What SIRS is
The Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) is a requirement under the Aged Care Act that obligates approved providers to identify, record, manage, resolve, and report serious incidents involving aged care consumers. It is administered by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Residential aged care
SIRS has applied to residential aged care providers since April 2021.
Home care (including Support at Home)
SIRS was extended to home care providers, including those delivering under the Support at Home program, from 1 December 2022.
SIRS applies from the day your organisation becomes an approved provider. There is no grace period.
The eight categories and their priority
SIRS has eight reportable incident categories. Some are always Priority 1 (24 hours). The rest are assessed against a single Priority 1 trigger: whether the incident caused, or could reasonably have caused, physical or psychological injury or discomfort requiring medical or psychological treatment, or whether there are reasonable grounds to report it to police. If that trigger is not met, the incident is still reportable, as Priority 2 within 30 calendar days (not business days).
| Incident category | Priority | Report within |
|---|---|---|
| Unexpected death | Always Priority 1 | 24 hours |
| Unlawful sexual contact | Always Priority 1 | 24 hours |
| Inappropriate sexual conduct | Always Priority 1 | 24 hours |
| Unexplained absence reported (or reportable) to police | Always Priority 1 | 24 hours |
| Unreasonable use of force | Priority 1 or 2 (assessed) | 24 hours / 30 calendar days |
| Psychological or emotional abuse | Priority 1 or 2 (assessed) | 24 hours / 30 calendar days |
| Neglect | Priority 1 or 2 (assessed) | 24 hours / 30 calendar days |
| Stealing or financial coercion by a staff member | Priority 1 or 2 (assessed) | 24 hours / 30 calendar days |
| Inappropriate use of restrictive practices | Reportable; Priority 1 or 2 | 24 hours / 30 calendar days |
Alleged and suspected incidents are reportable, not only proven ones. Refer to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission for current SIRS guidance and the full definition of each incident category. agedcarequality.gov.au
How to report
SIRS reports are submitted through the My Aged Care provider portal. When filing a report, you will be asked to provide:
- Date and time the incident occurred
- Description of the incident
- Actions taken in response
- Person or persons involved
- Whether police have been notified (required for Priority 1 incidents)
Priority 1 timeframe starts from when the incident becomes known to the provider, not from when it occurred. Ensure your incident notification pathway within the organisation is fast. A delay between a worker becoming aware of an incident and management being notified eats into your 24-hour reporting window.
The rostering connection
SIRS requires that incidents can be linked to the shift during which they occurred. This is not just a technical requirement -- it is a practical one. When the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission investigates a reported incident, one of the first things they will look at is the shift record: who was rostered, who actually attended, what time the shift started and ended.
This creates a direct dependency between your rostering system and your incident management process:
Shift records must be retained
You cannot link an incident to a shift if that shift record has been deleted, archived without retrieval capability, or never properly recorded in the first place. Shift records need to be kept for the periods specified under the Aged Care Act.
Check-in and check-out times matter
Accurate time records establish when the worker was present. If an incident occurred at a time when the worker was meant to be on-site, your check-in and check-out records are the evidence that they were.
The link must be accessible at short notice
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission can conduct unannounced assessments. Being able to retrieve a shift record linked to a specific incident in minutes, not days, is a practical requirement. Searching through spreadsheets or paper records under time pressure is a known point of failure.
SIRS vs NDIS reportable incidents
Providers delivering services in both aged care and the NDIS operate under two separate incident reporting frameworks with different administrators, different categories, and different timeframes. Key differences:
| SIRS (aged care) | NDIS reportable incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| Administered by | Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission | NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission |
| Priority 1 timeframe | 24 hours | 24 hours |
| Priority 2 timeframe | 30 days | 5 business days |
| Applicable to | Approved aged care providers | NDIS registered providers |
| Reporting portal | My Aged Care provider portal | NDIS Commission portal |
Note the difference in Priority 2 timeframes: SIRS gives 30 days; the NDIS framework requires reporting within 5 business days. Dual-sector providers need separate incident management pathways for each framework and should not assume that filing a SIRS report also satisfies the NDIS obligation, or vice versa.