As an independent support worker who could be providing support to NDIS or Home Care Package recipients, it’s important to be aware of the regulations that you’re required to follow, particularly as incidents may occur while you’re providing support.
Both the NDIS Quality & Safeguards Commission and Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission have mandatory reporting requirements that all support workers should ensure they have read and understood. The reporting requirements are time-bound, so it is particularly important to understand your reporting obligations prior to any incident potentially occurring.
How does this fit into Home Care Package or NDIS regulation and when do I need to file a report?
If you’re supporting a Home Care Package participant, there are certain types of incidents the approved home care provider is required to report under the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s Serious Incident Reporting Scheme (SIRS). Incident reports to Mable will be automatically shared with the approved home care provider, but we encourage you to directly engage with the approved home care provider in regard to incidents.
If you’re supporting an NDIS participant, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission provides guidance on what constitutes a reportable incident. This applies to any NDIS participant you might be supporting, regardless of how their funding is managed.
If an incident falls within a ‘reportable incident’ category, it must be reported to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission or the Aged Care Commission, and there are legislative and regulatory requirements to report within specific timeframes, for example, within 24 hours. It is also important to note that these incidents should also be reported to Mable (see below for details on how to report).
If a registered disability provider or approved home care provider is connected to the client’s account, Mable will also forward the incident details to them for review and investigation.
What incidents should I report to Mable?
When delivering services through Mable, independent support workers should consider whether an incident may have occurred during a support session. If so, support workers can report the incident to Mable via a number of channels, including the dedicated online incident reporting form or when submitting support hours for the support session in question. If the incident is serious in nature, it should be reported to Mable as soon as is reasonably practicable.
Some examples of incidents you can report include:
- Falls or injuries
- Illnesses
- Aggressive or antisocial behaviour
- Wrongly administered or missed medication
- Property damage.
If you are reporting an incident over the phone, you’ll receive step-by-step instructions, with our Trust and Safety Team available for any further questions.
How do I report an incident to Mable?
There are several ways to report an incident to Mable:
- Complete the online incident reporting form
- Contact us
- Submit an accompanying incident report with support hours
Follow these steps to report an incident via the support hours function:
- Log into your account
- Click on ‘Support Hours’
- Select the client you want to add support hours for
- Select the ‘New Support Hours’ tab and start entering your session details
- Under the ‘optional Attachments’, you can report the incident.
Once your report is complete, select ‘Done’. You can review your notes before submitting them. Once submitted, our team will review the information within 48 hours and may contact you for further details. You can, however, edit your notes while the report is pending approval.
If you are in any doubt, report the incident or contact us for assistance. If it doesn’t meet the definition of an incident, the Trust and Safety Team will re-categorise it and provide advice on how best to proceed.
