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Child care advisory committees.
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7.—(1) A health board shall establish a child care advisory committee to advise the health board on the performance of its functions under this Act and the health board shall consider and have regard to any advice so tendered to it.
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(2) A child care advisory committee shall be composed of persons with a special interest or expertise in matters affecting the welfare of children, including representatives of voluntary bodies providing child care and family support services.
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(3) A person shall not receive any remuneration for acting as a member of a child care advisory committee, but a health board may make payments to any such member in respect of travelling and subsistence expenses incurred by him in relation to the business of the committee.
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(4) Payments under this section shall be in accordance with a scale determined by the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance.
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(5) The Minister shall give general directions in relation to child care advisory committees which may include directions on any matter relating to the membership, constitution or business of committees (including a provision empowering a committee to co-opt one or more members) and each health board and child care advisory committee shall comply with any such directions.
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(6) A health board may, with the consent of the Minister, and shall, if so directed by the Minister, establish more than one child care advisory committee for its area and where more than one committee is established the provisions of subsection (1) shall apply with the necessary modifications.
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(7) Each child care advisory committee shall—
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(a) have access to non-personal information in relation to child care and family support services in its area,
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(b) consult with voluntary bodies providing child care and family support services in its area,
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(c) report on child care and family support services in its area, either on its own initiative or when so requested by the health board,
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(d) review the needs of children in its area who are not receiving adequate care and protection,
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and where more than one child care advisory committee is established in a health board area, the provisions of this subsection shall apply with the necessary modifications.
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