Children and Young People Lens of ACT Wellbeing Framework

The first release of the Children and Young People Lens has 49 measures using data from ACT and national sources, across 11 of the 12 domains of wellbeing.  The measures are a mix of areas where children and young people are thriving and areas where they need more support.

You can access the Explore the Children and Young People Lens on the launch page on the ACT Wellbeing Framework website.

We are pleased to present the Children and Young People Lens of the ACT Wellbeing Framework. It brings together data representing our understanding of the wellbeing of children and young people across our community. By highlighting key wellbeing measures we can better understand the needs of children and young people in their earliest years and make sure we have the right policies and programs in place to provide this support.

The Children and Young People Lens draws information from both publicly available sources as well as previously unreported Government data across 49 measures and represents these in 11 of the 12 existing wellbeing domains. Measures are represented using strengths-based language where possible, noting that some highlight areas where children and young people may have adverse experiences. Where possible, a disaggregation of data by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status is presented to acknowledge where there continues to be a gap in outcomes and to help better target services where they are needed to close this gap.

During the consultations to develop the ACT Wellbeing Framework and the Children and Young People Lens, young people told us we must recognise that they experience different challenges and barriers to adults. As a complement to the ACT Wellbeing Framework, the Children and Young People Lens provides the Government with the opportunity to assess these different experiences and develop insights on the specific needs of children and young people.

Since early 2020, the impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic have been felt across the entire community, with children and young people being particularly affected by the need to switch to remote learning for periods of time. The ACT Government and the community sector have worked to prioritise services and programs needed to support the safety and wellbeing of children and young people through the pandemic.

The pandemic has impacted the availability of some of the data that underpins measures in the Children and Young People Lens. Additionally, we know that some of the changes in the measures over this period reflect the impacts of lockdowns, restrictions and periods of remote learning.

We can see through the Identity and Belonging domain that our children and young people enjoyed returning to on-campus learning from the remote learning periods. The increased time face-to-face with peers correlates with a 10 per cent increase in school identification.

During the same period, the Access and Connectivity domain shows the restricted openings and reduced services across public places impacted access, including to our libraries. Services moved to offer more services online, supporting families to access early intervention and locally-based services during the pandemic. These have now returned to previous levels, with online service now part of mainstream delivery.

We know we have more work to do in supporting families with children in their early years. Data from the Australian Early Development Census shows the ACT has more children starting school who are developmentally vulnerable than ever before.  However, we can see some improvements in service, with an increasing number of children entering early childhood education as part of the ACT Government’s commitment to funding high quality early learning for three-year-olds, starting with those experiencing disadvantage and vulnerability.

The Children and Young People Lens provides policy makers, communities, families and individuals with a robust evidence base to inform actions we can all take to improve outcomes for children and young people. It will be further developed over the coming years to mature our data story of how children and young people in the ACT are growing in wellbeing.

It is important we continue to work together to grow our understanding of Canberra’s children and young people and how we can better support them to become happy, healthy and engaged adults.

Minister Stephen-Smith, Minister for Families and Community Services
Minister Berry, Minister for Education and Youth Affairs

In addition to the Children and Young People Lens, further information that relates to the overall wellbeing of children and young people in the ACT can be found at the following links.

• Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) 2021 results
• ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement 2019-2028 Impact Statement Dashboard

There are many initiatives underway across the ACT Government, working with the Canberra community, aiming to improve the lives and outcomes for our children and young people. These include:

• Next Steps
• Our Booris Our Way
• Local initiatives supported by ACT Government
  • Village for every child
  • A good start in Life

The ACT Government has agreed to a vision for a whole-of-government and whole-of-community approach to promote the rights of children and young people. The ACT Children and Young People’s Commitment 2015-2025 identifies six priority areas. The areas for action under each key priority provide guidance to the Canberra community on how we can best support children and young people to reach their potential and how we can work together to promote and protect their rights.

The ACT has reported on the progress of our children and young people against key indicators since 2011, in the publication of ‘A Picture of Children and Young people in the ACT’. This publication has provided important information about the wellbeing of children, young people, families and the ACT community. It presents a robust evidence base and early identification of emerging trends, supporting early intervention principles, and informing planning, policy and integrated service delivery across our human services programs.

The repository of publications is available here.

The Children and Young People Lens is intended to be an ongoing source of information on the wellbeing of our children and young people. As such, we are committed to maintaining the existing measures with regular updates, and, over time, to build out indicators as more data becomes available.

We will look to seek feedback from the community on how the Children and Young People Lens has been useful and where we can look to find more relevant information to expand our understanding on the wellbeing of our children and young people.