The Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 Chapter 5, Part 1, Section 30 establishes the classes of persons who are required to report suspicion that a child or young person may be at risk.
This includes any person who is an employee of, or volunteer in, a government or non-government organisation that provides health, welfare, education, sporting or recreational, child care or residential services wholly or partly for children, being a person who:
(i) provides such services directly to children and young people is engaged in the actual delivery of those services to children or young people, or
(ii) holds a management position in the relevant organisation the duties of which include direct responsibility for, or direct supervision of, the provision of those services to children or young people.
These people are obliged by law to notify the Department for Child Protection (via the Child Abuse Report Line) if they suspect on reasonable grounds that a child has been or is being abused or neglected and the suspicion is formed in the course of the person’s work (whether paid or voluntary) or of carrying out official duties. This is termed mandatory notification.
In South Australia anyone under the age of 18 is defined as a child.
A mandated notifier must make the notification as soon as practicable after the suspicion is formed.