Early Start (New Zealand)
Last updated: 2011
In brief
Evidence of model effectiveness
This model meets the criteria established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for an “evidence-based early childhood home visiting service delivery model” for the general population, but does not meet the criteria for tribal populations.
Model description
Early Start is a voluntary home visiting program designed to improve child health, reduce child abuse, improve parenting skills, support parental physical and mental health, encourage family economic well-being, and encourage stable, positive partner relationships. Early Start was designed to be a mainstream program, targeting at-risk families with newborns and children up to age 5. However, the developers took steps to ensure that the model would also be culturally responsive to the Māori, an indigenous population of New Zealand. Home visitors deliver services at varying levels of intensity depending on the family’s needs. Families with the highest needs receive up to three hours of home visits and indirect contact per week (level 1), families with moderate needs receive up to three hours of home visiting every two weeks (level 2), and families with lower needs receive up to one hour of home visiting monthly (level 3). The fourth and final level of services includes up to one hour of contact every three months. Home visitors in consultation with their supervisors determine when a family is ready to progress to the next level. For more information, please read the Model Overview.
Extent of evidence
For more information, see the research database. For more information on the criteria used to rate research, please see details of HomVEE’s methods and standards.
Criteria established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Notes: If the model does not meet criterion 3 but meets criteria 1 and 2 based on findings from subgroups, the impacts must be replicated in the same domain in two or more studies using non-overlapping analytic study samples. HomVEE assesses and reports criteria 4 and 5 for all models that have well-designed research, but meeting those two criteria is only required of models for which all findings are from randomized controlled trials. Please read the HHS criteria for evidence-based models for more information.