Part 4

Part 4—Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee 30—Continuation of Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee (1) The Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee established under the Children's Protection Act 1993 continues in existence. (2) The Committee consists of up to 20 members appointed by the Minister. (3) The Committee is to be subject to direction by the Minister but— (a) the Committee cannot be directed to make a particular finding or recommendation; and (b) a direction must be published in the annual report of the Committee relating to the period in which the direction was given. 31—Terms and conditions of members (1) Subject to this section, a member of the Committee holds office on conditions, and for a term (not exceeding 2 years), determined by the Minister and specified in the instrument of appointment and is, at the expiration of a term of office, eligible for reappointment. (2) The office of a member becomes vacant if the member— (c) resigns by written notice to the Minister; or (iii) an offence against the law of another jurisdiction that, if committed in this State, would be an offence of a kind referred to in a preceding paragraph; or (g) is removed from office by the Minister under subsection (3). (3) The Minister may remove a member from office— (a) for misconduct or conduct that brings the Committee into disrepute; or (b) for breach of, or non-compliance with, a condition of appointment; or (c) if the member has become bankrupt or has applied to take the benefit of a law for the relief of insolvent debtors; or (d) if the member has been disqualified from managing corporations under Chapter 2D Part 2D.6 of the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth; or (e) if the member has, because of mental or physical incapacity, failed to carry out duties of the position satisfactorily; or (f) for incompetence or neglecting the duties of the position; or (g) any other reason the Minister thinks fit. 32—Presiding member The Minister must appoint a member of the Committee as the presiding member of the Committee. 33—Procedures of the Committee (1) Subject to this Act, a quorum of the Committee consists of one half the total number of its members (ignoring any fraction resulting from the division) plus 1. (2) The Committee must meet at least 5 times in each year. (3) The presiding member will preside at a meeting of the Committee and, in the absence of that person, a member chosen by the members present at the meeting will preside. (4) A question arising for decision at a meeting of the Committee will be decided by a majority of the votes cast by the members present at the meeting. (5) Each member present at a meeting of the Committee will be entitled to 1 vote on any question arising for decision at the meeting and, if the votes are equal, the person presiding will have a casting vote. (6) Subject to this Act and any directions of the Minister, the Committee may determine its own procedures. 34—Delegation (1) The Committee may delegate to a member, or a sub-committee of its members, any of its powers or functions under this Act. (c) does not derogate from the ability of the Committee to act in any matter; and (3) A function or power delegated under this section may, if the instrument of delegation so provides, be further delegated. 35—Staff and resources The Minister must provide the Committee with the staff and other resources that the Committee reasonably needs for carrying out the Committee's functions. 36—Use of staff and facilities etc (1) The Committee may, by agreement with the Minister responsible for an administrative unit of the Public Service, make use of the services of the staff, equipment or facilities of that administrative unit. (2) The Committee may, with the Minister's approval, engage an expert to assist it in the review of a particular case or in carrying out any other aspect of its functions. 37—Functions of the Committee (1) The functions of the Committee are— (a) to review cases in which children die or suffer serious injury with a view to identifying legislative or administrative means of preventing similar cases of death or serious injury in the future; and (b) to make, and monitor the implementation of, recommendations for avoiding preventable child death or serious injury; and (c) to maintain a database of child deaths and serious injuries and their circumstances and causes. (2) A review may be carried out if— (a) the incident resulting in the child's death or serious injury occurred in the State; or (b) the child was, at the time of the death or serious injury, ordinarily resident in the State. (3) The Committee should review a case of child death or serious injury if— (a) there are grounds to suspect that the death or serious injury may be due to abuse or neglect; or (b) there are grounds to believe that the death or serious injury might have been prevented by some kind of systemic change; or (c) there had been, within 3 years before the incident resulting in the death or serious injury, a notification to the Department of suspected abuse or neglect of the child, or a member of the child's family; or (d) the child was, at the time of death or serious injury, under the guardianship, or in the custody, of the Chief Executive (within the meaning of the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017) or was in custody or detention or in the care of a government agency; or (e) the case has been referred to the Committee by the State Coroner; or (f) the case has been referred to the Committee by the Minister. (4) The Committee may review a case of child death or serious injury that is the subject of an ongoing inquest or inquiry under the Coroners Act 2003 or an ongoing criminal investigation if— (a) the Committee consults, in accordance with any requirements set out in the regulations, with— (i) if the case is the subject of an inquest or inquiry—the State Coroner; or (ii) if the case is the subject of a criminal investigation—the Commissioner of Police; and (b) the Committee, in carrying out the review, takes all reasonable steps to avoid compromising the inquest, inquiry or investigation (as the case may be). (5) The State Coroner or the Commissioner of Police (as the case may be) may, by notice in writing, direct that the Committee does, or refrains from doing, a particular thing in the course of a review if the Coroner or Commissioner (as the case may be) is of the opinion that such a direction is necessary to avoid compromise to an inquest, inquiry or investigation. (5a) If the Committee contravenes a direction given under subsection (5), the State Coroner or the Commissioner of Police (as the case may be) may report the contravention to the Minister. (5b) However, a contravention of a direction given under subsection (5) does not affect the validity of a review carried out by, or a recommendation made by, the Committee. (6) Without limiting the ways in which the Committee may conduct a review, a review may be carried out by examination of coronial and other records and reports relevant to the case under review. (7) The Committee must not make a finding about civil or criminal liability. (8) The database maintained by the Committee may only be inspected in accordance with the regulations. 38—Powers of Committee (1) Subject to this section, but without limiting any other provision of this Act, the Committee may, for the purposes of a review of a case of child death or serious injury, require a specified person (whether or not the person is a State authority, or an officer or employee of a State authority) to provide to the Committee such information or documents as may be specified in the notice (being information or documents in the possession of the person that the Committee reasonably requires for the review). (2) A person must not refuse or fail to comply with a requirement under subsection (1). (3) Subsection (2) does not apply to a prescribed person in relation to a child who is the subject of the review. (4) The Committee cannot require a person to disclose or allow access to information or documents subject to the operation of Part 7 or 8 of the Health Care Act 2008. (5) If a State authority refuses or fails to comply with a requirement under subsection (1), the Committee may, after consultation with the State authority— (a) report the refusal or failure to the Minister and to the Minister responsible for the State authority (if any); and (b) include details of the refusal or failure in the annual report of the Committee. (6) In this section— prescribed person, in relation to a child, means a parent, step-parent, foster parent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandfather or grandmother of the child. 38A—Provisions relating to information (1) Without limiting any other provision of this Act, or any other Act or law, the Committee, South Australia Police and the State Coroner may, in accordance with any requirements prescribed by the regulations, provide information to one another for the purposes of— (a) determining whether a review of a case of child death or serious injury should be carried out by the Committee under this Act; or (b) carrying out such a review. (2) Information that has been provided under subsection (1) for the purposes set out in that subsection must not be used for any other purpose by— (a) the person to whom the information was disclosed; or (b) any other person who gains access to the information as a result of that disclosure. (3) A person cannot be compelled to do any of the following: (a) give evidence of matters becoming known to them as a member or staff of the Committee through the performance of functions under this Act; (b) produce a document that was prepared or made in the course of, or for the purposes of, a review of a case of child death or serious injury; (c) provide information that became known in the course of a review of a case of child death or serious injury. (4) For the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 1991, a document prepared by the Committee under this Act will be taken to be an exempt document under that Act (including where the document is held by or in the possession of an agency other than the Committee). (5) For the purposes of this section, a reference to staff of the Committee includes any staff or an expert contemplated by section 36. 39—Reporting obligations (1) The Committee must, at the request of the Minister, provide a report to the Minister on the performance of its functions or on any other matter specified by the Minister. (2) The Committee must, on or before 31 October in each year, report to the Minister on the performance of its functions during the preceding financial year. (3) The Minister must, within 6 sitting days after receiving a report under subsection (2), have copies of the report laid before both Houses of Parliament.