Purpose

This policy and procedure provides guidelines for reporting, investigating and applying appropriate control measures when an accident, incident (including critical incidents) or near miss occurs. It addresses both participant and staff incidents.

This policy and procedure applies to Sparrow Collective, and any additional staff, students, contractors and volunteers.

This policy and procedure should be read in conjunction with the Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Policy and Procedure.

This policy excerpts information from the participant Incident Management Guide (IMS Guide) published by the Department of Health and Human Services (Vic). The IMS Guide is available at: http://providers.dhhs.vic.gov.au/IMS 

Definitions

Accident – an unforeseen event that causes damage to property, injury or death.

Participant Incident – (under the IMS) an event or circumstance that: 

• occurred during service delivery (current or historical; with Sparrow Collective or another service provider); and

• resulted in harm to a participant.

If the participant is suspected of committing a criminal act, the matter should be referred to Victoria Police. Only incidents which meet the above definition of a ‘participant incident’ must be reported under the IMS.

Incident management system (IMS) – an initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services (Vic) that outlines the approach and key actions to manage participant incidents.

The IMS consists of five phases:

• Response to the incident and identification of the incident category;

• reporting of the incident to the Department of Health and Human Services via their webform;

• investigation of major impact incidents;

• review of major impact incidents; and

• analysis and learning, including analysis of broader incident trends via the on-line data-analysis function.

The IMS includes accountability mechanisms to support the safety and wellbeing of participants by ensuring that service providers effectively discharge their responsibilities in regards to participant incident management. These accountability mechanisms are also designed to foster a culture of continuous improvement within service providers and across the broader participant incident management system.

Incident – an occurrence that causes (or could have caused, in the case of a ‘Near Miss’) damage to property, injury/illness or death.

Incident investigation – A formal process of collecting information to ascertain the facts, which may inform any subsequent criminal, civil, disciplinary or administrative sanctions.

The purpose of an incident investigation by a service provider under the IMS is to determine whether there has been abuse or neglect of a participant by a staff member (including a volunteer) or another participant, pursuant to an allegation in a participant incident report.

An investigation involves the planned and systematic gathering and analysis of all relevant facts by interviewing witnesses, examining documentation, skilled observation and obtaining expert opinion where appropriate.

Incident review – Analysis of an incident to identify what happened, determine whether an incident was managed appropriately, and to identify the causes of the incident and subsequent learnings to apply to reduce the risk of future harm.

Near Miss – any incident that occurred at Sparrow Collective, 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.

Reportable incident – Incidents may be reportable to an agency or multiple agencies, depending on the nature of the incident (e.g., criminal act, workplace accident, significant near miss) and the person/s involved (e.g., staff member, participant with physical disability, participant with psychosocial disability, child). All participant incidents are reportable to the Department of Health and Human Services (Vic) via the IMS.

Reportable incidents under the NDIS Commission - or an incident to be reportable a certain act or event needs to have happened (or alleged to have happened) in connection with the provision of supports or services by the registered NDIS provider. This includes:

• the death of a person with disability;

• serious injury of a person with disability;

• abuse or neglect of a person with disability;

• unlawful sexual or physical contact with, or assault of, a person with disability;

• sexual misconduct, committed against, or in the presence of, a person with disability, including grooming of the person with disability for sexual activity;

• unauthorised use of restrictive practices in relation to a person with disability. 

Applicability

When

• applies to supports and services provided to all participants.

Who

• applies to all representatives including key management personnel, directors, full time workers, part time workers, casual workers, contractors and volunteers.

Documents relevant to this policy

• Incident Management (easy read)

• Incident report

• Incident register

Policy

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 Proprietor, as appropriate).