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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-16 Daily Xml
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Disability Services

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:35): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding disability services. Have all incidents relating to people in state-run disability care that have been entered into the DHS RiskMan system during 2020 been carefully reviewed following the death of Ann Marie Smith?

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: Sorry, entered into the what?

The Hon. T.T. NGO: Entered into the DHS RiskMan system. And, if not, could the minister outline why not?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:36): I thank the honourable member for his question. As I outlined, I think in the last sitting week, the Department of Human Services does have an incident management system which reports on particular matters which may take place within our own service system, whether that be Kurlana Tapa, the Adelaide Youth Training Centre, whether that is the state accommodation services' group homes for people with disability or indeed our funded services. So it covers a fairly broad range of areas.

The process for which the incident management operates—and I can provide a bit more detail; I think I did this last year in relation to how the quality system operates, which has a number of steps in it to ensure that any matters that need to be followed up have been followed up through the appropriate arrangements. So if I can just provide that detail once again for the honourable member; clearly he has some concerns about how this particular matter operates.

The steps are as follows, for any matters which are determined to be critical incidents, which may include unexpected death, serious injury or alleged assault of a client that occurs as a result of or during the delivery of services; allegations of serious unlawful or criminal activity or conduct involving an employee, subcontractor or volunteer that has caused or has the potential to cause serious harm to clients; an incident where a client assaults or causes serious harm to others, including employees, volunteers or contractors; or a serious fire, natural disaster, accident or other incident that will or is likely to prevent service provision or that results in closure or significant damage to premises or property or that poses a significant threat to the health and safety of clients.

The steps in the process are immediate response—safety; secondly, reporting to SAPOL; third, reporting to the Office for Public Integrity; four, internal DHS notifying, including the Incident Management Unit and the executive director; five, critical incident assessment by the director of the Incident Management Unit; six is a disclosure assessment; seven is an initial email alert; eight, ongoing critical incident management and investigation; nine, closure, downgrading, when the situation has stabilised and the appropriate supports are in place; reviews of CCIs by the Incident Management Unit.

I think in relation to the honourable member's concern, these matters are, by their nature, reviewed. They are escalated through the department. I am also on the notification list, and after the event the department ensures that any steps that need to have been taken have been appropriately reviewed.

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