Abstract
The Department of Community Services NSW (DoCS) has commissioned the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) Consortium to design and implement the evaluation of the Early Intervention Program (EIP). The Consortium members, lead by the SPRC, are the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE), University of Technology Sydney; the School of Education and Early Childhood Studies, University of Western Sydney; Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, Southern Cross University; and National Institute of Social and Economic Research, London. This evaluation plan is designed to fulfil the purpose of the evaluation within the constraints of the budget. It identifies the goals and structure of EIP, the conceptual and practical challenges involved in evaluating program outcomes and the preferred evaluation methods.