Skip to content

Our Children, Young People and Families Plan

The Children, Young People, and Families Plan 2021-2025 (PDF) is a four-year plan to address the needs of children, young people, and families. The Plan focuses on improving health, wellbeing, and educational outcomes.

You can also access the Children, Young People, and Families Plan 2021-2025 (DOC) if you prefer this file type.

This is our first integrated plan for children, young people, and families. We previously had one strategy for children and another for young people.

Areas of focus

The Plan has three main areas of focus:

  1. Inclusive Cities and Communities - Our city and community will be welcoming, accessible, and inclusive to children, young people, and families.
  2. Improved Health and Wellbeing - Children, young people, and families will have improved health and wellbeing.
  3. Participation and Lifelong Learning - Children and young people will be involved in matters that impact them. There will be learning and education opportunities that lead to employment.
  • We have a vision where children, young people, and families, are healthy, resilient, empowered, safe, and belong.

    To bring this vision to life, we spoke with over 400 children, young people, parents, community members, and support services who provided ideas on how children and young people can be best supported.

    The results of this work has formed our new 'Moreland Children, Young People and Families Plan', which aims to improve health, wellbeing and educational outcomes.

    This plan covers three outcome areas.

    The first is 'Inclusive City and Community'. We want Merri-bek to be an inclusive and accessible city with a community where children, young people and families engage in activities, programs and services. There will be respect, acknowledgment and celebration of diverse cultures and identities. Recognizing the benefits diversity brings to the community, places and spaces will be family friendly.

    The second outcome is 'Improved Health and Wellbeing'. We aim to increase participation in health and wellbeing programs in Merri-bek with a focus on early intervention and prevention. Children, young people, and families will have increased knowledge of support services and how to access them all easily. Merri-bek remains committed to the safety of children and young people.

    The third outcome is 'Lifelong Learning and Participation'. There will be high-quality learning opportunities from birth to adulthood. This will include children learning through play in the early years and progressing to formal schooling and beyond. Support will be available when transitioning between education settings, such as starting primary school and moving to secondary school. There will be opportunities for young people to participate in further training and secure pathways to employment.

    Children and young people will be involved in decisions that impact them. They will be provided opportunities to share their views, and their opinions will be valued. To deliver on these outcomes requires cooperation from all corners of the community to help plan, provide, engage, collaborate and advocate with and for our community.

    By doing this, we will achieve real, meaningful change and create a more inclusive, healthy, and safe environment for children, young people, and families in Merri-bek. To find out more about this exciting new plan or how it may benefit you or your family, please visit our website or call 9240 1111.

Our vision and progress

The Plan’s vision is ‘a community where children, young people, and families are healthy, resilient, empowered, safe and belong.’

The work to achieve the Plan’s vision will be guided by an Implementation Plan. This will include a range of actions to achieve the Plan’s vision.

Progress on the Implementation Plan actions will be reported on this page every year. This will make sure our actions are on target and respond to the emerging needs of children, young people, and families.

When we have progress on our Implementation Plan actions we will update this page.

Early Years Infrastructure Plan

The Early Years Infrastructure Plan (EYIP) (PDF) 900KB presents a picture of Council’s early years services and facilities and provides a framework for future infrastructure development to meet the increasing demand for early years services in Merri-bek.

The EYIP presents a list of capitol projects together with recommendations for addressing the identified needs in line with Council’s Community Infrastructure Plan and Children, Young People and Families Plan 2021-2025.

Find out more

If you would like to know more, you can contact Bonnie Thomson or Teneha Greco, our Early Years Planning and Development Officers, by emailing bnthomson@merri-bek.vic.gov.au or tgreco@merri-bek.vic.gov.au  or call 9240 1111.