Formative evaluation of the Digital Connect Promote and Protect Program platform Prototype (CP3)

Opportunity 

More than 500,000 Australian children attend Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) services each year. While these settings play a critical role in supporting children’s wellbeing and social development, access to evidence-based wellbeing programs remains inconsistent, particularly in regional and under-resourced communities.  

The Connect, Promote and Protect Program (CP3) – developed by the University of Sydney and Uniting NSW.ACT – is a world-first social connection and wellbeing program delivered in school-aged care. It has demonstrated strong engagement through its current face-to-face delivery model, which highlights a significant opportunity to extend its reach, sustainability, and national scalability through digitisation.  

This project sought to evaluate a co-designed digitised version of CP3’s proven wellbeing and social connection activities in an interactive, user-friendly digital platform. 

Project Objectives  

This project aimed to: 

• evaluate a co-designed, evidence-based digital version of the CP3 program suitable for broad implementation in school-age care settings 
• assess the usability, feasibility and acceptability of the digitised CP3 program in real-world OSHC settings 
• enhance OSHC workforce capacity and capability through embedded digital training tools and educator support resources.