Health and wellbeing

Early childhood services provide development, health, education and wellbeing services from birth to school. Early childhood services, education and family services plays an important role in a young child’s development, helping them to thrive emotionally, physically and mentally. Children in low socioeconomic households are more likely to have poor developmental outcomes, make a difficult transition to school, and have reduced aspirations and pass this risk on to their children in a cycle of intergenerational disadvantage.

Council calls for funding to:

• extend Building Blocks beyond 2032 and broaden funding scope to include ongoing facility maintenance and MCH suites
• continue CALD outreach programs in the City of Melton which experience a high uptake with positive outcomes
• resource capacity to manage the increase in child protection referrals
• increase supported playgroups 

Every young member of our community deserves the support and opportunities to engage with learning and employment, pursue their ambitions, live in a safe community and have access to a range of programs and services. This will enable them to grow and contribute to their future and the economy. Council is seeking long-term funding to help us deliver critical education, social and wraparound services that our youth need to become strong and healthy young adults including:

• delivery of early prevention programs to counter the future need for intervention
• programs that build the capacity of young people to prepare for and secure education, training and employment
• investment in localised VET, trade and tertiary education
• programs that support mental health and community wellbeing
• additional localised service provision, aimed at ensuring that young people can access services when and where they need
• early intervention for homelessness and crime prevention
• wraparound family services that break the cycle of generational criminal behaviour
• programs that provide access to food for vulnerable families
• access to art, sports and social events. 

Local aged care provision is critical to ensuring that our older residents are socially connected, have access to allied health and wellbeing programs, in-house support and care, education programs and assistance to navigate the services available by all levels of government.

Council seeks:

• an increase in the funding for service charges to meet existing gaps between provision and service
• a realignment of the Aged Care Regions to match the municipal boundaries within the City of Melton boundary so that residents are provided the same level of services across the entire council area
• assistance to attract local providers to the City of Melton as the assessment providers are 6–9 months behind in referrals and lacking in local accessibility to services including occupational therapy and food services.

The City of Melton has significant gaps in community and allied health services delivered locally. Identified gaps include early childhood intervention, family services, speech pathology, perinatal services, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, paediatric services, psychology, mental health services, disability services, social support programs, community legal services, emergency relief, alcohol and drug services, and culturally specific services for refugee, multicultural and first nations communities.

Yet many community and health services for outer-western Melbourne are based in the neighbouring cities of Brimbank, Maribyrnong or Wyndham. Geographically the City of Melton is four times the size of Brimbank, has a higher population and by 2041 will be home to 70 per cent more people. Lacking public transport limits access to services located in neighbouring council areas for City of Melton residents. Equity in access to services is critical for positive health and wellbeing outcomes for our community.

Many people move to the City of Melton because the housing is considered affordable compared with other municipalities.

However, this ‘affordability’ does not factor in limited access to public transport, lower number of local jobs and cost of living pressures.

While Melton City Council owns and manages 15 properties as affordable housing, we welcome the Victorian Government’s Housing Statement and the Australian Government’s housing reform agenda to add social and affordable housing for the most vulnerable in the community.

The 2021 Census shows that social housing makes up only 0.9 per cent of total housing stock compared with 2.3 per cent for the Western region, with only 491 units and homelessness increased by 70 per cent when comparing the 2016 to 2021 Census data.

Council seeks greater funding for additional affordable and social housing and for existing social housing to be replaced or upgraded. 

There is strong evidence to support the need to increase the opportunity for physical activity in the City of Melton:

• 74.3 per cent of City of Melton residents are considered overweight or obese, the highest rate in Victoria
• 4.3 per cent of residents are sedentary compared to 2.5 per cent Victorian average
• 29.4 per cent of residents record lower levels of physical activity, compared with the Victorian average of 27.2 per cent
• two in five people do insufficient physical activity according to the Department of Health and Human Services
• the City of Melton’s sport participation rate was 8.3 per cent, compared with other Victorian growth municipalities such as Moorabool (14.8 per cent), Mitchell (15.3 per cent) and Hume (11.6 per cent) (VicHealth, 2021).

We seek investment in community infrastructure, active recreational facilities, pools and open spaces, in partnership with the Australian Government and Victorian Government, to increase participation.