The City of Cockburn

Seniors Service Plan 2025 

The City of Cockburn delivers services in line with the Strategic Community Plan 2020-2030. The service plans details impact, costs, resource allocations, and satisfaction metrics for the City’s services.

Developed through extensive stakeholder consultation, these plans provide transparency for the Council and our community.

The Service Plans reflect our commitment to dynamic, forward-thinking service delivery, supporting the City’s five strategic outcomes.

The City of Cockburn had developed its second City of Cockburn Age-Friendly Strategy 2016-2021, and the city achieved a ‘completed’ overall rating for 95.7% of the strategy actions. It is recommended that the eight age-friendly outcomes (as above) are embedded into Service Level Plans forming part of business as usual. The city continues to support an Age-friendly Reference Group and maintain World Health Organisation membership.

The City of Cockburn vision for older people is that they are valued, have optimal opportunities for good health, active participation and a sense of security while enjoying facilities and services that are accessible and inclusive of their needs.

• Key Achievements, Learnings and Recommendations
  • Key Achievements
  o Audit of existing outdoor seating in parks and public places undertaken led to many parks have being improved
  o The Seniors Safety team comprising of their OSH staff reps and Seniors Centre partnered with many organisation and delivered workshops, seminars and other face-to-face events including Elder Abuse prevention, Police Dementia locator
  o Improved parking at railway stations and the Cockburn Seniors Centre, the State Government funded a new parking allotment and station in Aubin Grove
  o Continued promotion and support of existing groups conducting intergenerational activities included the Cockburn Seniors Centre, Cockburn Community Men’s Shed, Libraries, Family Services. Activities formed strong partnerships and collaborative opportunities.
  o Seniors Reference Group with diverse representation and clearly defined terms of reference was established. Many successful activities have been achieved by this group, and opportunities for proactive responses to issues raised by Seniors.
  o The Seniors Centre has produced the Senior’s directory and has distributed over 4000 copies to date.
  o City of Melville and Fremantle in conjunction with the City formed a strong partnership to promote age-friendly activities in the form of Expos, giving local providers an opportunity to showcase their business to seniors.
  o International opportunities arose including City Staff invited to speak at WHO events online and publish article in WHO partners media.
  • Key Learnings
  o Duplication of actions were identified within other strategies mitigating the requirement to complete.
  o Continued feedback loop with the community to advise of the delivered actions can be improved.
  o Various Age-friendly activities will be considered to be delivered as pilots in the future to avoid disappointment if attendance numbers are not sufficient for activity to be sustainable and to attain the highest attending numbers possible
  • Recommendations
  o That the eight age-friendly outcomes are embedded into annual Service Level Plans, as most activities form part of business as usual.
  o The City continue to support an Age-Friendly Reference Group.
  o The City continue World Health Organisation membership.
  o Continued International/State/Local partnerships.

Key achievements from the previous Age-Friendly Strategic Plan 2009-2011 strategy were:

• Establishment of interim Seniors Centre (which currently operates with 1200 highly engaged members)
• Outdoor exercise equipment provided at 15 locations across the City
• Site selected to develop seniors apartments and residential age care facility
• Development of a public toilet map
• Extra patrols by CoSafe
• CCTV strategy implemented
• Public bus service established connecting Spearwood, Coolbellup and Cockburn Central
• Six seniors information forums held annually at the Cockburn Seniors Centre
• Established an interim Men’s Shed in Cockburn and successful Lotterywest grant of $484,000for a new purpose-built shed
• Co Health initiative to support people at risk of developing chronic disease, engaged with 900 seniors
• Annual Healthy Lifestyle Expo for 55+ held in conjunction with the Cities of Fremantle and Melville

The City of Cockburn has been successful in receiving the following awards in relation to their Age-Friendly approach:

• WA Seniors Awards 2015, Senior Volunteer Award, Winner – Don Watson
• WA Seniors Awards 2014, Local Government Award, Winner – City of Cockburn’s Age Friendly Strategic Plan
• WA Seniors Awards 2010, Bendigo Bank Active Ageing Leadership Award – Winner City of Cockburn Senior Centre

The City of Cockburn Age-Friendly Strategy 2016-2021 priority themes emerging from the review process included:

• Seating and shade in parks and public places
• Managing dogs in parks
• Engaging with the business community (to address access issues at shopping centres, employment opportunities and age-friendly strategies within the retail sector)
• Appropriate housing options (to meet a broad range of need and financial capacity)
• Disseminating information (utilising age-friendly approaches)
• Satellite services (to meet growing need in southern and eastern suburbs)
• Linking with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities
• Life-Long Learning Centre (a multi-purpose centre including a permanent Senior’s Centre)
• Intergenerational activities
• Hearing the views of older people

These priorities are reflected in an Implementation Plan which contains 10 priority actions and a total of 47 actions. The 2016 Age-Friendly Strategic Plan will guide the City’s considerations regarding the needs of older people for the next five years. The actions will be reviewed annually with the next major strategy review scheduled for 2021.

A copy of the Age-Friendly Strategy 2016-2021 can be downloaded here: Age-Friendly Strategy 2016-2021