Child health, development and wellbeing

The health and wellbeing of Australia's children is at the centre of policy making in Australia today, recognising that children are the key to Australia's future. Timely, accurate and comprehensive information on children's health, development and wellbeing is essential for monitoring the progress of Australia's children, and is critical for the development of evidence-based policy.

The Children, Youth and Families Unit undertakes 3 main projects related to child health and wellbeing:

• A picture of Australia's children
• Headline Indicators for children's health, development and wellbeing
• Making progress: the health, development and wellbeing of Australia's children and young people

The AIHW also produces reports on the health and wellbeing of Australia's youth.

A picture of Australia's children

A picture of Australia's children 2009 is the fourth national statistical report produced by the AIHW on the health, development and wellbeing of children aged 0-14 years. This report presents data on key national indicators of children's health, development and wellbeing, which included the Children's Headline Indicators for the first time.

The report was guided by the National Child Information Advisory Group (NCIAG).

The report covers a wide variety of topics, including:

• health status (e.g. mortality, chronic conditions, disability, mental health)
• risk and protective factors (e.g. physical activity, weight, substance use, literacy and numeracy, attendance at early childhood education programs)

• families and communities (e.g. family functioning, family economic situation, parental health status, neighbourhood safety)

• safety and security (e.g. injuries, child abuse and neglect, homelessness, crime)

• system performance (e.g. immunisation, leukaemia survival)

For further information on the key national indicators reported in A picture of Australia's children 2009, see:

• Key national indicators of children's health, development and wellbeing: indicator framework for 'A picture of Australia's children 2009'
• Technical paper on operational definitions and data issues for key national indicators of children's health, development and wellbeing

Headline Indicators for children's health, development and wellbeing

The AIHW is contracted by the Australian Health Ministers' Conference, the Community and Disability Services Ministers' Conference and the Australian Education Systems Officials Committee, to report and undertake data development on 19 Children's Headline Indicators.

The Headline Indicators are designed to focus government policy attention on identified priorities for children aged 0-12 years, through the comparison of state and territory data, and data from subpopulations of children, including:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
• children living in remote and disadvantaged areas, and
• children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

A picture of Australia's children 2009 reports on the Headline Indicators for the first time.

Online data are also available for the Headline Indicators with defined indicators and available data (10 of the 19 Headline Indicators).

For further background information see the Headline Indicators project report [external link].

Making progress: the health, development and wellbeing of Australia's children and young people

Making progress presents the latest and most reliable information on how, as a nation, we are faring according to key statistical indicators of child and youth health, development and wellbeing.

The report covers children and young people aged 0-19 years, and includes indicators for the entire 0-19 year age range as well as indicators for three different stages of development:

• infancy and early childhood,
• school age childhood, and
• adolescence.

Information is presented on a variety of topics, such as mental health, disability, chronic disease risk factors, mortality, education, homelessness, crime, jobless families and family economic situation. Particular attention is given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youth, and to how Australia compares internationally.

 

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