Feasibility of scaling up the Care Group nationwide
RECRUITMENT
We found the implementation of the Care Group to be feasible regarding the delivery path, facilitator selection, capacity building, and materials preparation. The three-tiered “national-county-village” supervision mechanism relied on the existing health system and guaranteed the quality of the implementation of the Care Group. This supervision mechanism provided an excellent preliminary foundation for sample enrolment, facilitator recruitment, training, and regular supervision.While selecting potential facilitators, we prioritized a candidate’s capacity for empathy, their level of responsibility and communication, and relevant work experience. With the continuous improvement of education access among women and the growing awareness of the importance of ECD in rural areas of China, many full-time mothers of children under the age of three have been great candidates as facilitators. We also ensured sufficient pre-intervention training and frequent capacity building. According to the feedback from supervisors, the two-week training before implementation of the intervention and the high frequency of trainings in the first three months of implementation played an essential role in developing and improving the skills of supervisors and facilitators.Finally, the Care Group Toolkit materials were economical, portable, and substitutable (see Table S5 in the 