How do I run SIRS reporting for incidents that happen in someone's home?

• Mandatory reporting of reportable incidents in the eight categories: unreasonable use of force; unlawful sexual contact or inappropriate sexual conduct; psychological or emotional abuse; unexpected death; stealing from, or financial coercion of, a care recipient by a staff member; neglect; inappropriate use of restrictive practices; and unexplained absence from care.
• Priority 1 incidents — those that caused, or could reasonably have been expected to cause, physical or psychological injury or discomfort requiring medical or psychological treatment to resolve; or where there are reasonable grounds to report the incident to police; or that involve unexpected death or unexplained absence from care — must be notified to the ACQSC within 24 hours of the provider becoming aware.
• Priority 2 incidents (all other reportable incidents) must be notified within 30 days.
• The 24-hour and 30-day clocks start when the provider becomes aware of the incident, not when the incident occurred.
• Incidents require documented investigation, participant safety actions, follow-up, and lessons-learned analysis for continuous improvement.
• SIRS extended to home services on 1 December 2022 and applies equally to home-care and residential providers. Since 1 November 2025 it continues under the Aged Care Act 2024 Chapter 5 and Aged Care Rules 2025 Chapter 5.

Reference: Aged Care Act 2024 Chapter 5 (Quality and Safety — incident management and reportable incidents); Aged Care Rules 2025 Chapter 5; Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Act 2018; SIRS guidance and reportable-incident criteria published by the ACQSC. (Historical: SIRS extended to home services from 1 December 2022 under the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (SIRS) Principles 2021, which amended the Accountability Principles 2014 and the Quality of Care Principles 2014 under the now-repealed Aged Care Act 1997.)

• Carers don't know what counts as a reportable incident. The list of eight categories isn't internalised, so a bruise from a transfer gets logged but an unexplained absence doesn't.
• The clock starts before the report reaches the right person internally. A carer tells their team leader, the team leader waits until the next day to tell the Care Partner, and by the time the 24-hour clock is running, eight hours have already gone.
• No structured investigation. The incident gets notified to the ACQSC, but the root cause analysis is skipped, so the same type of incident recurs six weeks later.
• Missing Priority 2 incidents because they don't feel as urgent. The 30-day window passes, and what was a notifiable incident becomes a compliance breach.
• Investigation evidence captured on paper and never digitised, so when the ACQSC asks for a follow-up, the provider can't reconstruct the timeline.
• Unexplained absence of a care recipient treated as a welfare concern, not a reportable incident. It is reportable, and the priority is determined by risk to the participant, not administrative convenience.

• Mobile carer-app SIRS flagging at the point of capture. The carer selects one of the reportable categories while still at the home, the incident is created immediately, and the 24-hour clock starts from that capture timestamp.
• Priority classification workflow — the incident enters a triage queue with the carer's initial capture, and the Care Partner or on-call clinical lead classifies it as Priority 1 or Priority 2 based on the ACQSC criteria. The clock for statutory notification is calculated from the awareness timestamp, not the classification timestamp.
• Countdown timers on every open incident — hours remaining to the P1 24-hour deadline or the P2 30-day deadline, visible on dashboards and sent as escalating alerts as the deadlines approach.
• Investigation workflow with prompts at each statutory milestone — immediate safety actions, participant and family notification, evidence capture, root cause analysis, lessons learned, and close-out with supervisor sign-off.
• ACQSC notification templates pre-populated from the incident record, ready for upload into the ACQSC's notification system. Direct API submission is roadmap.
• Trend analysis by incident category, participant, worker, and service type — the same incident recurring three times in a quarter triggers a systems-level review.

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

• Incident timeline from capture through triage, classification, investigation, notification, and close-out — every state change timestamped and user-attributed.
• Classification history showing the initial priority assigned, any reclassification, and the reason for reclassification.
• ACQSC notification log — notification reference, submitted date, acknowledgement, and any follow-up correspondence.
• Investigation evidence including statements, observations, photographs where appropriate, and any supporting documentation.
• Root cause analysis findings and the improvement actions that flowed from them, linked to specific quality standards.
• Escalation trail showing who was notified internally, when, and what action they took.