The Serious Incident Response Scheme, also known as SIRS, is a government initiative to help ‘prevent and reduce the risk and occurrence of incidents of abuse and neglect of people receiving aged care.’
Around 456,000 Australians live in residential care or use aged care services, including 193,000 Australians who live in permanent or respite residential care, according to recent data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Some aged care workers have raised concerns about managers and supervisors turning a blind eye to serious incidents, choosing instead to not report something because they are protecting another staff member.
Workers may then be fearful of speaking out because of potential backlash from reporting an incident themselves.
However, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission can help aged care workers who are worried about the care of an older person or the practices that occur in their aged care facility.
Certain protections are available to aged care workers when reporting through SIRS. To find out more about what this involves, contact the commission and your workers’ union.
Aged care workers can share information with the commission anonymously, i.e. no name is given, confidentially, i.e. your name is given but not shared, or openly, i.e. your name is given and can be shared.
According to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, the eight types of incidents that providers must report through SIRS include:
Additionally, if the incident involves criminal behaviour, it must also be reported to the police.
All serious incidents must be reported under the SIRS. If an aged care provider ignores serious incidents, the commission will take escalated regulatory actions.
The commission will hold providers and workers accountable in ways outlined in the latest Regulatory Strategy report.
The SIRS commenced in residential care in April 2021. In December 2022, SIRS was extended to include home services.
In 2021, Commissioner Anderson commented on the then-newly established SIRS and why it would help to improve aged care in Australia.
“An aged care organisation which has an effective incident management system is well-positioned to collect and use incident data to build a learning culture, helping staff to prevent similar incidents from occurring and to better protect the health, safety and wellbeing of aged care consumers,” she said.
Aged care workers who are looking for education and training resources can find extra support specific to workers on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission website. Topics include improving food and drink choices, infection prevention and control and the code of conduct for workers in aged care.
The most recent SIRS Insights Series report focuses on ‘Unexplained absence from care’ with case studies to highlight various scenarios. Additionally, the ‘Unreasonable use of force: Notifications of resident to resident incidents’ report can be used to learn how to manage certain challenging situations in aged care.
The first SIRS Insight report is also available on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission website.
However, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission recently released a report on the Regulatory Strategy 2024–2025 on August 28, 2024.
According to this report, the commission received 9,566 complaints about aged care services and homes between 2023–2024.
In the latest strategy report, it was stated that ‘restorative engagement will increasingly underpin [the commission’s] approach to complaints in the future,’ with key communication factors including:
The full report is available on the Aged Care and Quality Safety Commission website.
While the new strategy for 2024–2025 has been released, aged care workers still need to be aware of the current method of reporting serious incidents if they occur in their aged care facility.
If you are looking for more information about SIRS or are concerned about an incident at your workplace, phone the commission on 1800 951 822 or visit the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission website.
My mother died from pneumonia mostly likely as a result of aspirating thin fluids. My mother was supposed to be eating a soft ward diet with thickened fluids. I found my mother with solid food in her mouth. She was unconscious and she died a few days later. All the Doctor could say was “She went down like a load of bricks”. He then walked off. It took me three years to get an apology out of these criminals. The fact that this corporate chain is still running is a testament to successive governments who have allowed the private sector to take over Aged Care. Understaffing, blatant neglect and exploitation are rampant. Under reporting is a business model. We need the entire industry to be nationalised and the return of Nurses. Neoliberalism is an abject failure. Technology is just amplifying inequality. Finance capital is a predatory beast that needs to be regulated. It is time to put Nurses back into Aged Care and get back to basics.
“Restorative Engagement” ………
Nice, more beautifully crafted meaningless nonsense from the Commission. How about trying a first action called “…Fix the problem…” and a second action of “…A binding agreement with the Provider to keep the fix in place….”
The Safety and Quality print msny items that they never live up to. They avoid doing any thing positive for an older person. They should be immediately disbanded.
Why do comments need to be vetted. What is the Safety and Quality Commission afraid of. THE TRUTH.