Acknowledgement
The City of Casey acknowledges that we are on the traditional land of the Bunurong and Wurundjeri People and pays respect to all Elders past and present and future.
Council acknowledges the commitment and contribution of Casey’s children, young people, families, Council staff and service providers to the development of this plan. Without your contribution, this would not have been possible. Every consultation response received was considered in determining the priorities of Casey’s citizens. These priorities will inform, influence and guide planning, advocacy and delivery of seamless services, programs and spaces for children, young people and their families from 2017-2021.
Introduction
Casey’s future – A Plan for Children, Young People and Families 2017-2021 is a key policy document providing a framework for Casey’s citizens from birth to twenty-five and their families.
The Child, Youth & Family Plan compliments and builds upon the successes of the City of Casey’s previous ‘Casey’s Children – a Plan for the Future 2012-2017’ and the Youth Strategy 2011-2016. The Child, Youth & Family Plan has been developed to include all children and young people aged 0-25 years and their families.
The Child, Youth & Family Plan will guide planning, advocacy and the delivery of seamless services, programs, events and spaces for children, young people and their families 2017-2021.
Vision
Support and strengthen children, young people and families to maximise their potential as they participate and grow in the Casey community.
About this plan
Casey’s Future – A Plan for Children, Young People & Families 2017-2021 is a key strategic document providing a framework for Casey’s citizens from birth to twenty-five and their families. This plan aims to support and guide the delivery of positive outcomes for children, young people and families throughout the City of Casey across the developmental and life stages.
The Council Plan 2017-2021 recognises the important role that Council plays in planning for the needs of children, young people and families. Under Strategic Objective 2, An Inclusive, Safe and Connected Community, action 2.1.3 in 2017/2018 commits Council to the development of a Child, Youth & Family Plan in order to provide children, young people and families with seamless service provision.
This plan establishes clear strategic priorities for Child, Youth & Family and sets out specific objectives and strategies for the services located within the department. This plan provides a strategic framework that empowers expert officers to deliver programs, spaces and events in the Casey community, grounded in evidence-based research and age-appropriate delivery.
Current demographics indicate that 109,471 children and young people aged 0-25 years live in the City of Casey, comprising over 37 per cent of the population. This represents an increase of almost 15 per cent in the number of young people since the 2011 Census, making strategic planning for this cohort and their families critical.¹
The Child, Youth & Family Plan complements and builds upon the successes of Casey’s separate plans for children and young people, Casey’s Children – a Plan for the Future 2012-2017 and the Youth Strategy 2011- 2016. The coming together of the two plans supports more seamless transitions and service delivery as children and young people progress through life changes. This plan sets priorities for the multiple services now located under the one Child, Youth & Family department. The City of Casey provides a number of services, programs, events and spaces to the community. Council funded services, programs, events and facilities may be supported by federal and state governments through the provision of funding, legislation and quality assurance. The Child, Youth & Family Plan will guide planning, advocacy and the delivery of seamless services, programs, events and spaces for all children, young people and their families.
Council used a variety of approaches to engage its community through consultation. Methods of
consultation include:
- Key stakeholder engagement (including, but not limited to, service providers and agencies, (Council officers, Educators)
- Casey Conversations surveying
- Hard copy and digital survey opportunities at a range of sites (including, but not limited to, playgroup and family day care locations, kindergarten and maternal child and health services, community events, libraries and primary schools)
- The formation of a targeted focus group for young people
- Consultation with the City of Casey Youth Action Committee
- Engagement at the 2016 Casey Youth Summit. (This comprised sessions with four key stakeholder groups: primary school students, secondary school students, youth work professionals and parents and carers.)
- Findings from the Casey NEXT community engagement were also considered.
Bringing the Child, Youth & Family Plan to life has more clearly highlighted a gap that has existed in relation to engagement of children in the middle years (ages 10-14 years). The Child, Youth & Family Plan will ensure this cohort is better planned for moving forward.
The information provided to Council through the consultation opportunities has been the underlying driver for the development of the Child, Youth & Family Plan. It is important that the community see clear links between the ideas they have voiced to Council and the principles that form the Plan.
The Child, Youth & Family Plan will support the vision to ‘Support and strengthen children, young
people and families to maximise their potential as they participate and grow in the Casey
community.’
A steering committee of professionals across the Child, Youth & Family department was established to support the development of the Child, Youth & Family Plan. The steering committee will continue to meet annually to review and provide information about achievements related to the Child, Youth & Family Plan. The steering committee will review the Plan every year to assess the relevance of the key principles and strategies. The Plan will be implemented through the development of an operational Action Plan by a working group led by the Child, Youth and Family Projects Officer, who will assign timeframes and allocate responsibility for achievement. Progress will be reported to the community throughout the life of the Plan.
Who are Casey's children and young people?
Current demographics (2016 Census) indicate that 109,471 children and young people aged 0-25 years live in the City of Casey, comprising over 37 per cent of the population.¹
This represents an increase of almost 15 per cent in the number of young people since the 2011 Census, making strategic planning for this cohort and their families critical.¹
What does the City of Casey provide for children, young people and their families?
The City of Casey provides a number of services, programs, spaces and events to the community. Council funded services, programs, events and facilities may be supported by federal and state governments through the provision of funding, legislation and quality assurance. Current services and programs provided to support children and young people by the City of Casey include Best Start, Dads Matter Initiative, Family Day Care, Kindergartens, Maternal and Child Health, Early Parenting Support, Preschool Field Officers, Supported Playgroups, Community Playgroup, Personal Development, counselling services and Recreational Programs for young people.
The City of Casey also advocates to the State and Federal Government on behalf of children and young people.
Why do we need to plan?
The City of Casey is a vibrant and multicultural city located in the south east of Melbourne. Casey is home to the largest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents in the metro southern region.
Residents born overseas represent more than 150 countries celebrating 120 faiths. 5% (1 in 20) of residents have a disability.
The City of Casey remains one of Australia’s fastest growing regions with the most residents of any
municipality in Victoria with a current population of 311,037 forecast to grow to 514,021 by 2041². Currently Casey is the eighth fastest growing municipality in Australia and the third fastest in Victoria.
The City of Casey is an interface council sharing characteristics of both urban and rural communities, incorporating the green wedge, coastal, growth, foothills and established areas within 410 square kilometers.³
Due to the size, complexity and rate of population growth in the City of Casey it is imperative for Council to continue to work with Casey citizens to plan, develop, improve, and advocate to deliver high quality services, programs, events and spaces.
Children and young people aged 0-25 comprise of over 37% of the City of Casey population, making strategic planning for this cohort and their families a vital focus.
Reviews of the previous plan ‘Youth Strategy 2011-2016’ and ‘Casey’s Children – A Plan for the Future 2012-2017’
Reviews of the ‘Youth Strategy 2011-2016’ and ‘Casey’s Children – A Plan for the Future 2012-2017’ were conducted to formally evaluate their effectiveness and currency, providing opportunity to identify and address areas that may require further action moving forward. Reviews of the two plans also provided an opportunity to celebrate achievements guided by the plans. Outcomes of the reviews informed the development of the Child, Youth & Family Plan.
Considering children’s participation, it was recognized that to engage with children and young people in an ethical and respectful way staff require training and sufficient time to plan engagement strategies. As a result, children’s participation was made a key priority of the ‘Casey’s Children – A Plan for the Future 2012- 2017’ ensuring staff received training in this area. Staff training guided the consultation of children, youth and families to inform the Child, Youth & Family Plan and will remain an ongoing learning process and priority.
Strategic planning was a priority of both the ‘Youth Strategy 2011-2016’ and ‘Casey’s Children – A Plan for the Future 2012-2017’ due to the rapid growth of the City of Casey. Outcomes included flexible options of service and program delivery to better support children, young people and families. Planning provided opportunities to build and expand facilities, primarily in new growth areas, to support rapidly increasing population demands.
It was identified that relationships and partnerships are paramount in sustaining and strengthening
children, young people and families to maximise their potential as they participate and grow in the Casey community.
Partnerships support information sharing and supportive referral pathways. Recognition of the
value of seamless service delivery across the lifespan is inclusive of all children, young people and families supporting life transitions.
The reviews identified gaps in the areas of services, programs and spaces available to children 10-14 years. The development of a seamless plan for all life stages 0-25 years will provide a lifespan support model, rectifying this gap.
Selected Outcomes: ‘Casey’s Children – a Plan for the Future 2012- 2017’ (CP) and the
Youth Strategy 2011-2016 (YS):
- Children have been provided genuine, ethical and respectful engagement opportunities to voice their opinions.
- Youth Suicide Prevention Committee was formally established in 2012.
- Casey Youth Action Committee was redeveloped in 2014 to recognise young people in the City of Casey as valued leaders of the community and to provide meaningful civic participation opportunities.
- The Casey Youth Hub was opened in May 2014 providing a community partnership approach to the delivery of youth focused services to young people and their families through collaboration, partnerships and the opportunity for co-facilitation.
- The Casey Children’s van has engaged over 4,000 children and families across Casey since 2015.
- Councils Children’s week event engages up to 2,000 community members annually.
- The delivery of child and young people driven, high quality, outreach, municipal wide services, programs and events.
- The delivery of flexible services and programs to meet current needs.
- In planning for future growth, new facilities in growth corridors have been built to allow for expansion to support population increases.
Consultation
Who did we talk to?
To inform the development of the plan Council consulted with Casey’s key stakeholders: children, young people, families, community, Council staff and service providers. The questions developed for the children and family’s consultation surveys 2017, were based on the City of Casey’s Council Plan Strategic Objectives for the next four years, in particular objective two: An inclusive, safe and connected community.
What did you tell us?
Children
You told us:
- Your family and friends are important to you.
- You would like more people to be healthy and strong.
- You would like more local, free, activities for children.
- You would like more activities in the school holidays.
- As an only child with family residing overseas you rely on programs and activities to socialise and interact with others.
- You want your community to be a safe and peaceful place.
- You appreciate free programs and activities especially Dads Matter.
- You would like more local parks.
- You enjoy swimming and would like more local pools as Casey ARC and RACE are crowded.
- Trees and nature are important to you.
- Protecting the environment is important to you.
- You would like us to stop using plastic bags and building houses to protect the environment.
- A clean environment with no rubbish is important.
- You like having fun.
- You like learning new skills.
- You like playing.
- Sport is important for fitness and movement.
- You enjoy kindergarten.
- Personal safety is important to you, you don’t like it when people hurt you or are mean to you.
- Being included with your peers makes you happy, you don’t like to feel left out.
- You are compassionate worried about the safety of family and friends.
- You care about people being homeless and children who have no access to healthy food.
- You feel safe with family and educators.
- Overall playing with friends, physical activity and nature, being outdoors were, in that order, what you most liked to do.
- Most of you enjoy physical activity with swimming by far the most popular, then soccer and basketball.
- You enjoy a wide variety of activities such as playing in mud, picking flowers, the arts, dancing, shopping, music lessons, walking the dog, fishing, cooking, hard puzzles, library, playing, sculpture, family holidays and waterparks with playgrounds and parks the majority favorite.
- Church and Temples are important places of worship.
- If you could build anything near to your home most of you would build a swimming pool and a water park.
- You are worried that the roads are busy and dangerous.
- You believe traffic is preventing you from spending more time as a family.
- Children and young people identified domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, graffiti and public transport as concerns.
Young people
You told us:
- Your relationships with your friends and families are very important to you.
- You connect with each other via talking, text messaging and social media.
- You hear about what is happening in the community through family, school and via social media.
- You like living in Casey because you feel safe and enjoy the facilities, activities and events that Casey offers.
- You want to live in a community where all cultures are celebrated.
- You come to Casey Youth Services programs and centres because you feel at home and enjoy the events and spaces offered.
- Transport and time are a barrier to you accessing programs in the community.
- You think Casey should have better public transport and less traffic.
- You care about your education and how you will find a job in the future.
- You worry about bullying and cyber bullying.
- You are concerned for young people in the community who use drugs and alcohol and who have health problems including mental health.
- You enjoy the environment.
- You appreciate free Wi-Fi.
- You like shopping.
- You enjoy events.
- You like having access to great sporting facilities.
- You believe living in Casey offers many opportunities to young people.
- Children and young people identified domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, graffiti and public transport as concerns.
- Personal safety and study stress were the highest ranked concerns raised young people.