How do I capture consent, authorisation and reporting for restrictive practices in the home?

• Restrictive practices include physical restraint, environmental restraint, chemical restraint, mechanical restraint, and seclusion. Each is defined in the legislation.
• Any restrictive practice requires informed consent from the participant, or — where the participant lacks capacity — authorisation from a substitute decision-maker appointed under state or territory law.
• Providers must document an assessment of least-restrictive alternatives. A restrictive practice is only permitted when less restrictive options have been genuinely considered and found insufficient.
• The use of a restrictive practice must be linked to the participant's behaviour support plan where one exists, or to their care plan where it does not.
• Ongoing monitoring is required — including frequency of use, any adverse effects, and whether the practice remains necessary. Regular review is mandatory.
• Reporting to the ACQSC is required in specified circumstances, including where the practice is used inappropriately or triggers a SIRS reportable incident.

Reference: Aged Care Act 2024 s 113 and Chapter 5 (Quality and Safety — restrictive practices); Aged Care Rules 2025 Chapter 5 (restrictive practices provisions); ACQSC published guidance on restrictive practices; behaviour support plan guidance from the Department of Health. (Historical: Quality of Care Principles 2014 was the pre-1 November 2025 framework.)

• Consent captured once and never refreshed. Consent for restrictive practice is not 'set and forget' — it needs to be reviewed as the participant's condition changes and as the least-restrictive alternatives are reconsidered.
• Carers don't recognise environmental or chemical restraint when they see it. A participant with a key on the outside of their bedroom door, or PRN medication used to manage behaviour, is restrictive practice whether or not anyone labels it as such.
• Substitute decision-maker authorisation missing or not on file. The participant is assumed to have capacity, the Enduring Power of Attorney is never verified, and when an assessor asks for the authorisation document, it doesn't exist.
• No link between the restrictive practice and the care plan or behaviour support plan it's intended to manage. The practice exists in isolation, with no clinical reasoning on file.
• Least-restrictive alternatives 'considered' as a checkbox but not genuinely assessed — the assessment is a sentence, the decision is a conclusion, and no alternatives are documented.
• Ongoing monitoring treated as administrative rather than clinical — the frequency is logged but there's no review of whether the practice is still necessary or whether it's producing adverse effects.

• Restrictive practice register per participant, with each practice categorised (physical, environmental, chemical, mechanical, seclusion) and linked to the authorising document (consent, substitute decision-maker authorisation, behaviour support plan).
• Consent and authorisation capture workflow with document attachment, effective dates, and refresh prompts before consent expires or is due for review.
• Least-restrictive alternatives assessment workflow — operators document the alternatives considered, the clinical reasoning for rejecting them, and the multidisciplinary input that informed the decision.
• Behaviour support plan linkage — when a participant has a behaviour support plan, the restrictive practice register draws the link automatically so the practice is always traceable back to its clinical rationale.
• Monitoring schedule with clinical review prompts at the frequency specified by the behaviour support plan or clinical lead.
• ACQSC notification preparation for incidents involving inappropriate use of a restrictive practice — the notification is pre-populated from the register entry and the incident record.
• Chemical restraint cross-reference with the medication record — PRN psychotropic medication prescribed to manage behaviour is flagged against the restrictive practice register so the review can consider dose, frequency, and clinical outcome.

When an assessor asks for evidence on this obligation, here's what the platform produces on request — date-stamped, user-attributed, and exportable:

• Restrictive practice register per participant — practice type, start date, authorising document, clinical rationale, and link to care plan or behaviour support plan.
• Consent history with the document captured, the person who provided the consent or authorisation, the relationship to the participant if SDM, and effective and review dates.
• Least-restrictive alternatives assessments showing the alternatives considered, the rejection rationale, and the multidisciplinary contributors.
• Monitoring log — frequency of use, observed effects, clinical review notes, and the decision to continue, modify or cease the practice.
• Review history showing every formal review, the participants of the review, and the outcome.
• ACQSC notification log where a notification was triggered, with the submitted content and acknowledgement.