Table 1 Micro costing assumptions and sources of unit costs
| Cost component | Trial setting | |
|---|---|---|
| Details and assumptions | Source of unit costs | |
| Local health district costs | ||
| Labour | ||
| Face to face training | Health service-funded dietitians and project officers employed to support childcare centres to be compliant with dietary guidelines |
Wage rates HSM level D midpoint of $42.50 per hour including 30% on-costs |
| Support phone calls, newsletter and emails | ||
| Optional online training offered to cooks | ||
| Materials | ||
| Tablets to enable portable access to web-resources | Tablets: Samsung Galaxy tablets provided to intervention centres | Tablets: Exact cost from project records $308.44 average 2016/2017 cost |
| Stationery—printed resources |
Printing: 2 colour pages | Printing: Exact cost from project records $0.10/0.65 per page Officeworks |
| B&W/colour | 2 colour pages | |
| Blank service action plan (colour) | 17 colour pages | |
| Certificate of participation in training | 4 colour pages | |
| Nutrition training manual | 2 B&W pages | |
| Support Officer Action Plan examples | 21 colour pages | |
| Training evaluation questionnaire | ||
| FeedAustralia User Guide (colour) | ||
| Phone calls |
Follow-up phone calls (3 per service) Online training phone calls (additional to follow-up phone calls) | Exact cost from project records $0.30 Telstra local rate |
| Travel and expenses | Meals, travel and accommodation costs |
Exact cost from project records Travel by car valued using the NSW Treasury ‘TC17-10 Meal, Travelling and Related Allowances’ monetary rates per kilometre travelled [37] |
| Childcare centre costs | ||
| Labour | Self-reported time in hours collected via baseline and follow-up using telephone surveys |
Fair Work Australia award wage rates per hour [31] (lower, midpoint, upper) adjusted to include 30% overheads Cook ($26.13, $28.65, $32.25) Educator ($30.56,$33.75, $34.26) Supervisor ($35.28, $35.80, $36.44) Director L1 ≤ 39 children ($40.69, $43.26, $44.71) Director L2 40-59 children ($41.20, $43.65, $45.21) Director L3 ≥ 60 children ($41.70, $44.19, $45.72) |
| Cook | ||
| Supervisor | ||
| Educator | ||
| Director | ||