Overview: about the agency (DHW 2024-25 Annual Report)

Our strategic focus

Our purpose

The Department is responsible for providing system leadership and developing the vision, direction and long-term strategies that will sustain the South Australian public health system, now and in the future.

The Department, through the Chief Executive, is responsible to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. The Department provides expert health, public health, supporting the Minister and Chief Executive in exercising their powers and functions.

Our vision

The Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2020-2025 establishes a strong vision that South Australians experience the best health and wellbeing in Australia.

To achieve this vision, a strategic focus on prevention, protection, innovation, and sustainability is maintained across SA Health, with the primary objective to improve the health and wellbeing of all South Australians.

Five principal themes support SA Health’s achievement of the vision and strategic direction. The themes form the foundation for the deliverable actions identified in the Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2020-2025 and informs the principal rationale for determining, planning, and developing new improvement activities, initiatives and projects:

• Together – working in partnership to develop patient-centred solutions and service improvements
• Trusted – providing safe, reliable, and high-quality treatment and care
• Targeted – addressing priority health needs and disparities with the right evidence, motivation, and interventions
• Tailored – meeting the diverse and complex needs of individuals
• Timely – optimising health and wellness outcomes by delivering timely and appropriate health care.

Our values

The South Australian Public Sector values articulate our commitment to each other, consumers and the community.

These are Service, Professionalism, Trust, Respect, Collaboration and Engagement, Honesty and Integrity, Courage and Tenacity and Sustainability. Further, to support these values, SA Health upholds Care and Kindness values that underpin how we treat each other and our patients and work together to provide services.

Our functions, objectives and deliverables

The Department supports the delivery of public health services, formulates health and wellbeing policies and programs, facilitates public and consumer consultation on health issues, and monitors the performance of South Australia’s health system by providing timely advice, research, and administrative support. The Department is the health system leader, in the context of its relationship with the LHNs, SA Ambulance Service and other portfolio entities. The Department’s aim is to improve whole-of-system capability and performance through alignment, culture, partnership, connectivity, and collaboration.

Led by the Chief Executive, the Department is responsible for:

• Supporting and advising the Minister and government on strategic policies and directions
• Coordinating Parliamentary and Cabinet briefing processes
• Statutory reporting requirements
• Inter-governmental relations
• Participating in, and supporting the Minister to participate in, national reforms via national councils and committees
• Regulatory and licencing functions

As the system leader for the delivery of health services, the Department will:

• Develop the vision, direction and long-term planning strategy to sustain the health system
• Provide strategic leadership, planning and direction for health care services in South Australia
• Guide, inform and fulfil the planning and commissioning cycle including:
  • Making recommendations for the allocation of funding from the health portfolio budget to health service providers
  • Enter into Service Agreements with health service providers outlining budget, activity and performance measures
  • Monitor performance and take remedial action when performance does not meet expected standards
  • Demonstrate strong financial management and accountability that prioritises investment in high value, evidence informed service responses and system sustainability at a local level
• Arrange for the provision of health services by contracted health entities
• Oversee, monitor and promote improvements in the safety and quality of health services
• Prioritise and set system-wide interventions including regulations, policy directives, guidelines, funding, performance and programs
• Support, promote and lead the delivery of relevant system-wide strategies, policies, plans, and innovation
• Build system-wide collaboration and inter-agency stakeholder networks
• Foster a leadership culture that supports accountability, transparency, collaboration and encourages innovation.

Our organisational structure

Organisational chart 2024/25 (PDF 85KB)

Changes to the agency

During 2024-25 there were the following changes to the agency’s structure and objectives as a result of internal reviews or machinery of government changes.

• Office for Ageing Well transferred to Department for Human Services.
• Sustainable Health changed to Commissioning and Performance Projects.
• Procurement and Supply Chain Management combined with Finance and relocated to the Commissioning and Performance Division to create the Procurement, Supply Chain and Finance team.
• Business Performance Operational Services was moved under a new branch called Service Delivery and Business Administration.
• Sunrise EMR combined into Clinical Information Systems.

Our minister

Hon Chris Picton MP is the Minister for Health and Wellbeing in South Australia.

The Minister oversees health, wellbeing, mental health, preventative health, substance use and suicide prevention.

Our executive team

• Dr Robyn Lawrence PSM – Chief Executive
• Julienne TePohe – Deputy Chief Executive, Commissioning and Performance
• Judith Formston – Deputy Chief Executive, Corporate and Infrastructure
• Robyn Lindsay – Deputy Chief Executive, Clinical System Support and Improvement
• Sinead O’Brien – Deputy Chief Executive, Strategy and Governance
• Prof Nicola Spurrier PSM – Chief Public Health Officer
• Dr John Brayley – Chief Psychiatrist
• Bret Morris – Chief Digital Health Officer
• Rob Elliott ASM – Chief Executive Officer, SA Ambulance Service

Legislation administered by the agency

The Department plays a role in administering legislation committed to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. The legislation committed to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing is listed below:

• Advance Care Directives Act 2013
• Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988
• Automated External Defibrillators (Public Access) Act 2022
• Blood Contaminants Act 1985
• Consent to Medical Treatment and Palliative Care Act 1995
• Controlled Substances Act 1984
• Food Act 2001
• Gene Technology Act 2001
• Health and Community Services Complaints Act 2004
• Health Care Act 2008
• Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) Act 2010
• Health Professionals (Special Events Exemption) Act 2000
• Health Services Charitable Gifts Act 2011
• Mental Health Act 2009
• National Health Funding Pool Administration (South Australia) Act 2012
• New Women’s and Children’s Hospital Act 2022
• Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction Act 2003
• Public Intoxication Act 1984
• Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2003
• Safe Drinking Water Act 2011
• South Australian Public Health Act 2011
• Suicide Prevention Act 2021
• Termination of Pregnancy Act 2021
• Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products Act 1997
• Transplantation and Anatomy Act 1983
• Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021

Pertinent updates to legislation during 2024-25 include:

• The Automated External Defibrillators (Public Access) Act 2022 came into operation on 1 January 2025, as amended by the Automated External Defibrillators (Public Access) (Miscellaneous) Amendment Act 2024. The legislation mandates the installation and maintenance of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in designated buildings, facilities and vehicles across South Australia. The Minister for Health and Wellbeing must maintain a publicly accessible register of AEDs installed in buildings and facilities.
• The Assisted Reproductive Treatment (Posthumous Use of Material and Donor Conception Register) Amendment Act 2024 amended the  Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 1988 on 26 February 2025 to enable the launch of the donor conception register to allow donors, donor recipient parents, and donor-conceived persons to access and share information. Amendments also commenced to bring equality of opportunity for access to the posthumous use of human reproductive material for assisted reproductive material, extending these benefits to surviving partners, irrespective of their sex.
• The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) Act 2010 was amended by the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) (Amendment of Law) Regulations 2024 on 1 July 2024 to bring into effect in South Australia national reforms designed to improve governance, strengthen public protection and increase consumer confidence. Amendments included new powers to issue interim prohibition orders to prevent an unregistered practitioner from providing a specified health service or from using a protected title; and provisions requiring an application for renewal of registration following reinstatement from suspension.
• On 5 June 2024, the Statutes Amendment (Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products—Closure Orders and Offences) Act 2025 introduced further reforms to Tobacco and E-Cigarette Products Act 1997, including:

• • offences prohibiting the possession or supply of commercial quantities of prescribed products, including e-cigarette products
  • offences applying to building owners who knowingly permit their premises to be used for certain prohibited conduct, such as the unlawful sale of e-cigarette products or tobacco products
  • introduction of short-term closure orders for periods of 28 days
  • information sharing powers to allow the public to be informed about closure orders.

• The Transplantation and Anatomy Act 1983 was amended on 6 February 2025 to allow public disclosure of a donation of human tissue by a deceased person by their next of kin or legal representative, thereby enabling families to share organ donor stories about their deceased loved ones.

Other related agencies (within the minister’s area/s of responsibility)

The public sector agencies listed below are responsible for reporting information about their activities and operations in their own annual report submitted to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing:

• Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network
• Central Adelaide Local Health Network
• Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health
• Controlled Substances Advisory Council
• Regional Health Advisory Councils (39 across South Australia)
• Eyre and Far North Local Health Network
• Flinders and Upper North Local Health Network
• Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner
• Health Performance Council
• Health Services Charitable Gifts Board
• Limestone Coast Local Health Network
• Northern Adelaide Local Health Network
• Pharmacy Regulation Authority of South Australia
• Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network
• SA Ambulance Service
• SA Ambulance Service Volunteers’ Health Advisory Council
• SA Medical Education and Training Health Advisory Council
• South Australian Public Health Council
• Southern Adelaide Local Health Network
• Preventive Health SA
• Women’s and Children’s Health Network
• Veterans’ Health Advisory Council
• Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board
• Yorke and Northern Local Health Network