Raeph Cumming, Director

Raeph is a community infrastructure planning specialist with 13 years’ experience working for and with Victorian local governments delivering evidence-driven needs analysis and facilities planning. After sixteen years in Local Government, Raeph Cumming established SocioLogic in 2017 with the express purpose of tackling the many community infrastructure planning challenges faced by Government. His data-driven and multi-faceted approach is evident in many of the community infrastructure plans, processes and frameworks adopted by Victorian councils over the past 13 years.

As a council employee, a consultant through SocioLogic and as convenor of the Victorian Social Infrastructure Planners Network (2018-20) Raeph has long been at the forefront of innovation in the community infrastructure planning sector, developing tools and methods to ensure that planning decisions are backed by data and a reliable understanding of community needs. His award-winning CASIMO ‘Community and Social Infrastructure Model’ platform is currently used by many Victorian LGAs as a basis for their evidence-based planning and provides information on over 11,000 community facilities.

Through SocioLogic, one of Raeph’s primary aims is to support councils to build their in-house skills and resources and enable them to routinely identify their community infrastructure priorities. To achieve this, Raeph works with his clients (26 Victorian LGAs since 2017) to provide them with advice, tools and planning approaches such as the CASIMO database, utilisation and fitness for purpose data collection and assessment templates, integrated service planning and delivery models, and cross-departmental planning frameworks. Raeph’s work spans the full spectrum of service and infrastructure planning from high-level strategic governance and corporate prioritisation of funding, to the development of technical community needs analyses, prioritisation of needs and the design of community facilities.

As former convener of the Social Infrastructure Planners Network (now the Social Infrastructure Planning Special Interest Group), Raeph has had the privilege of working alongside councils across metropolitan and regional Victoria developing new practices in the field of ‘integrated service and facilities planning’. Raeph is passionate about supporting councils to continue this work, to share and build on each others’ ideas and develop locally-relevant solutions that truly meet the needs of our current and future communities.

“Raeph undertook a complex data analysis project determining the future demand for kindergarten programs and associated infrastructure. Raeph presented and explained key information, analysis and findings clearly and concisely. His flexible and collaborative approach was much appreciated and assisted in ensuring the project had the best possible outcomes.” [Manager Early Years and Youth, Merri-Bek Council, 2022]

“Council engaged Sociologic to conduct a critical piece of work forecasting future infrastructure solutions across the municipality. The high level of professionalism, knowledge and attention to detail demonstrated by SocioLogic throughout the process and the “extra mile” ensured our team well placed strategically to plan for the future with a sound evidence base underpinning the work. Thank you Raeph, you gave us your all at all times and your expertise is astounding.”
[Team Leader Education and Care, Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, 2022]

“Raeph's work was instrumental in helping us work through complex data analysis to explore different ways of understanding three-year-old kindergarten service and infrastructure needs in Wyndham. His experience and understanding of local government infrastructure planning enabled him to get straight into delivering the work with little support from our staff. Raeph is highly dependable and a clear communicator, so we always knew we were on the same page about what we needed to achieve.”
[Manager, Service Planning, Partnering and Reform, Wyndham City Council, 2023]

“We found Raeph to be very knowledgeable on what we and the Department of Education (DE) needed to achieve. He is thorough, personable, available, easy to deal with. He had a good rapport with all, which was extremely important and effective in getting Council and DE to a shared agreement quickly and easily.”
[GM Community Wellbeing and Inclusion, City of Port Phillip, 2022]

“We found Raeph to have excellent communication skills, particularly with regard to his ability to act as a liaison between DE and Council. Raeph was able to keep both parties well informed and focused on moving forward collaboratively. Raeph was extremely knowledgeable and had an excellent affinity for statistics; this enabled him to produce extensive and accurate data in a prompt and efficient manner. Raeph was responsible for the production of a comprehensive database that continues to be a great asset, especially with regard to planning for the future of our Early Childhood Services.” [Manager Family and Children Services, Glen Eira City Council, 2022]

Associates & Collaborators

Depending on the job, SocioLogic partners with specialists and other consultants to provide the full range of required skills. Typically we sub-contract specialists in:

• Open space planning

• Recreation and leisure

• Early years: child care, kindergarten, and maternal and child health

• Community Engagement (see Conversation Caravan)

• Corporate planning and strategic governance