resources that would enable such an approach. Thus, many of the evaluations appeared to have been conducted more as a means of program refinement, to fine tune service provision (process evaluation), than as an attempt to demonstrate a causal relationship between program participation and long-term outcomes (that is, reductions in child maltreatment and other social ills).

Not surprisingly, it appeared that it was the larger non-government service provider agencies, government services (such as hospitals, regional health services or the state education department), and university-supported projects, that had more success at developing outcome evaluation designs that approached methodological rigour. These agencies either had the resources and staff expertise to undertake such an evaluation, or were able to fund an independent evaluation by external consultants.

Some of the larger agencies also had an additional option available when considering the implementation of a program evaluation. When a specific prevention program was operating across a number of individual agency centres, (for example, the Family Work Program run by various Burnside centres), the data could be aggregated to provide a greater quantity of information for the evaluation than could be produced at one site, thus strengthening the power of the evaluation to provide useful results (Tomison 1997b). To ensure such a multi-site evaluation was valid, required a standardised program implementation process, the adoption of uniform data collection methods across the sites and the adequate experimental control of any inter-site differences that might affect service delivery (for example, the client population, staff training and experience).

In summary, the findings indicated increased acknowledgment of the need to conduct evaluations and clear attempts to apply some degree of rigour to the assessment of program 'success'. The Clearinghouse is currently analysing data from a recent Australian National Audit of child abuse prevention activity which will enable a firmer picture to be developed of the nature and extent program of program evaluations that are currently being conducted by service providers across the country.

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First, some agencies fear that an evaluation, particularly an external evaluation, may produce negative results or indicate that their program is not successful. Although it is generally the case that any negative findings are balanced by positive effects, it is equally important to discover if a program or some of its elements are not working in order to refine the program and increase the potential for an effective intervention (US Department of Health and Human Services 1995). A failure to evaluate means that a program is operating without clear evidence that it is effective.

Second, it is apparent that although agencies and groups' attitudes to evaluation have changed somewhat, some service providers perceive program evaluation as diverting badly needed resources away from service provision, thus potentially harming participants and placing an additional burden of work on frequently overloaded staff (US Department of Health and Human Services 1995). Yet determining the effectiveness of a program and enabling the refinement or modification of service delivery will benefit participants who may not be receiving the services they need.

Third, the potential complexity and technical nature of evaluations, combined with a lack of in-house expertise and knowledge as to who can provide assistance (US Department of Health and Human Services 1995; O'Donoghue 1997), may often lead service providers to conduct only a cursory evaluation, or to fail to conduct any evaluation (US Department of Health and Human Services 1995). Fourth, evaluators have to contend with an inability to control important familial and program-related variables, the lack of a uniform standard for program success (Vimpani et al. 1996; Chalk and King 1998; Hutchinson 1999) and:

'significant methodological and logistical problems [including] difficulties in constructing and gaining access to appropriate sample sizes, limited availability of comparison and control groups, weak research measures and survey instruments, short time intervals for follow-up studies, and high attrition rates in both the interventions themselves and the evaluation studies. Some interventions that are in widespread practice have never been evaluated ... whereas extensive attention has focused on a few interventions in specialized settings' (Chalk and King 1998:15).

In the following sections the issues of randomisation and the evaluation of 'whole of community' approaches are used to demonstrate the difficulties of attempting to apply experimental control in applied settings.

Randomisation

Despite the empirical imperative to randomly assign participants to either experimental or control groups, random allocation creates the potential for participants who may be in serious need of intervention to be randomly allocated to the 'no treatment' control group. Many service providers will not agree to methodological considerations taking precedence over clinical and ethical considerations in service provision such that families requiring significant service provision are assigned to a 'no treatment' control group (Jacobs 1988; Bickman et al. 1997; Farmer et al. 1997).

Thus, the use of waiting list participants as a matched comparison group in a quasi-experimental study (that is, an accidental sample where participants are assigned to 'treatment' or 'no treatment' conditions as a function program vacancies) is generally seen as preferable by service providers (Bickman et al. 1997; Farmer et al. 1997). In addition, with the shift away from the traditional view of children and families as 'objects' of study, randomisation has also been seen as removing or reducing participants' freedom of choice to make an informed decision to participate (Heflinger 1987).

'Whole of Community' programs

Community-level interventions, such as 'whole of community' programs, the most recent generation of a long line of complex, ecologically-based, community-level interventions (Kahn and Kamerman 1996; Pawson and Tilley 1998), represent the greatest challenge to attempting to conduct empirical evaluations. They provide a clear example of program development outstripping evaluation theory and practice (Swerissen 1999), and present an opportunity to highlight the current role of experimental approaches in evaluating complex in situ programs.

'Whole of community' approaches, better known in the United States as 'comprehensive community initiatives' (CCIs) (Kahn and Kamerman 1996), are comprehensive, multi-level prevention efforts that typically maintain an individual or family-level component, but which also address the socio cultural context within which children and families live and attend to the various factors underlying social problems like child maltreatment (Hayes and Bowes 1999; Reppucci et al. 1999; Tomison and Wise 1999). Although these initiatives may take a variety of structures and forms, they all have the aim of empowering community members to participate in a partnership with government and the professional sector as a means of promoting the development of healthier communities. That is, they promote positive change in disadvantaged neighbourhoods for individuals, families and the community as a whole, by improving physical, social and economic conditions (Kubisch et al. 1998).

The US Committee on the Assessment of Family Violence Intervention noted that 'the emerging emphasis on integrated, multifaceted, community based approaches to treatment and prevention services, in particular, presents a new dilemma in evaluating family violence interventions; comprehensive interventions are particularly difficult, if not impossible, to implement as well as study using experimental or quasi-experimental designs' (Chalk and King 1998:59), an assertion supported by a number of other researchers (Hollister and Hill 1995; Midford and Boots 1999). The ability to conduct a rigorous evaluation is hampered by various design and constituent elements of community-based approaches (Chalk and King 1998). These include:

Implications

Overall, what is apparent is that 'the stark realities of providing services to families conflict with the ideals of experimental realities' (Vimpani et al. 1996:36). The current trend of framing service delivery in terms of cost effectiveness and efficiency (Rees 1994), (and the difficulties associated with addressing the issues described above via traditional rigorous evaluation), has meant that 'not only are programs, services and systems of care under pressure to demonstrate effectiveness, but so too are our evaluation methods and procedures' (Nixon 1997:2-3).

Given the difficulties inherent in conducting methodologically rigorous research, why is empirical evaluation still promoted? Is it realistic to judge evaluation research by the 'gold standard' of scientific rigour?

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Because empirical research has perhaps the greatest potential of current methods to demonstrate a causal relationship between participation in a program and subsequent positive outcome (Nixon 1997), some researchers maintain the belief that greater efforts need to be expended to ensure such studies are completed, in spite of the various hurdles that make such studies exceedingly difficult to achieve (Halbrook et al. 1997; Hutchinson 1999). Epitomising the empiricist position, Stevens contended that 'using large samples, control groups and looking at strictly defined aspects of experience which can be measured is the only way of providing strong evidence about outcomes or any other aspect of human life. Other methods are subservient' (1999:30).

Thus, despite acknowledging the difficulties inherent in conducting large scale empirical outcome evaluations, even by 'highly skilled researchers from very capable organizations', there remain many advocates who believe that 'problems notwithstanding, more controlled intervention research is clearly needed' (Fraser, Nelson and Rivard 1997:148). It has been posited that the continued emphasis on empiricism common in social science research and medicine is really a mid-20th century phenomenon (Crouch 1998). That it is still supported in the face of its limitations, is thought to emanate , in part, because of the influence of older generations of researchers who perpetuate an empiricist approach through their senior academic and professional roles, as 'gatekeepers' of academic institutions (Mishler 1979; Crouch 1998).

The difficulties of utilising empiricist approaches is also evident in medical research, with 'most research published in medical journals [being] too poorly done or insufficiently relevant to be clinically useful' (Godlee 1998:6). Godlee cites a medical survey (Haynes 1993) which reported that 'more than 95 per cent of articles in medical journals failed to reach minimum standards of quality and clinical relevance' (1998:6).

In spite of such claims, empiricism and the RCT still reigns supreme over medical research where 'any omission of statistical rigour from clinical research is viewed as an act of heresy, and, like the ideas of the heretic, the work of the insufficiently rigorous is banished from the scientific literature' (Crouch 1998:1101).

But are randomised control trials really an effective tool? Are the additional benefits they may produce worth the difficulties of applying the method to the study of complex, real world programs and social issues?

The benefits of randomised control trials

In 1999 McKee and colleagues made a comparison of 18 studies where an intervention had been evaluated by both RCT and non-RCT methods and concluded that while the magnitude of treatment effects differed depending on the method used, neither method gave consistently greater effects than the other. Thus, differences in effect sizes could not be assumed to be solely due to methodological differences (that is, the presence or absence of randomisation) as characteristics of the intervention, study population and/or participants' preferences could all impact on the results (McKee, Britton, Black, McPherson, Sanderson and Bain 1999).

Similarly, even with careful matching and random assignment, differential rates of participant dropout (that is, withdrawal from the program) in the treatment and control groups, may lead to significant group differences on important variables (Miner 1997). Rather than dismissing quasi experimental research, McKee and colleagues concluded that: 'RCTs and non-randomised studies can provide complementary evidence - but it is important that clinicians using this evidence are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each method' (McKee et al. 1999:315).

Some however, have argued that the issue for empiricism is less about the added benefits of randomisation, but more about the value of empiricism as a whole for the assessment of in situ social programs. Pawson and Tilley enquire: 'What is it about quasi-experimental research which leads even the very best of it to yield so little' (1994:297).

The limitations of empiricism

First, above and beyond the problems inherent in adopting empirical and quasi-empirical designs in situ, the efficacy of empirically-based outcome studies are further limited by a failure to delineate the programmatic elements that have led to 'success':

'Even if skeptics concede that the . . . treatment was effective, the active ingredients would remain unknown. Was it due to program content? The therapy process? The setting? The skills or personalities of the staff? Or to any number of other potentially relevant factors? Given that most treatment effects are unlikely to be strong, skeptics may simply dismiss any positive . . . findings as an anomaly, in much the same way that skeptics disregard statistically significant results from ESP experiments' (Hanson 1997:133).

Head Start was based on a 'whole of child' philosophy, and embraced a number of goals. Each Head Start preschool centre was designed to improve children's mental and physical health, enhance their cognitive skills, encourage their social and emotional development, self-confidence, healthy relationships and social responsibility, and foster a sense of dignity and self worth for both the child and family. Overall, the primary aim of the Head Start program was to develop children's overall social competence through the comprehensive provision of services. The most unique aspect of the project was the central role accorded to parents, who were encouraged to be involved in the planning, administration, and daily activities of their local centres (Zigler and Styfco 1996).

Despite the program's aim of improving both social and cognitive competencies, the empirical Westinghouse Learning Corporation evaluation was centred on a few standardised measures of intelligence and achievement. The findings indicated that previously identified increases in the child participants' intelligence scores, which were thought to be potentially stable effects, were actually only short-term benefits which dissipated quite quickly. It has been contended that these findings contributed to first, widespread disillusionment and disappointment among the proponents and supporters of Head Start, in some cases a belief that poverty was an intractable social ill (Jacobs 1988), and third, a subsequent erosion of public support (albeit temporary in nature) for the US early childhood agenda (Weiss 1983). Further careful evaluation, tailored to the Head Start objectives, subsequently identified a variety of other lasting program effects, such as children being less likely to fail a grade or to require special education classes, benefits which lasted until many children had reached the age of 12 years or more (Zigler and Styfco 1996). There was also strong parental approval for the program and the effects it had had on their children (Ochiltree 1999).

The Westinghouse findings have been used to highlight the limitations of applying science to the study of complex social programs, the dangers of reducing complex programs to a few scores, and the need to ensure that outcome measures are able to effectively measure the variety of objectives typically outlined in social programs. The study reinforced the need to determine not only if a program will 'work', (often such programs will lead to change in some children and/or families), but more importantly, why the program works, for whom and in what way (Jacobs 1988). Such 'big failures' (Jacobs 1988) enabled the adoption of more qualitative-descriptive methods (Patton 1980; Firestone and Herriott 1983) and a gradual move away from a primary outcome-oriented function; the 'systems evaluation' model (Pietrzak et al. 1990), was developed as a result of such early rigorous evaluations.

Resource issues

Third, prior to conducting a rigorous examination of effectiveness, prevention programs require adequate, longitudinal funding and sufficient start-up time to address procedural problems and to ensure stable program implementation (Nixon 1997). Given the current trend of funding predominantly short-term pilot or demonstration projects (Tomison 1997b), and a lack of in-house research expertise in many grass-roots service providers, many will not have articulated a set of goals and/or will be too inexperienced or overworked to collect anything above basic service utilisation data (Jacobs 1988).

Therefore, while it may be appropriate to expect that rigorous experimental or quasi-experimental evaluations are carried out by large, complex organisations operating prevention programs, it is unrealistic to expect that the majority of evaluations (the 'fleet' evaluations - Weiss 1988) will be able to develop an outcome study at anywhere near the level of the 'gold standard'. The adoption of a degree of rigour may enhance any evaluation, expectations must however be tempered by taking into account the level of resourcing, knowledge and expertise available to the grass roots agencies or groups that run the majority of prevention programs in the US and Australasia (Weiss and Hite 1986; O'Donoghue 1997). As one service provider noted: 'most of the small efforts made within community agencies are so questionable and easily challenged, however they do provide us with information. We must make do with what we can get rather than PhD research studies' (King 1998:5).

Some researchers (Parker, Ward, Jackson, Aldgate and Wedge 1991; Nocon and Qureshi 1996) have contended that it is perhaps more realistic to look for 'patterns of benefit and loss' when attempting to establish outcomes in both social care and/or child welfare, rather than to attempt to produce a uni-causal model (Frost 1989).

Replication issues

Fourth, even exceptionally well-designed empirical evaluations may have an important failing: such longitudinal, prospective outcome studies are exceedingly difficult to replicate. Hanson (1997) provides a description of the California Department of Mental Health's Sex Offender Treatment and Evaluation Project (SOTEP), (a long-term prospective outcome study of sex offender treatment), a study that was 'exceptionally well-designed, but its methodology has one important failing: it is almost impossible to replicate (Hanson 1997:133).

To conduct rigorous outcome studies require a significant commitment of time, funds, service provider cooperation and a 'rare confluence of research talent and political will that is unlikely to be repeated in the foreseeable future' (Hanson 1997:133). The opportunities to conduct the research are becoming fewer, despite the continued promotion of rigour. There has been a clear retreat away from large-scale assessments and evaluations of national demonstration projects and independent evaluations to internal evaluations, particularly in Canada and the US where there had previously been financial support for large, long-term, expensive evaluations (Rist 1997). Why has this occurred?

Difficulties in operationalising objectives and measures, the prohibitive cost of large-scale evaluations (smaller is cheaper); and the shift away from attempting to develop societal-level alternatives for social problems (and thus large-scale evaluations of these strategies) have all impacted negatively on funding bodies' willingness to finance the big studies. Rist argues that causation is no longer the driving force in evaluation research. Rather, there is now more of a focus on organisational performance and the potential for evaluations to produce continual improvement (Rist 1997).

In addition, that decades of evaluation research has produced very few scientifically useful conclusions has led to a reluctance on the part of service providers and evaluators to claim that a program or policy can lead to direct and explicit behavioural outcomes (Rist 1997). Evaluators have become much more realistic about what evaluations may accomplish and how they may be used (Rist 1997; Little 1999); program effects are now seen as being more likely to be 'indirect, long-term and cumulative' (Rist 1997).

Yet concomitantly, the expectations of policymakers as to what may be accomplished by evaluation are growing. They have the expectation that evaluations can help address issues of accountability and improved performance while the time available for an evaluator to respond to political needs for information is growing shorter (Rist 1997). The growing gap between expectations and performance may have resulted in a growing dissatisfaction with costly, prospective studies that are, at the end of the day, unable to provide the surety of 'fact' demanded by funding bodies.

Overall then, while there may always be a place for empirical 'flagship' evaluations with a broad outcome focus that may 'prove' a program's effectiveness, there has been some recognition that experimental rigour in isolation, is often an unsuitable means of evaluating social programs. This has become more apparent as service providers have adopted complex, multifaceted, ecological approaches to addressing or preventing what are complex social issues (Hollister and Hill 1995; Chalk and King 1998; Pawson and Tilley 1998; Midford and Boots 1999). As Pawson and Tilley contend:

'it is high time for an end to the domination of the quasi-experimental (or OXO) model of evaluation. Such an approach is a fine strategy for evaluating the relative performances of washing powders or crop fertilizers, but is a lousy means of expressing the nature of causality and change going on within social programmes' (Pawson and Tilley 1994:292).

If it is assumed that empiricism should only play a limited role in the evaluation of social programs, what are the alternatives?

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'the field cannot be improved simply by urging researchers and service providers to strengthen the standards of evidence used in evaluation studies. Nor can it be improved simply by urging evaluation studies be introduced in the early stages of planning and design of interventions. Specific attention is needed to the hierarchy of study designs, the developmental stages of evaluation research and interventions, the marginal role of research in service settings, and the difficulties associated with imposing experimental conditions in service settings' (Chalk and King 1998:60-61).

It has also been contended that to make the best use of evaluation activity requires an emphasis on 'developmental sequencing', rather than the one off evaluation of an intervention (McBride 1999). That is, evaluation is undertaken as a progressive series of analyses that build upon each other to provide a detailed analysis for service providers and other stakeholders. For example, Kirkpatrick (1967) described four levels of evaluation that could be undertaken, where the complexity of the behavioural change under investigation increased with the complexity of the evaluation strategy required. These were (from least to most complex):

Within this model, the complexity of evaluation issues, such as the timeframe for the evaluation, the availability of reliable objective measures and the number of potentially confounding factors all increase as the complexity of the behavioural change increased.

A general starting point for developmental sequencing would be the adoption of a comprehensive evaluation model like the 'systems evaluation' model described above (Pietrzak et al. 1990), where equal emphasis is placed on input, process and outcome evaluation. Jacobs (1988) developed a five-tier hierarchical evaluation model that provides a comprehensive evaluation framework.

The underlying assumptions of the program evaluation model are that:

Like Kirkpatrick's (1967) model, each level of Jacobs' model requires greater data collection and recording efforts, more precise program definitions, and a greater overall commitment to the evaluation process. Although the tiers are sequentially ordered, it is possible to engage in an evaluation at multiple levels simultaneously. If a program, or program delivery undergoes significant change, it is possible to return to the earlier phases of the evaluation model to make re-assessments. The five tiers are described below.

1. Pre-implementation

Conducted prior to the establishment of a program, this 'needs assessment' stage creates the conditions for all subsequent evaluation efforts. Here information is collected on identified social needs that justify the existence of a specific program in the target community (and the social/economic costs of not providing such a program), to delineate the basic program characteristics developed to address the identified needs, and to provide baseline data that can inform subsequent evaluations. The intention is to convince funders and the local community of the need for the proposed program.

2. Accountability

This level involves basic program monitoring via the systematic collection of data on service users and service utilisation. Specifically, it incorporates the development of an accurate description of the service provided, the characteristics of targeted participants and the systematic collection of information regarding service utilisation, the degree to which target population was successfully accessed and a basis analysis of program costs. This level of evaluation is effectively the documentation of program activities and not necessarily an attempt to investigate program (or participant) success. This tier provides enough information for programs to be minimally accountable to participants, the community and funding bodies.

As the manager of a small community family support centre struggling with the issue of program evaluation, King advocates 'bringing together a range of evaluation techniques that are not resource rich, that can be facilitated on the run and provide an adequate collage of information for planning is the challenge for the manager' (King 1998: abstract).

Jacobs (1988) notes that many grass roots agencies do not routinely engage in systematic data collection, often because they do not know what to collect, or do not have an efficient data collection system. Yet for small organisations in particular, documenting program activity - ensuring records are kept and are accurate - should be a valuable, achievable first step in evaluating their service delivery that may provide a richness of data that is relatively easily collected.

3. Program clarification

This tier involves the refinement of service delivery via formative or process evaluation processes that use previous data collection in conjunction with staff and participant feedback. The assessment of stakeholder/participant satisfaction and the provision of a venue for the beliefs, views, and feelings of the researched (Oliver 1997), 'has become a mainstream, legitimate activity that is frequently a required part of a grant from, or contract with, a purchasing authority' (Cooper 1997:13). In addition, the active involvement of multiple stakeholders (for example, staff, other agency personnel and participants) is advocated as a means of increasing evaluation validity and reliability (Nixon 1997; Stevens 1999).

Evaluation at this level is based upon assessing the extent to which service provision meets a program's articulated primary goals and objectives. The intention is to refine the program (and/or re-state the program mission, goals and objectives) in order to ensure that the needs of the local community are met effectively.

4. Progress toward objectives

Based upon the development of a comprehensive assessment of the program at previous tiers, this level represents the first focus on program effectiveness and a move towards objective measurement. This is achieved via the assessment of short term outcomes, having first derived measurable indicators of success. Where possible, these are based on standardised measures or psychometric tests; but outcome measures must first, reflect program goals rather than adapting goals to enable the use of standardised measures (see the Westinghouse Learning Corporation evaluation described above).

Thus, a combination of measurement strategies may be the best approach to adopt, where standardised measures are used together with program-specific measures designed for the evaluation (Patton 1978; Jacobs 1988; Kaufman and Zigler 1992; Clark 1997). The intent is to determine the extent to which participant progress is due to service provision, and more specifically, which elements or factors have influenced program and participant success - for whom does the program work, and why does it work?

Such an evaluation may be undertaken to develop broader community acceptance of the program, or to replicate or broaden the program (requiring additional funding). The contracting of external evaluators is common at this level, given the expertise needed to produce evidence on their effectiveness. Programs evaluated at this level are typically more established, having been in operation for some time. They are usually more experienced in service provision and have the time, interest and necessary financial support to collect and assess the required information.

5. Program impact

This tier is concerned with the development of empirical outcome studies capable of contributing to knowledge development in the field of child development, child abuse prevention or program evaluation (flagship evaluations - Weiss 1988). It is achieved via the identification of causative program-outcome relationships through the study of short and long-term impacts on program participants.

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'The incomprehensibility of . . . technical research reports - pages of tables, flow charts, and scales, with their standard deviations, n's, p's, mean scores, ranges, two tailed and other mathematical tests - acts not only as an intimidatory (albeit possibly unintended) device, but also as a mechanism by which the uninitiated are prevented from adequately debating the results and conclusions' (Wadsworth 1982:236).

The adoption of a rigorous, empirical approach to social science and program evaluation research has produced a substantial reduction in the methodologies deemed appropriate for use, 'creating a serious mismatch between the richness of what could be studied and the paucity of acceptable techniques' (Jacobs 1988:41). Yet the alternative application of evaluation methods can produce clear information on social problems that is able to be used in situ [that is, 'actionable knowledge' (Argyris 1993)]. The adoption of a comprehensive evaluation framework such as that proposed by Jacobs (1988) enables the adoption of alternative approaches and methods better suited to evaluating complex social programs, like those designed to prevent child maltreatment. In the following sections a number of alternative approaches are presented that offer a means of enhancing the current state of knowledge of the effectiveness of child abuse prevention and other in situ social programs.

Enhancing the utility of empirical research

In spite of the limitations of the empirical outcome study, experimental principles will remain as an important part of the evaluation of social programs. In most cases however, rigour and a degree of experimental control will be employed to enhance quasi- or non-experimental studies in 'fleet' evaluations (Weiss 1988). Fink and McCloskey (1990) contend that a lack of uniform definitions and accurate measures of child maltreatment have hampered child abuse prevention evaluation research. Evaluators have also had to contend with a lack of a uniform standard for program success (Vimpani et al. 1996). Thus, rather than adopting an alternative approach, one option for the enhancement of current evaluation knowledge is to make improvements to evaluation outcome measurement.

Defining and measuring outcomes

First, some of the problems encountered when attempting to evaluate programs can be overcome, to some extent, by use of more objective, standardised measurements, reducing the reliance on self-report data (Ainsworth 1998). There are a vast array of measures available; these can be adapted for specific needs, although with a resultant drop in reliability and validity (Jacobs 1988). Behavioural observation of participants by other family members, program staff, but particularly by an independent evaluator not familiar with the program (so-called 'blind' evaluation) will also reduce the effects of any self-reporting biases (Wood and Davidson 1993).

Second, it should be noted that it is generally very difficult to measure the global, community changes that may result from interventions, such as a reduction in child maltreatment rates, a drop in substance abuse or crime, because of difficulties in obtaining an accurate assessment (Tomison 1997a). Community change may take some time to become discernible via broad based social indicators and thus, there may be a need to develop more sensitive, local community-based or problem-specific indicators in order to detect changes at any earlier stage (McGurk 1997; Tomison 1997a; Little 1999). This should involve a focus on short and mid-term outcomes (Little 1999) and may involve the utilisation of 'coalface' indicators, that is, measures developed within agencies or programs that are routinely applied in order to determine service impact on individuals or groups (McGurk 1997; Tomison 1997a).

Evidence-based practice

Given the limitations of current child abuse prevention program evaluations, evidence-based practice may offer a means of establishing a reasonable body of research upon which to base a prevention strategy (MacDonald and, Roberts 1995; Clark 1997). Although traditionally based on the 'scientist practitioner' model, with data collected in 'true experiments' (Fink and McCloskey 1990), more recent literature has made mention of a number of other tools that can be employed to inform practice (MacDonald and Roberts 1995; Clark 1997; Stevens 1999).

Under an evidenced-based approach, the object is to identify all systematic trials, published or not, including those studies which produced negative effects or a null result. Information is also generated from routine practice, making best use of qualitative data and finding 'methods of synthesizing evidence from the widest range of sources available' (Clark 1997:2). Deficits in methodological rigour are therefore compensated for, in part, by the richness and quantity of the data gathered.

Theory-based approach

As noted above, the evaluation of 'whole of community' programs has been a major area of discussion. Although traditional, rigorous empirical designs continue to be advocated by some (for example, Farrington 1997), shortcomings in the empirical evaluation of these programs has stimulated the development of new evaluation methods, such as the theory-based approach, which are equally useful for less complex programs. The underlying assumption of the theory-based evaluation approach (Connell and Kubisch 1998; Pawson and Tilley 1998) is that any empirical findings are intelligible only if the context of the findings and the underlying mechanisms that give rise to them are known (Pawson and Tilley 1998).

In what has been described as the current 'brand leader' in the evaluation of community-based initiatives (Pawson and Tilley 1998), members of the US Roundtables on Comprehensive Community Initiatives for Children and Families (Kubisch et al. 1998) have advocated for the implementation of a 'theory of change' approach to evaluation (Connell and Kubisch 1998). This approach is defined as 'a systematic and cumulative study of the links between activities, outcomes, and contexts of the initiative' (Connell and Kubisch 1998:16), where the first step is to determine the intended outcomes of the program, the activities that will be developed to achieve the outcomes, and the contextual factors that may effect the implementation of the activities or their ability to achieve the desired outcomes (Connell and Kubisch 1998). The evaluation is thus, predicated upon the development of a clear consensual theory, the delineation of program activities and measurable short, intermediate and long-term outcomes.

An alternative theory-driven evaluation, one based on 'realist principles', is proposed by Pawson and Tilley (1998). At the core of this approach is the delineation of program context and the generative mechanisms that drive both the initiative and subsequent measures of outcome. The evaluator needs to specify how the program's operational mechanisms will produce identifiable patterns of outcome in given contextual conditions. Rather than attempt to evaluate the program in one broad-based attempt, the realist evaluator will examine the detailed theory underlying each step or phase of the initiative (this therefore needs to be clearly articulated), determining which facets can be evaluated and should be focused upon, and determining the most appropriate method to evaluate them.

As Pawson and Tilley (1998) note, neither of these two theory-based approaches necessarily means the total abrogation of quasi-experimental methods or measures. Many of the actual techniques used to evaluate aspects of CCIs may be quite methodologically rigorous. In a discussion of the evaluation of crime prevention programs, Homel and his colleagues advocate for a 'middle of the road' approach to the evaluation of CCIs (National Crime Prevention 1999).

Under their approach, theory-driven evaluations (Connell and Hubisch 1998, Pawson and Tilley 1998) provide an overarching evaluation framework and consideration is given to both community context and the generative mechanisms that lead to community change via the extensive collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. Homel et al. also propose the adoption of classic quasi-experimental methods; however, like Farrington (1997) they promote the use of comparison groups and multiple standardised outcomes, measured before and after implementation (National Crime Prevention 1999), despite the difficulties associated with applying such an analysis where CCIs are involved.

Multiple methods

Another alternative to the adoption of a classic experimental approach (that is, the use of control or comparison groups) is the use of multiple methods or triangulation - in essence, the comparison of data from multiple perspectives (Friedman 1997; Unrau and Coleman 1997). It is not 'a tool or a strategy of validation, but an alternative to validation . . . [it] is best understood, then, as a strategy that adds rigor, breadth, and depth to any investigation' (Denzin and Lincoln 1994:2).

As the name implies, in a multiple methods approach (Campbell and Fiske 1959; Patton 1980, Hammersley and Atkinson 1983), the assumption is that confidence in findings is increased if diverse forms of data, gleaned from a variety of stakeholders and/or a number of different data collection methods, support the same conclusion (Campbell and Fiske 1959; Patton 1980; Hammersley and Atkinson 1983; Huberman and Miles 1994; Stevens 1999). The aim is for each analysis to inform the others as a means of developing a clearer, more valid perspective on program success.

Action research

Action research can be described as a collaborative venture between an evaluator and service providers where the intention is to integrate basic research, program development and evaluation into a continuous, cyclical process. Perhaps best thought of as a form of process evaluation, action research offers a flexible, interactive approach where service provision and evaluation methodology are continuously monitored, informing the refinement and modification of service delivery and the evaluative process itself (Wadsworth 1982; Rapoport 1985). 'Whole of community' approaches, where the aim is to develop social capital and to enhance community connectedness and community ownership (Tomison and Wise 1999) lend themselves to a particular form of action research: empowerment evaluation.

Empowerment evaluation

'The most important benefit of the participatory and collaborative model of evaluation is that people make changes based upon the findings of an evaluation when they have been involved in generating them' (Cooper 1997:13).

Empowerment evaluation has been defined by Fetterman (1994) as using the process of evaluation to assist people and communities to achieve self determination and to gain control of their futures. The method involves the development of partnerships between an external evaluator and participants, with the latter taking an active role in developing and informing the evaluation, but also being trained in evaluation skills. Thus, the external evaluator acts as a facilitator rather than as a reviewer; as an advocate for disadvantaged groups, assisting them to take control of their situation and to make the most of available opportunities and resources (Fetterman 1994). Empowerment evaluation may lead to: increased staff cooperation with evaluations; increased staff understanding of evaluation reports; an increased likelihood that recommendations will be implemented and that future evaluation efforts will be undertaken (Fetterman 1994).

Empowerment evaluation is about 'doing with' rather than 'doing to'. Programs run in indigenous communities often appear to have adopted such methods. The historical practice of evaluators entering an Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait community, often without adequate consultation, studying indigenous people as the 'objects' of research, and subsequently disappearing never to be heard from again, has left many Aboriginal and Torres Strait communities feeling hurt, mistrustful of the research process and unwilling to subject themselves to it again (National Aboriginal Health Strategy Working Party 1989). Empowerment evaluation may offer a means of improving relationships with indigenous peoples and a vehicle to re-build trust.

Such an approach however, is often difficult to achieve and may not lead to any real change in the participant 'community' as a function of the significant energy tied up in the process of developing a participatory evaluation model. There is also a tension between the need to produce empirical evidence of outcomes, perhaps more the focus of the theory-driven evaluation approach, and an empowerment evaluation approach which is more about the process of evaluation research. Empowerment evaluation has been perceived as being an anti-scientific evaluation movement or philosophy, but not as an evaluation method per se (Sechrest 1997). Although supportive of attempts to teach service providers program evaluation skills, empowerment evaluation is seen by some as merely an approach to teaching evaluation skills, not a form of evaluation in itself (Scriven 1999).

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In Australia there are a variety of government units and university-based centres specialising in conducting research and advising service providers on aspects of program delivery and evaluation. For example, the National Centre for Health Program Evaluation, Fairfield Hospital, the Victorian Parenting Centre, Centres for Health Program Evaluation, (Melbourne and Monash Universities). In order to partially fulfil the needs of those evaluating child abuse prevention programs, the National Child Protection Clearinghouse has recently developed an evaluation consultancy service that provides free assistance to service providers attempting to design an evaluation. The service includes assisting them in:

Stakeholder participation

The benefits of a partnership between service providers and external evaluator are not unilateral, however. The establishment of a positive relationship with service providers, and a level of agency support for the evaluation process, would seem to be a paramount consideration if an external evaluator is to fully understand the realities of program and service provision and effect a quality research result (Halbrook et al. 1997; Rist 1997). 'An outsider (external evaluator) can only effect useful change through and with insiders' [original author's italics] (Wadsworth 1997:19). Such a partnership is essentially mandatory in order to ensure that the perceptions of stakeholders and participants are considered as part of the evaluation (Cooper 1997; Oliver 1997; Nixon 1997; Stevens 1999).

The participation of children and young people

The assessment of participant satisfaction and the provision of a venue for the beliefs, views, and feelings of the researched has become a key component of program evaluation research (Cooper 1997; Oliver 1997), partly as a means of increasing an evaluation's validity and reliability (Nixon 1997; Stevens 1999). As was also mentioned above, where possible it is important to incorporate the responses of children and young people who either participate in, or who are directly affected by, a particular program.

Evaluations frequently incorporate measures of child development, functioning or wellbeing, but it is only relatively recently that researchers have recognised the necessity and importance of utilising evaluation methods that are 'child friendly' and that provide children and young people with an opportunity to be heard (refs) and to actively contribute to the program evaluation process (O'Brien 1997; Tomison 1997a; Smith and Taylor 1998).

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With the exception of a set of 'two dozen or so flagship research and demonstration programs' (Weiss 1988), most child abuse prevention program evaluations that are undertaken are non-experimental studies which provide no firm basis for determining the relative impact of a program or intervention, or of examining the impact of a particular program or activity on specific populations (Chalk and King 1998). As a result, although policymakers' expectations of what may be accomplished by evaluation continue to grow, evaluators (and service providers) have generally become much more conservative in their claims about the potential of evaluations to demonstrate 'success', the incremental nature of evaluation evidence and how it should be used by policy makers (Rist 1997; Little 1999). Therefore, experimental rigour in isolation, should no longer be perceived as driving the majority of program evaluations. Rather, methodological rigour is better thought of as a key component of comprehensive, systematic evaluation approaches, where equal attention is paid to input, process and output assessments.

Second, it is clear that the majority of evaluations will be modest, internally focused [fleet] studies that assess client satisfaction, document the services delivered, describe program implementation (for replication) and if possible, the immediate effects of service provision (Jacobs 1988; Weiss 1988). In order to cater for the needs of service providers undertaking such evaluations there must be 'greater pluralism' in evaluation, where the research questions and the level of explanation required will determine which of a variety of methods and tools will be used, along with the degree of experimental rigour that is desired and/or is possible (Brennen 1992).

Such an approach will continue to drive a general, progressive shift away from traditional experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation designs to a greater emphasis on alternative methodologies (Swerissen 1999) and an emphasis on 'developmental sequencing'. Here, rather than undertaking a one-off evaluation of an intervention (McBride 1999), evaluation is undertaken as a progressive series of analyses that build upon each other to provide a detailed analysis for service providers and other stakeholders (similar to the continuous improvement concept in quality assurance projects). Thus, the emphasis is on the developmental nature of program evaluation, where simple assessments of program structure and content that can be completed by all service providers, form the basis for potentially more rigorous assessment of short and long-term program effects.

The third point to note therefore, is the importance of adequately grounding evaluation by ensuring the adequate documentation of program activity. Ensuring records are kept and are accurate is a valuable, achievable, first step in evaluating service delivery that may provide a richness of data able to be collected relatively easily. Evaluations may be highly complex, experimentally rigorous projects or simple, informal internal assessments, but regardless of the size, cost and degree of rigour, all evaluations should follow the same general guidelines or rules to ensure that as accurate and precise an evaluation outcome is produced (Schalock and Thornton 1988).

In preparing for an evaluation the following aspects of the program therefore should be clearly documented (Schalock and Thornton 1988; McCurdy 1995; US Department of Health and Human Services 1995; Chalk and King 1998):

To promote evaluation best practice in these circumstances requires acknowledgment of the circumstances of the average service provider - the availability of physical and professional resources; consideration of the appropriateness and limitations of empirical studies; a willingness to explore the variety of evaluation methods and techniques currently available in order to find those best suited for the purposes of the evaluation; and an understanding of the benefits that may be attained via the developmental sequencing of program evaluations.

1. Empirical evaluation is defined in this paper as involving the conduct of 'true experiment' (Fink & McCloskey 1990) involving pre- and post-test models, and the adoption of matched control and experimental samples. Under such an approach the overall intention would be to evaluate with large sample sizes over time, enhancing the potential for future replication.

2. Child abuse prevention is commonly classified into three main levels under a 'public health' model: primary, secondary and tertiary prevention (Helfer 1982). Primary prevention is targeted at the community as a whole; the aim of primary prevention programs is to stop abuse or neglect before it starts (Calvert 1993). Primary programs generally comprise community education campaigns aimed at both children and adults, or school-based personal safety and healthy relationships programs for children. Secondary prevention programs target specific 'at risk' sections of the population.That is, those with special needs or who are in need of greater support, such as young parents, single parents, people with physical or intellectual disabilities. Secondary prevention programs can be categorised as enhancing family functioning by providing various forms of family support and, in particular, by teaching parenting skills and increasing parents' knowledge of child development and behavioural expectations (Calvert 1993). Tertiary prevention refers to prevention initiatives that are aimed at preventing the recurrence of abuse in those families where children have already been maltreated (Calvert 1993).

3. It should be noted that detecting changes in the prevalence of child maltreatment in local communities is difficult, given that no accurate measure of actual child maltreatment exists. Child protection statistics or other agency statics are available, but these are an indirect underestimate at best.

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