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

Look at the data

Find out more about the health status and health determinants in our community.

Health and Wellbeing Profile - Snapshot(PDF, 922KB)

Health and Wellbeing Profile - Full report(PDF, 5MB)  

Public Health and Wellbeing 2021-2025 Objectives - Intersectional Data(PDF, 864KB)

Health and Wellbeing Survey

We conduct a Health and Wellbeing Survey every four years to track how the data changes over time and inform each update of the Public Health and Wellbeing Plan. You can explore this data through the following reports below:

Health and Wellbeing Survey 2024 - Full report(PDF, 13MB)

Health and Wellbeing Survey 2020 - Full report(PDF, 5MB)

Health and Wellbeing Survey 2016 - Full report(PDF, 2MB)  

Health and Wellbeing Survey 2012 - Full report(PDF, 679KB)

Find out more

You can further explore population forecasting, demographic, economic and ward profiles of the Kingston community on Kingston's demographics page.

Contact the Social Development Team with any questions at community@kingston.vic.gov.au or 1300 653 356.