Child health and wellbeing publications

'A picture of Australia's children' is the third national statistical report on the health, development and wellbeing of Australia's children aged 0-14 years. Childhood, particularly early childhood, has become a key priority for governments and non-government organisations across Australia. This is in response to emerging issues of concern for Australia's children in the context of rapid social change, as well as compelling evidence about the importance of the early years for laying the foundations for children's future competence and physical and mental wellbeing. This report has been broadened to bring together a wide variety of data, including information about individual, family and societal factors that influence the health, development and wellbeing of children. New topics include exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, homelessness, literacy and numeracy, children as victims of violence, neighbourhood safety, and parental health and disability.

This report delivers the latest information on how, as a nation, we are faring according to key indicators of child health, development and wellbeing. Death rates among children have fallen dramatically, and most children are physically active and meet minimum standards for reading and numeracy. But it is not all good news. Rates of severe disability and diabetes are on the rise. Too many children are overweight or obese, or are at risk of homelessness, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children fare worse on most key indicators.

This report provides the latest available information on how Australia's children aged 0-12 years are faring according to the Children's Headline Indicators-19 priority areas covering health status, risk and protective factors, early learning and care, and family and community environments. The Children's Headline Indicators are designed to help guide and evaluate policy development by measuring progress on agreed priority areas for children, and have been endorsed by Ministerial Councils for health, community and disability services, and education. Australian children are faring well, but results vary between states and territories, and across particular population groups, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and those in remote or socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. It is clear, therefore, that there is scope for further gains across a number of indicators.

This bulletin previews the reporting framework and key national indicators that will be the basis of the report, 'A picture of Australia's children 2009', scheduled for release in 2009. This bulletin also contains the Headline Indicators for Children's Health, Development and Wellbeing. The indicators cover a broad range of areas of children's health, development and wellbeing, including: morbidity, disability, mortality, health risk and protective factors, early learning and education, the influences of family, neighbourhood and community factors, safety and security, economic and social influences, and measures of system performance.

The Picture of Australia's Children report presents the latest available data on key national indicators of health,development and wellbeing of Australian children aged 0-14 years. It is the third report about children produced by the AIHW. This summary booklet takes selected key national indicators and summarises the findings from the report in an abbreviated format.

This technical paper specifies the operational definitions and primary data sources for the key national indicators of children's health, development and wellbeing. It identifies the best currently available data sources for the key national indicators as identified by the AIHW, in conjunction with the National Child Information Advisory Group. It comments on data gaps and limitations, particularly inconsistencies between indicator (ideal) definitions and existing data definitions.