Joined Up Government
Neighbourhood Renewal is a whole-of-government initiative to narrow the gap between the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Victoria and the rest of the State. This is a priority approach for the Victorian government in addressing place-based disadvantage.
Increasing access to key services and improving government responsiveness is one of Neighbourhood Renewal's six key objectives.
A whole-of-government approach in Neighbourhood Renewal areas means:
- Better coordination between government portfolios
- Targeting initiatives and prioritising existing resources and growth funding to Neighbourhood Renewal projects
- All of government supporting implementation of local Neighbourhood Renewal Action Plans
- All of government committing to work with local communities through local Neighbourhood Renewal partnership arrangements.
Key actions and partners
To support a more joined up approach Neighbourhood Renewal has worked extensively across government to secure commitments through whole of government agreements that prioritise resources and investment in disadvantaged areas.State government agencies that have made specific formal commitments to Neighbourhood Renewal areas include:
- Department of Human Services
- Department of Health
- Department of Justice
- Department of Planning and Community Development
- Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
- Department of Transport
- Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development
- Department of Sustainability and Environment
- Victoria Police.
- Local Governments
- VicHealth
- VicUrban
- Sustainability Victoria.
At a local level, strategic partnerships have been formed between regional offices of State government departments, local governments, local businesses, residents, community groups (such as neighbourhood houses) and service providers (such as community health centres). Steering committees or neighbourhood boards are important components of Neighbourhood Renewal in prioritising issues and actions at the local level with local residents as key members.
Each Neighbourhood Renewal project develops an area-based community action plan that prioritises local issues, collaboratively develops strategic solutions and actions.
Joined-up local action doesn't happen without the support of regional government departments and local government providing the appropriate level of support and authority.
Commitments to individual local projects have also been made by local governments, Commonwealth government, non-government and community-based organisations, local businesses, local universities, schools and other learning institutions and the residents and people working in Neighbourhood Renewal areas.
Key achievements against key actions
Government departments have worked together to deliver housing upgrades and community infrastructure.
The Department of Planning and Community Development has established local community enterprises and workforce participation programs. Local residents have been employed to deliver housing upgrades to Office of Housing properties in Neighbourhood Renewal areas. In a number of areas, these works have been supplemented by energy retrofits funded by Sustainability Victoria.
The development of a lifelong learning hub in Wendouree West is a fantastic example where cross government support (Department of Human Services, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and Department of Planning and Community Development) in partnership with local residents, resulted in the building of the Wendouree West Community Learning Hub. Over $12 million has been invested and the community now has a state of the art facility comprising of preschool, primary school, occassional care, adult education and a Neighbourhood House.
You can find many more examples throughout our website on the policy pages and the individual project pages.
Mainstreaming the benefits of Neighbourhood Renewal
In 2007 the Minister for Housing approved a comprehensive mainstreaming strategy which aims to sustain the benefits of Neighbourhood Renewal and continue to narrow the gap between disadvantaged communities and the rest of the State.
The strategy is embedding the three key elements of Neighbourhood Renewal – joined up government, place management and community governance - into the processes of State and Local governments through the implementation of several related actions. For local projects, actions focus on the development and implementation of:
- local community engagement structures that are linked to local planning decisions about investment and services
- Neighbourhood Agreements
- integrated planning with local government
- an ongoing commitment to place management for the Neighbourhood Renewal community through local government.
For State Government action focuses on the establishment of targets and benchmarks to continue to measure the gap between disadvantaged communities and the rest of the state and provide a mechanism to identify key priority areas for government investment until the gap has been substantially reduced.
In August 2008 government departments agreed to a suite of targets that cover each of the six action areas. The targets and related benchmarks are available in the fact sheet below called Mainstreaming - Targets 2008.
Attachments
Mainstreaming Strategy
The purpose of the Mainstreaming Strategy 2007 is to outline a strategy to achieve lasting benefits by mainstreaming the key features of Neighbourhood Renewal into the core business of State and local governments.
Mainstreaming Strategy 2007 (Word Size 79KB, Pages 7)
Mainstreaming – The Facts
This is a fact sheet about Neighbourhood Renewal's Mainstreaming Strategy.
Mainstreaming - The Facts (Word Size 71KB, Pages 3)
Contacts
For more information on Neighbourhood Renewal's strategies to increase access to services and improve government responsiveness, please contact:Dianne Hill
Manager Policy, Strategy & Communication
p. 03 9096-7230
e. Dianne.Hill@dhs.vic.gov.au
