The Children and Young People (Safety and Support) Bill presents a unique opportunity to establish the basis to reform our Child Protection system in South Australia.

While the current Bill has made some small steps in the right direction to this end, it falls well short of the transformation required to make South Australia a leader again in this space. This legislation must go further to ensure that children and young people have the best opportunity to grow up living safely and well in their families, communities and culture.

In order to be a transformative piece of child protection legislation, this submission proposes a number of amendments.

Rather than suggest wholescale change to all elements of the Bill, we believe reform can be achieved through targeted amendments that leave the structure of the Bill largely intact. Given the time taken to get new legislation before Parliament, we believe this to be a more pragmatic approach to deliver the important changes required.

The proposed amendments fall under four key categories:

- Division 3: Guiding Principles

- Application of Significant Harm

- Insertion and Enhancement of Active Efforts

- Inclusion of Reunification Efforts