Page 3830 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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context and ways it could have been prevented. This committee will include: the Chief Executive of DHCS; the commissioner for children and young people; senior managers of Housing and Community Services, Education and Health; a social worker; an industrial engineer; a paediatrician with forensic child health expertise; a psychologist; a representative from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community; and a health practitioner.
Section 727E also defines that the chair of the committee must be appointed as an independent member of the committee without the right to vote. This appointment is modelled on the management assessment panel which operates in the office of the Public Advocate of the ACT. The independent chair is intended to ensure that the panel operates in a clear and transparent manner. This model is preferred to ensure that the committee is able to take into account the sensitive and confidential nature of the subject matter and the need for all parties and members of the committee to be transparent in ensuring that the functions of the committee are fulfilled.
The bill sets out the criteria for appointment of committee members and the types of skills, experience, qualifications and positions that members of the committee must hold. The representation of this committee aims to broadly embody a variety of professions and fields that work with or have an interest in the safety and wellbeing of children and young people in the ACT. Under a defined set of circumstances, the minister may end the appointment of a member of the committee.
The bill provides for arrangements to be made by the Chief Executive of DHCS and the committee for public servants in DHCS to act as the administrative unit to provide support to the committee in the exercise of their functions. The administrative detail of the committee is set out in the bill to guide the committee’s work plan and operation.
This bill establishes the children and young people deaths register which must be maintained by the committee. The register contains information on the cause of death, the age and sex of the child or young person and whether the child or young person is of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background. The register will also include whether the child or a sibling was identified under the Children and Young People Act 2008 as being in need of care and protection within three years before his or her death and anything else prescribed by regulation.
The register may also contain any other demographic data available to the committee and any information about a child or young person or the circumstances of the child or young person’s death that the committee considers relevant—for example, information that would provide a qualitative narrative or contextual understanding of the circumstances surrounding the death of a child or young person.
It is integral that the committee has access to the information it needs to provide a clear and accurate picture of the child and young people deaths that have occurred in the ACT. The bill provides that the committee has the power to ask people to provide it with documents relevant to the consideration of a review of a death. This power is one that is commonly given to investigative bodies and is consistent with the powers currently available under the Discrimination Act 1991, the Community and Health Services Complaints Act 1993 and the Human Rights Commission Act 2005.
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