Leading Healthy Communities - Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Planning

Local government plays a key role in creating the environment for communities to prosper and enjoy improved health and wellbeing.

Current priorities

We support the work that councils undertake in building, promoting and maintaining healthy communities.

Councils are required to prepare a municipal public health and wellbeing plan every four years (following the general council elections). Council public health and wellbeing plans must have regard to the State public health and wellbeing plan 2023–2027.

We work with State government, health promotion agencies and local government to develop and promote a range of advice and resources for health and social planners.

We have also compiled links to the Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plans (MPHWPs) developed by each of Victoria’s 79 councils – see below for details.

2021-2025 Municipal public health and wellbeing planning cycle

MAV Resource – Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan High-Level Analysis

The MAV supports councils in their work to progress the development of healthy, diverse and thriving communities with their key partner agencies.

We have conducted an analysis of the key themes and priorities in the MPHWPs, and produced three resources with the findings. See below for the full report and summary document and a searchable spreadsheet that enables further analysis based on health regions and priority areas.

• MAV MPHWP Analysis - Snapshot (PDF - 265KB)
• Final MAV MPHWP Analysis - Full Report (PDF - 400KB)
• MAV MPHWP Analysis - Summary Spreadsheet (Excel - 73KB)

Advice

1. Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Planning 2021–2025: Advice Note 1 - Aug 2020 (PDF - 720KB)
2. Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Planning 2021–2025: Advice Note 2: Applying for an Exemption from Producing a Standalone Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan - Aug 2021 (PDF - 257KB)

Resources

1. Family violence and municipal public health and wellbeing planning - Guidance for local government - May 2017
2. Tackling climate change and its impacts on health through municipal public health and wellbeing planning: Guidance for local government, 2020 (PDF - 8.94MB)
3. MPHWP Planning Guide - Including health protection matters into MPHW Plans - December 2020 (PDF - 149KB)
4. VicHealth COVID19 Coronavirus Wellbeing Impact Study
5. VicHealth Indicators Survey 2015: Selected Findings (PDF - 3.38MB)
6. Victorian Population Health Survey
7. Local Government areas report on population diversity
8. Municipal public health and wellbeing planning briefing for councillors and executive (PowerPoint - 8MB)
9. Council planning typology (PNG - 200KB)

Current municipal public health and wellbeing plans

See all Victorian councils’ 2021-2025 health and wellbeing plans.

Past planning cycle action guides and planning tools

• Guide to municipal public health & wellbeing planning
• Including public health & wellbeing matters in the council plan or strategic plan
• Leading the way: Councils creating healthier communities
• Municipal public health & wellbeing planning: having regard to climate change
• Practical guide to conducting annual reviews of municipal public health & wellbeing plans
• VicHealth local government action guides.

Engage with us

For more information about our Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing policy work, please email: publichealth@mav.asn.au