Public Health and Community Wellbeing Plan

Data scale and applicability

It is important to note that all of the above Council-wide

data are averages across a large population and nearly

100 km

geographic area - this can result in a loss of detail

or understanding regarding specific issues, characteristics, or

needs that may occur at a lower suburban scale within the

Council area, or within a particular community grouping. It is

important therefore to also ‘drill down’ further and identify

issues and risks that may be relevant at a more local scale.

This can be done via analysing the data at Ward or Statistical

Local Area (SLA) level, which is the scale at which data is

collected and presented by the ABS and PHIDU

regarding

socio-demographics and health (see map of SLAs at page 25).

When this is undertaken, it becomes clear that there are very

significant differences in health and socio-economic status in

suburbs and populations within the Council area – inequalities

which in turn have implications for the targeting of State and

Council programs to achieve outcomes across a range of key

measures, and to improve community wellbeing in the most

at-risk populations.

Priorities can be determined on the basis of where the risk

is highest ( or where there are multiple risks) and therefore

where a positive outcome is most desirable - and resources

and activities can be targeted accordingly.

Given the limited resources available to Council, a key aspect

of planning for health and wellbeing is to use the research and

consultation to determine priorities for action in the Public

Health and CommunityWellbeing Plan.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) ; Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU).