What is a Social Planning?

In different local government contexts social planners do a variety of different things. In most contexts Social Planners write the Councils Social Policy framework on issues including inclusion, access and participation, health and wellbeing, adressing poverty and food security, housing affordability. Despite identified and causal links between health and planning in most local government contexts Social Planning is only loosely connected to decisions made about the built environment.

In the Geelong context Social Planning focusses on:

• the inclusion of people in decisions about the built environment, and
• ensuring the built environment works for people using it by improving rather than inhibiting or harming population health and wellbeing.

Planning for People in the Built Environment

In Geelong Social Planning is undertaken in the context of Strategic, Statutory and other formal and community planning processes.

Current Social Planning initiatives and activities include:

• Planning for Healthy and Active Communities
• Planning for Socially Sustainable Community Infrastructure
• Responding to Structure Plans and other Strategic Planning documentation
• Responding to a variety of Planning Applications
• Participating in decision making around new subdivisions to ensure that communities are socially sustainable
• Community Planning eg the Bellarine Peninsula Strategic Plan