Creating a Child Friendly Port Phillip

A Framework for Action

Port Phillip, a city where childhood is honoured and all children are cherished and supported as active citizens with a voice of their own, secure in their identity and culture; where they are able to play, learn and contribute to their environments, surrounded by nurturing adults and supportive communities.

What are we doing to achieve this?

We have designed a Municipal Early Years Plan for Port Phillip that provides a strategic approach to the promotion of new ways of thinking about children and new ways of developing policies and services that give more attention to their rights, interests and needs. We believe that we need to:

• recognise and respond to children as active citizens of Port Phillip
• increase opportunities for children's participation in council and community decisions-making processes that affect them
• seek the views and contributions of all children

You can view both the Framework for Action and the Implementation Plan here: Framework for Action    Implementation Plan 

What we have done so far:

• Children were not consulted as part of the MEYP development because we were not yet in the position to consult with children in a way that would be genuine and ethical due to time constrants and lack of training.
• Consulting with children and the development of a Children's Plan (a plan for children, with children) was therefore identified as one of the first and most important actions of the MEYP 2005 - 2009.
• In 2006, the CoPP commissioned the Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood (CEIEC) to design, deliver and report on a 'Respecting children as citizens in Local Government' action research project and to assist in the development of a Children's Plan.
• Over the past two years approximately 400 children (representing 5% of the total number of children aged 0-12 years in the CoPP) have shared their views and opinions with people working with or for the CoPP on what they valued, what made it difficult and what they felt needed improving in the city.
• Of the total number, 142 children were consulted as part of the action research project, focussing on their ideas, views and concerns about living in Port Phillip and/or the services they used.
• The consultations have occured across the city, in all neighbourhoods, with a wide range of children from diverse backgrounds.
• To date, children have been asked to share their views and opinions about their lives in the CoPP. They have achieved this through verbal conversations with adults and other children, artwork such as paintings, drawing, photography and writing.
  Topics have included:
• Development of Councils Community Plan Children's Speak 2007
• Children's centre evaluation
• New early childhood staff recruitment and induction
• Issues around access and mobility to facilities via busy roads
• Living in Elwood for children
• Planning experiences in early childhood centres
• Babies at Port Phillip Library story time
• Menu planning in early childhood centres
• Changes in practice within Maternal Child and Health Centres
• Development of Garden City Reserve
• Child Safety
• Development of Fitzroy Street
• Middle Park beach redevelopment project
• Assessment of pocket parks
• Active living and healthy eating