Discussion
This study reports the effects of the Play Active ECEC policy intervention on the daily time educators provide for children to be physically active, and implementation and process evaluation outcomes. Educator-reported time for children’s daily physical activity did not significantly change. However, there was a significant increase in director-reported uptake of physical activity policy practices and a non-significant 33% increase in director-reported uptake of high impact and low effort policy practices. The Play Active intervention had high fidelity of implementation support, excellent reach for four of the six implementation support strategies, and high acceptability and awareness among ECEC staff. However, reach of two implementation support strategies (resource guide and professional development) was poor.Supportive physical activity policy environments in ECEC services can improve educator’s physical activity practices and children’s physical activity levels [However, despite Play Active being well implemented and resulting in significant increases in director-reported physical activity practice uptake, there were no corresponding changes in educator-reported uptake of physical activity practices nor educator-reported time provided for physical activity. It is possible the difference in policy practice uptake reported by directors and educators means changes in physical activity practices were only observable at the whole of service level, or there was a disparity between what directors perceived was occurring in their service and educators self-reported practice.The lack of significant change in educator-reported physical activity provision and practice uptake may be due in part to the relatively short policy intervention implementation period. A recent umbrella review of physical activity interventions in ECEC settings found that interventions ranged from two days to two years [Overall, few educators engaged with the free or low-cost professional development training and only half used the Play Active resource guide, meaning there was little opportunity for educators to improve their physical activity-related knowledge and skills. Reasons for the low uptake of these two implementation support strategies are likely related to the limited time educators in general have for professional development, for example lack of time needed to complete training modules or read resource material content [Future ECEC physical activity policy research should include longer-term outcome and implementation evaluation across all levels of implementation to capture where, when, and how practice changes may be occurring. Furthermore, future ECEC policy interventions could include additional implementation support strategies, including audit, feedback, and providing prompts [