Tasmania opens consultation on first Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy

Consultation is now open with the Government seeking community input to support in delivering Tasmania’s first ever comprehensive, long-term, whole of government Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy.

 

The Strategy will cover all children and young people from 0 to 25 years old, with a specific focus on the first 1000 days because we know this time provides a critical foundation for the rest of a young person’s life.

 

Investing in the wellbeing of children and young Tasmanians, Premier Peter Gutwein said, is critical for the State’s future, with children and young people who have greater wellbeing more likely to have better educational outcomes, and a better quality of life.

 

Essentially, the Premier added, he hopes the Strategy will provide “the blueprint for Tasmanian children to thrive”.

 

The consultation will ensure children, young people, their caregivers, service providers, and policy makers can make their voices heard, with multiple ways for people to have their say and input ideas through paper-based, digital and face-to-face channels.

 

This includes:

 

• An interactive website where individuals and organisations are invited to share their contributions online through drawings, paintings, creative writing; by completing a survey; or by making a formal written submission to a discussion paper.
• Paper-based materials (e.g. postcard to the Premier), which complement the interactive website and are being distributed across the state.
• Face-to-face consultations to be run statewide by the CCYP, Youth Network of Tasmania (YNOT), Mental Health Council Tasmania (MHCT) and Playgroup Tasmania, focussing on hard to reach and digitally excluded children and young people.

 

The consultation program will run from 19 January to 19 March, and the Premier urged all interested Tasmanians to make their voice heard and to give the Government the information it needs to continue delivering better health and wellbeing among young Tasmanians.

 

The strategy will be delivered in the first half of 2021 and will be considered in the 2021-22 Tasmanian Budget.