Public health planning resources

List of resources to guide the development of public health plans, including recommended approaches and evaluation methods. These tools provide practical support for each stage of planning, from initial assessment to ongoing evaluation.

Guides to public health planning

• Public Health Planning Guide for Local Government (PDF 1.5MB) – WA Department of Health
  A guide to support the preparation and ongoing review of local public health plans
• Integrated planning and reporting – Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries
  Provides information and resourcing regarding developing integrated plans and associated reporting processes.
• North Metropolitan Health Service Public Health Planning: Development Guide (external site) 
• Pathway to a healthy community: A Guide for councillors and local government (2^nd Ed., 2017) – South Metropolitan Health Service
  Provides guidance to local governments to develop local public health plans.
• Public Health Planning: A guide to developing a local government Public Health Plan – Public Health Advocacy Institute
  Provides guidance to local governments to develop local public health plans.
• South Australia Guide to Regional Public Health Planning SA Health
  Provides interjurisdictional resources on public health planning.

Evaluation guidance

• Community Development Evaluation Toolkit - Local Government Professionals – Local Government Professionals 
• Community Development Framework  – Local Government Professionals
• Evaluation Framework and Implementation Guide  – WA Department of Health

The resources below provide and overview of, and links to, resources that may assist local governments in addressing public health priorities in their local public health plans, in alignment with the State Public Health Plan.

Note: some resources are relevant across several objectives and priorities.

Improve Aboriginal health and wellbeing

• Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet (external site)
  This provides a comprehensive knowledge exchange platform focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. It offers practical tools, resources, and information tailored for local governments to support informed public health planning. The site’s resources help address health disparities, support culturally safe interventions, and promote better health outcomes, contributing to improvements in Aboriginal health and wellbeing.
• Jumbunna Call It Out Annual report 2023/24 (external site)

Promote - foster strong communities and healthier environments

• Guidelines for concerts, events and organised gatherings (external site)
  Guidelines for concerts, events and organised gatherings here which are designed to prevent injury and ensure patrons are safe at events in WA
• Mental Wellbeing Guide (external site)
  Provides advice regarding evidence-based approaches to enhance mental wellbeing.
• Nature Play WA (external site)
  Resources to support children’s journey into nature play
• Sport and recreation and public health: a resource for community sector professionals working in local government (external site)
  Assists local government sport, recreation and community sector professionals to better articulate the contribution their work makes to health promotion and achievement of better public health outcomes.

Prevent – reduce the burden of chronic disease, communicable disease and injury

• Health promotion directory (external site)
  A directory of health promotion agencies and programs in your area that may be able to support your planning priorities.
• Healthy Partnership Toolkit (external site)
  Includes tools related to increasing healthy eating, increasing physical activity, improving mental health, preventing harm from alcohol, and creating smoke-free environments.
• Local governments, public health, and cancer prevention (external site)
  A guide for local governments that want to address specified modifiable risk factor areas for cancer.
• Local Governments, Public Health Planning and Food Security (external site)
  How local governments can support food security in their jurisdiction.
  Note: WA Health staff may not be able to access to document while on the Health network

Healthy eating and active living

• Heart Foundation – Healthy Active by Design (external site)
• LiveLighter (external site) and LiveLighter resources (external site)

Alcohol and other drugs

• Managing Alcohol in Our Communities: A Guide for Local Government (external site)
  Provides a step-by-step approach to developing an alcohol policy and management plan. Based on best-practice, it promotes a whole-of-organisation approach.

• Alcohol Think Again (external site)
• Strong Spirit Strong Mind (external site)
  The Strong Spirit Strong Mind Aboriginal Programs team plays a key role in the development of knowledge and skills within the alcohol and other drug, mental health, and broader community services sector, to work in culturally secure ways through workforce development initiatives, and to contribute to a skilled Aboriginal workforce for Western Australia.
• School Drug Education and Road Aware (SDERA) – resources (external site)
  A range of evidence-based drug and road safety education resources are available for schools and early childhood services to deliver age-appropriate content and key resilience, health, and safety messages.

Tobacco

• About the WA Quitline (13 7848) | Quit (external site)
• E-cigarettes in WA (external site).

Injury

• Farmsafe Australia (external site)
  Farm safety strategies to reduce injuries from quad bikes, tractors and other machinery.
• Guide to promoting safety and prevent injury for local government (external site)
  Suggested objectives, strategies, and resources to reduce injury and promote safety for injury topics.
• Kidsafe WA (external site)
  Resources focused on child accident prevention.
• Know Injury Program (external site)
  The Know Injury program provides knowledge, skills, and networking opportunities, to support and enable practitioners to deliver evidence-informed injury prevention activities across Western Australia.
• Stay on your feet (external site)
  Information and strategies for older adults, their friends, family, and health professionals to prevent slips, trips, and falls.

Immunisation

• Immunisation in WA
  Provides information and resources relating to immunisation in Western Austalia.
• National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance Australia (external site)
  Provides evidence and advice on vaccine preventable diseases and all aspects of immunisation to inform policy and planning.

Protect – protect against public and environmental health risks, effectively manage emergencies and lessen the health impacts of climate change

Disaster and emergency management

• enHealth Disaster and Emergency Management for Environmental Health Practitioners (external site)
• WALGA Emergency Management Support (external site).

Enable – bolster public health systems and workforce and leverage partnerships to support health and wellbeing

• Partnerships

A list of data to inform selection of priorities and provide input into the report on health status and health determinants.

Health status and determinants

WA Government sources

• Enhanced mosquito-borne disease data 
  Links to mosquito-borne disease quarterly reports by health region. This data is enhanced by follow-up surveys of patients to ascertain the exposure location more accurately. Data requests in alternative formats, including surveillance data, may be considered. email enquiries to: Medical.entomology@health.wa.gov.au 
• Infectious disease data resources
  Links to Western Australian infectious disease epidemiological information, including various reports, newsletters, data, and statistics for diseases.  
• Local government health and wellbeing profiles 
  All local governments will have a health profile report available and can obtain health and wellbeing data at no cost.. The reports include data on:
  • nutrition
  • physical activity
  • overweight and obesity
  • tobacco smoking
  • alcohol-related harm
  • illicit drug-related harm
  • mental health
  • injury-related harm
  • notifiable infectious diseases.
• Nutrition Monitoring Survey Series
  This series monitors knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of Western Australian adults, as they relate to the Australian Dietary Guidelines. It also assesses public opinion on current and proposed food and nutrition policies and aims to identify dietary concerns, and barriers to and promoters of healthy eating behaviour.
• The Burden of Disease in Western Australia
  Department of Health WA publishes a range of data and reports about the burden of disease and associated healthcare expenditure in WA.
• WA Health and Wellbeing Surveillance System
  This is a population-based data collection which monitors the health status of Western Australians and has been operating for 20 years. The information collected is used to identify emerging health issues, evaluate the effectiveness of health interventions, and inform evidence-based policy decisions. Annual reports collating the key findings from the HWSS are for the whole of WA – LGA specific data found in Health and Wellbeing Reports or can be extracted from the Public Health Atlas.

WA non-government sources

• Australian Child and Youth Wellbeing Atlas 
  A groundbreaking new data asset that offers comprehensive mapping of data and information on children and young people aged 0 to 24 across Australian communities. This freely accessible resource represents a significant advancement for the health sector and beyond, enabling government agencies, researchers, and community organisations to systematically identify and address child and youth wellbeing priorities in a rigorous and cost-effective way. While the Atlas contains over 900 datasets from all jurisdictions, the data for Western Australia is particularly rich and more granular than any other jurisdiction, thanks to a partnership with the PeopleWA linked data asset. This partnership allows for a deeper analysis of health outcomes, social factors, and community needs within WA, offering a highly detailed resource for local decision-making.
• Understand your community
  A community insight tool to help understand a community’s unique context and state of wellbeing.

Australian Government sources

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework (HPF)
• Australian Early Development Census 
  Nationwide data collection of early childhood development at the time children commence their first year of full-time school.  Data relating to five key areas of early childhood development:
  • physical health and wellbeing
  • social competence
  • emotional maturity
  • language and cognitive skills (school-based)
  • communication skills and general knowledge
  • Australia’s welfare 2023 
    This publication explores topical welfare issues.
• Climate change and environmental indicators: reporting framework
• Healthy community indicators
• Population Health Data (Australian Government)
  The Department of Health and Aged Care collates and publishes health statistics, and uses data provided by other government agencies and partners to guide health policies and programs. This includes information on:
  • Immunisation coverage for children and adults
  • Data on health conditions and risks, mental health, causes of death, disability and health services, maintained by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
  • A survey on substance use among secondary school students, conducted every 3 years by Cancer Council Victoria.
• Social determinants of health

Local government data

Local governments already collect information from a range of sources that are relevant to community wellbeing. The insights provided may assist LGAs in establishing a baseline (for the health status and determinants), performing an ‘audit’ of existing initiatives that address public health, and guide priority actions for inclusion in the local public health plans.

Sources of information may include:

• reports from community programs such as leisure options
• feedback from community groups (e.g. Neighhourhood Watch)
• customer satisfaction surveys
• past and recent project surveys and public consultations
• local infrastructure data (length of bike paths, tree canopy coverage)
• current and historical land use information
• grant commission data
• reports on sources of air pollution and soil contamination. 

Population data

• Population in local government areas

A list of grant and funding opportunities, noting that the delivery of any public health initiative, project or program will be at the discretion of the local government, based on the public health needs and expectations of their local community.

The delivery of any public health initiative, project or program will be at the discretion of the local government, based on the public health needs and expectations of their local community. There are opportunities to seek funding to support public health programs through:

• Department of Communities Grant Programs (external site)
• Department of Local Government and Cultural Industries (external site)
• Healthway (external site), including the Healthy Communities Public Health Plan Activation Program (external site)
• LotteryWest (external site)

These agencies provide a range of public health grants to support eligible applicants to deliver positive local community initiatives, programs, research, and partnerships that will help Western Australians live healthy lifestyles and be more mentally healthy. The grants program is open year-round.

Funding opportunites are also be available through other government departments and non-government organisations.