Australian National Child Health and Development Atlas

The Challenge

Child health and development is complex and is impacted by many environmental, social, and genetic factors. It is also captured across disciplines (medical, social and educational) with varying metrics for each. The challenge is to bring this information together into a single, accessible resource for the benefit of children and families.

The Response

The Australian National Child Health and Development Atlas (ANCHDA) brings together the creators of novel tools for data collation, visualisation and analysis, used for research, service planning, and policy development on child health and wellbeing. 

The resulting atlas will map data on children across Australia, enabling the visualisation, analysis, and monitoring of health and wellbeing metrics for children. 

The project will deliver:

• a national child health and development data asset incorporating Commonwealth, state and non-government organisation data on the health and wellbeing of Australian children
• a national interactive platform enabling the geospatial and temporal visualisation of child health and wellbeing indicators locally and nationally
• alignment (as far as possible) with the National Children’s Headline Indicators published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY).

Who Will Benefit

Research organisations, researchers, government agencies, non-government organisations, service providers, advocacy groups and community members will benefit from:

• harmonised data management, sharing, privacy and governance processes across child health and wellbeing data providers and users
• improved access and discoverability of key child health and wellbeing data collections at an area level across Australia in a visualisation platform.

The Partners

Our partners are:

• University of Western Australia
• Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth
• Commissioner for Children and Young People Western Australia
• Western Australia Department of Premier and Cabinet
• Edith Cowan University
• Curtin University
• Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
• Telethon Kids Institute
• Childrens Health Queensland
• Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
• University of New South Wales
• Torrens University
• Western Australia Department of Health
• Queensland University of Technology
• University of Sydney
• Strategic Momentum Group
• Kids to Adults National Alliance
• Queensland Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy.

Target Outcomes

This project will provide visibility of the health, development and wellbeing needs of children across the country. This visibility will provide more specificity and utility of the data available for public policy investment and commissioning decisions enabling maximum impact on the lives of children and families.