The report, Community Wellbeing Indicators: Measures for Local Government, outlines key research and initiatives under the theme, and includes a `community wellbeing indicators survey template` that can be adapted for use by local governments nationally to measure, analyse and assess the progress of community wellbeing.

This project was undertaken with the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) as an ACELG Research Partnership Scheme initiative, and was written by Alan Morton and Lorell Edwards.

The aim is to demonstrate that a core set of wellbeing indicators and a menu of `fit for purpose` indicators can provide wellbeing data to local government, and is a worthwhile and valuable investment in strengthening local government capacity and accountability.

The tool contained in the research report will allow councils to measure community wellbeing using a number of standard indicators, to track changes over time, benchmark performance against results from comparative surveys in councils (QLD), and identify policy measures that can improve community outcomes.

While it is state-based research, it has been written with a national local government audience in mind, and both ACELG and LGAQ will promote the use of the survey tool by other jurisdictions.

The research builds upon work ACELG`s work in this area with Penrith City Council (NSW) Options for a Local Government Framework for Measuring Liveability that maps current research and thinking on the state of community liveability indicator development across Australia, and the LGAQ’s Community wellbeing Indicators Project (and subsequent pilot survey work).

Presentations on the research will be made at the ACELG Local Government Researchers Forum, 6-7 June in Adelaide (registrations now open) and to LGAQ stakeholders.

Downloads
Report and Survey Tool
Project Summary

Contact
Stefanie Pillora
Program Manager, Research
Phone Number: 02 9514 4897
[email protected]