The Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) aims to reduce abuse and neglect among people receiving aged care.
The SIRS gives providers guidance about:
- managing incidents
- reporting incidents.
The SIRS also helps to:
- strengthen aged care systems to reduce the risk of abuse and neglect
- build providers’ skills so they can better respond to serious incidents
- enable providers to review incident information to drive improvements in quality and safety
- reduce the likelihood of preventable incidents reoccurring
- ensure people receiving aged care have the support they need.
Managing incidents
All aged care providers must have an effective incident management system (IMS) in place.
An IMS helps to:
- manage risks
- achieve continuous improvement
- deliver quality care.
Reporting incidents
Aged care providers must tell us when a reportable incident happens.
See Reportable incidents to learn:
- what types of incidents you must report
- how to determine the priority level of an incident
- how to report an incident
- how quickly you must report an incident
- when to call the police.
Our role in the SIRS
When providers tell us about reportable incidents, we can take regulatory actions. We explain these actions in our Compliance and Enforcement Policy.
We also use incident reports to help reduce future risks for people receiving aged care.
To learn more about what we do in the SIRS, see our SIRS insights reports.
SIRS and the Quality Standards
The SIRS works together with the Aged Care Quality Standards.
For example:
- An IMS helps providers comply with Standard 8: to have effective risk management systems and practices in place.
- Reporting incidents helps providers comply with Standard 6: having an open disclosure process when things go wrong.
Contact us
If you have a SIRS enquiry, you can:
- call us for free on 1800 081 549 between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm (AEST) Monday to Sunday
- email us at sirs@agedcarequality.gov.au.
