Incident Management Procedure

This policy provides guidelines for reporting, investigating, and applying appropriate control measures when an accident, incident (including critical and reportable incidents), or near miss affecting staff or participants occurs.

This policy does not include information on child-related Mandatory Reporting (see the Preventing and Responding to Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation Policy and Procedure).

This policy applies to the Manager of Quality Assurance, and any additional staff, students, contractors, and volunteers.

This policy aligns with the Work Health and Safety Act 2011(NSW), the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (NSW), National Disability Insurance Scheme (IncidentManagement and Reportable Incidents)Rules 2018 (Cwth), and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards CommissionReportable IncidentsGuidance (2018).

• Accident – an unforeseen event that causes damage to property, injury, or death.
• Participant Incident – Acts, omissions, events or circumstances that occur in connection with providing supports or services to a person with disability who receives funding under the NDIS or the Commonwealth Continuity of Support Programme relating to Specialist Disability Services for Older People.
• Near Miss – any incident that occurred at Red Frog for Families, which, although not resulting in any injury, illness, or damage, had the potential to do so.
• Hazard – a situation that has the potential to harm a person (cause death, illness, or injury) or environment or damage property.
• Hazard identification – A process that involves identifying all foreseeable hazards in the workplace and understanding the possible harm that each hazard may cause.
• Hazard management – A structured process of hazard identification, risk assessment, and control, aimed at providing safe and healthy conditions for staff members, contractors, and visitors while on the premises.
• Harm – Includes death, or injury, illness(physical or psychological), or disease that may be suffered by a person as a consequence of exposure to a hazard.
• Mandatory Reporter Guide (MRG) – assisting mandatory reporters to determine child-related reporting requirements, the MRG is part of the NSW Child story initiative.
• Mandatory reporting – The legal obligation of certain professionals and community members to report when they believe, on reasonable grounds, that a child is in need of protection from harm. In NSW, any staff working directly with children who have reasonable grounds to suspect that a child or children are at risk of significant harm from abuse or neglect are required to use the NSW Mandatory Reporter Guide to help determine whether the concern they have meets the statutory threshold for reporting. NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (the Commission) – The regulatory body established to oversee the registration of NDIS providers and monitor compliance, respond to complaints and reportable incidents, monitor behaviour support and restrictive practices, and undertake investigation and enforcement.
• Notifiable Incident – Any extremely serious incident arising out of the conduct of a business or undertaking at a workplace, relating to any person — whether an employee, contractor, or member of the public. Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) and the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (NSW), businesses are obligated to notify SafeWork NSW in the event of:
  • the death of a person;
  • a serious injury or illness of a person;
  • a potentially dangerous incident.
• Reportable incidents – incidents, or alleged incidents, that:
  • arise from acts, omissions, events, or circumstances occurring in connection with providing supports or services to a person with disability AND resulted in, or could have resulted in, harm to the person with disability; OR which
  • arise from acts by a person with disability that cause, or risk causing, serious harm to another person.

Section 73Z(4) of the Act defines a reportable incident as:

• the death of a person with disability;
• serious injury of a person with disability including fractures, burns, deep cuts, extensive bruising, concussion, and any other injury requiring hospitalisation;
• abuse of a person with disability behaviour management including verbal, psychological, and financial abuse;
• neglect of a person with disability behaviour management that is seriously inappropriate or improper;
• unlawful sexual or physical contact with, or assault of, a person with disability by a worker or another NDIS participant;
• sexual misconduct committed against, or in the presence of, a person with disability, including grooming of the person for sexual activity;
• unauthorised use of a restrictive practice in relation to a person with disability.

For further examples, consult the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission Reportable Incidents Guidance.

Staff are required to be vigilant in reporting incidents when they occur so that appropriate support can be provided to those affected and the circumstances can be analysed to reduce the likelihood of a similar event occurring again. All staff, contractors, volunteers, and students have a responsibility to ensure that details of any incident are recorded and reported to their immediate supervisor (or General Manager, as appropriate).

1.  Centred on people with disability: Management of an incident is respectful of, and responsive to, a person with disability’s preferences, needs, and values while supporting the person’s safety and wellbeing.
2. Outcome focused: Management of an incident should reveal the factors which contributed to the incident occurring, and seek to prevent incidents from reoccurring, where appropriate.
3. Clear, Simple, and Consistent: The process for dealing with reportable incidents is easy to understand, accessible, and consistently applied.
4. Accountable: Providers are responsible for appropriately managing the response to reportable incidents. Everyone involved in the management of a reportable incident understands their role and responsibilities and will be accountable for decisions or actions taken in regard to an incident.
5. Continual improvement: The incident management process facilitates the ongoing identification of issues and implementation of changes to improve the quality and safety of NDIS supports and services.
6. Proportionate: The nature of any investigation or actions following an incident will be proportionate to the harm caused and any risk of future harm to people with disability.