Public health and wellbeing
The Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 identifies that local governments in Victoria have a role and responsibility to ‘protect, improve and promote public health and wellbeing’.
Kingston’s Public Health and Wellbeing Plan (PHWP) 2021-2025(PDF, 3MB) provides a strategic direction for our work to improve the health and wellbeing of the community. It highlights our priorities and objectives to help us create a future where people in Kingston can thrive.
Find out more about the work we are doing under each of our five priority areas:
1. A healthy and well community
Objectives
- 1.1 Increase participation in physical activity
- 1.2 Increase healthy eating
- 1.3 Improve mental wellbeing
- 1.4 Reduce harm from alcohol and other drugs, smoking and gambling
Find your nearest park or sporting facility and out more about what Kingston is doing about gambling.
2. A safe and secure community
Objectives
- 2.1 Improve safety in the home and community
- 2.2 Improve feelings of safety in the home and community
- 2.3 Reduce the prevalence of family violence
Find out more on our Community Safety page and read about what Kingston is doing for the Prevention of Family Violence.
3. A kind and connected community
Objectives
- 3.1 Increase participation in community activities and volunteering
- 3.2 Reduce social isolation and loneliness
- 3.3 Reduce discrimination
- 3.4 Increase inclusion, respect and belonging
Find out more about how you can get involved in Kingston.
4. A liveable community
Objectives
- 4.1 Increase community understanding and resilience for health impacts of climate change
- 4.2 Increase availability of social and affordable housing
- 4.3 Increase equitable participation in the workforce and local economy
- 4.4 Increase accessible and equitable supply of facilities, services and activities
- 4.5 Increase access to and improve amenity of open spaces and the natural environment
Find out more about what Kingston is doing for sustainability, housing, jobs, accessibility, and the environment.
5. An informed and empowered community
Objectives
- 5.1 Improve provision of accessible health and wellbeing information, programs and services
- 5.2 Increase participation in lifelong learning and education
Find out more about Kingston's sustainability workshops and upcoming events.
Health and wellbeing action plans
A broad range of strategies and action plans across the organisation work towards delivering the goals and objectives set out in our Public Health and Wellbeing Plan. Yearly action plans are developed to outline the implementation of actions under the Public Health and Wellbeing Plan objectives.
Yearly reviewing and reporting on the progress of the actions in the yearly action plans will be implemented. Outputs and outcomes will be reviewed to understand where change in our community has been made under the Health Plan objectives. We will learn from our successes and challenges experienced and adapt our actions in the next year's action plan to respond to emerging community needs.
Kingston’s Public Health and Wellbeing Year 4 Action Plan(PDF, 455KB) was endorsed by Council in May 2024 and will run until 30 June 2025. The yearly action plans align with the Council Plan's financial year planning cycle.
Health and wellbeing profile
We prepare a health and wellbeing profile to inform our Public Health and Wellbeing Plan. This looks at a range of data to understand the health of our community. The main data sources are:
- Kingston Health and Wellbeing Survey - conducted in April 2024 by Metropolis Research
- Census 2016 and population forecasting data
- Victorian Population Health Survey
- Crime data
- Australian Early Development Census
- Social Health Atlas of Australia