Serious Incident Response Scheme

This page details the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) for people who receive aged care services.

For information on the SIRS for aged care providers, please visit the SIRS providers page

What is the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS)?

As a person who receives aged care, you have the right to safe and quality care and to live without abuse or neglect.

The Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) is an Australian Government initiative to help reduce the risk of abuse and neglect for people living, or staying, in a residential aged care home.

The scheme requires aged care providers to identify, record, manage, resolve, and report all serious incidents to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission) that occur, or are alleged or suspected to have happened, in a residential aged care service.

The SIRS requires every residential aged care service to have in place an effective incident management system. This is a documented set of protocols, processes, and standard operating procedures. Their incident management system is used to manage and respond to all incidents, and take steps to make sure they do not happen again.

The incident management system covers a broader range of non-reportable incidents and includes incidents that involve staff or visitors.

Why the SIRS will improve the safety of people who receive aged care?

The SIRS requires every residential aged care service to adopt a systematic approach to minimising the risk of, and responding to, serious incidents involving people who use aged care services.

The SIRS and its requirement for residential aged care providers to have an effective incident management system in place will:

• reduce the chance of you being subject to abuse or neglect in aged care
• help you get support sooner and on an ongoing basis if a serious incident affects you
• reduce the likelihood of the serious incident happening again.

The SIRS also introduces explicit obligations for residential aged care providers to report a broader range of serious incidents to the Commission than they had to before.

This includes reports of all incidents that are alleged or suspected to have occurred, or witnessed, between people who live in a residential aged care service, including when a person who commits the incident has a cognitive or mental impairment (such as dementia).

What are reportable incidents?

There are 8 types of reportable incidents under the SIRS:

• Unreasonable use of force – for example, hitting, pushing, shoving, or rough handling a person who receives aged care
• Unlawful sexual contact or inappropriate sexual conduct – such as sexual threats against a person who receives aged care, stalking, or sexual activities without consent
• Neglect of a person who receives aged care – for example, withholding personal care, untreated wounds, or insufficient assistance during meals
• Psychological or emotional abuse – such as yelling, name calling, ignoring a person who receives aged care, threatening gestures, or refusing access to care or services as a means of punishment
• Unexpected death – where reasonable steps were not taken by the provider to prevent the death, the death is the result of care or services provided by the provider or a failure by the provider to provide care and services
• Stealing or financial coercion by a staff member – for example, if a staff member coerces a person to change their will to their advantage, or steals valuables from them 
• Inappropriate use of restrictive practices – such as:
  • where a restrictive practice is used without prior consent or without notifying the person's representative as soon as practicable
  • where a restrictive practice is used in a non-emergency situation, or
  • when a provider issues a drug to a person to influence their behaviour as a form of restrictive practice
• Unexplained absence from care – where the person is absent from the service without explanation and there are reasonable grounds to report the absence to the police.

Under the SIRS, an allegation, suspicion, or witness account of any of the above serious incidents must be reported to the Commission.

Reporting incidents to the Commission

The SIRS categorises incidents as either Priority 1 or Priority 2.

Priority 1

Residential aged care providers must report all Priority 1 reportable incidents to the Commission within 24 hours of them becoming aware of the reportable incident.

Priority 1 reportable incidents include those that cause, or could reasonably have been expected to have caused, physical or psychological harm and/or discomfort that would usually require some form of medical or psychological treatment, or where there are reasonable grounds to report the incident to police.

All reportable incidents involving instances of unexplained absence from care, unexpected death of a person who receives aged care, unlawful sexual contact, inappropriate sexual conduct, or where there are reasonable grounds to report the incident to the police, are always Priority 1 reportable incidents.

For example, the Commission considers all incidents involving unlawful sexual contact to be Priority 1 reportable incidents which must be reported to us within 24 hours of it occurring, or the provider becoming aware of the incident. These incidents must also be reported to the police.

Priority 2

Residential aged care providers must report all reportable incidents to the Commission including Priority 2 reportable incidents.

Priority 2 reportable incidents are all those that do not meet the criteria for Priority 1. These must be reported to the Commission within 30 days of a provider becoming aware of the reportable incident.

How the SIRS relates to other aged care responsibilities

The SIRS sits alongside, and complements, other legislative requirements that aged care providers must meet.

All providers must comply with the Aged Care Quality Standards which clearly outline the standards of care a person who receives aged care can expect .

For example:

• Standard 8: Organisational governance – requires approved providers to have in place effective risk management systems and practices that enable them (among other things) to manage high-impact risks associated with providing aged care, and to identify and respond to abuse and neglect
• Standard 6: Feedback and complaints – requires approved providers to demonstrate that an open disclosure process is used when things go wrong in providing care.

A provider is also legally required to help you understand your rights under the Charter of Aged Care Rights.

Taken together, these requirements reinforce the importance of aged care providers having an effective incident management system in place to better protect the safety, health, wellbeing and quality of life of the people they support.

What is an incident management system?

An incident management system is a set of processes and procedures used to prevent, manage, and respond to incidents.

This system should support an aged care provider and their staff to take appropriate action when there is an alleged, suspected, or witnessed incident.

Appropriate action includes:

• action to remove a person from harm and to reduce or address the impact on them
• identification and immediate internal reporting of the allegation, suspicion, or witnessed incident
• documenting the incident
• further investigation if warranted
• reporting to external authorities within statutory timeframes, including the police and the Commission.

The role of the Commission under the SIRS

We are responsible for administering the SIRS and receives and assesses reportable incident notices from residential aged care providers to determine the type of response required.

We have the power to take regulatory action(s) if appropriate to address non-compliance with provider responsibilities. It also has new powers to issue compliance notices for suspected non-compliance with the SIRS obligations.

We will continue to publish information regularly on the operation and effectiveness of the SIRS, and these updates will be expanded over time.

SIRS resources

To access more information please visit our dedicated SIRS consumer resources page.

How to make a complaint about care or services?

Complaints are a vital tool in helping to improve the quality of care and services you are receiving.

It is also important to note that your feedback can help keep other people safe too and enable them to receive best practice care and services.

All aged care providers are required to have a complaints system in place.

Raise your concern with your provider

If you feel comfortable, you can raise your concern directly with the staff or managers at your aged care service first. This is often the best way to have your concerns resolved quickly and easily.

The Commission is here to support you

If this doesn’t work, or you don’t feel comfortable, we are here to support you and to help resolve any concerns with your aged care provider.

We provide a free and confidential service to enable you to raise a concern, or make a complaint, about an Australian Government funded aged care provider.

Find out more at Making a complaint or call 1800 951 822.

Accessing the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN)

The OPAN supports senior Australians and their representatives to effectively access and interact with Australian Government funded aged care services and have their rights protected.

The OPAN is made up of 9 state- and territory-based service delivery organisations.

You can call OPAN on 1800 700 600 or visit opan.org.au.

Consumers and Families panel

We have established a panel of people who use or are thinking of using Australian Government funded aged care services, their carers and family members.

We want to know what is important to you, so we can improve how we regulate aged care, and make sure the information we produce is useful and easy to understand.

For more information about the panel, or to register your interest in joining, visit our Consumers and Families panel page.