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Category deep-dive

What counts as neglect under SIRS?

Neglect is one of the harder SIRS categories to self-assess, because it is rarely a single dramatic moment. It is often a gap in care that only looks serious once you see the pattern. This guide explains how neglect is framed under SIRS and where the priority line tends to sit.

This is guidance, not a determination or legal advice. Whether an incident is reportable under SIRS, and at what priority, is a judgement your organisation's nominated delegate must confirm. SIRS rules change: always verify current requirements against current ACQSC guidance and your own SIRS policy before you act. When you are genuinely unsure, the safer default most quality consultants recommend is to report.

How neglect is framed

Under SIRS, neglect is a reportable incident category covering a failure to provide a person receiving care with the care and support they need, which causes or could reasonably be expected to cause them harm. It can be a single serious failure, or a pattern of smaller failures that add up over time.

Because neglect can be gradual, it is easy to under-report. A single missed medication might be logged as a routine incident, but a recurring pattern of missed medications, missed repositioning, or missed clinical monitoring can cross into reportable neglect.

Priority 1 or Priority 2

Neglect is not always Priority 1. Like most SIRS categories, it is assessed against the Priority 1 trigger. Neglect is Priority 1 if:

  • It caused, or could reasonably have caused, physical or psychological injury requiring medical or psychological treatment; or
  • There are reasonable grounds to report it to police.

If neither is true, the neglect is still reportable, as Priority 2 within 30 calendar days. When you are unsure whether the trigger is met, the safer default is to treat it as the higher priority until your delegate reviews it.

Illustrative examples across the severity range

These are illustrative and de-identified. They show how the same category spans very different priorities. They are not a determination for any real case.

Toward Priority 1

A person's pressure-area care is missed repeatedly and they develop a serious pressure injury requiring wound treatment. Because it caused injury requiring medical treatment, this points toward Priority 1 and a 24-hour clock.

Toward Priority 2

A person misses several scheduled care visits over a period due to a rostering failure. No injury requiring treatment results and there are no grounds to involve police, but the failure to provide necessary care could reasonably have caused harm. This points toward a reportable Priority 2 incident.

Record it either way

A one-off, promptly corrected lapse with no harm may not meet the SIRS threshold at all. It still has to be recorded in your own incident management system under Standard 8, and a cluster of these is exactly what reveals an emerging pattern.

Check a specific incident in the decision toolPriority 1 vs Priority 2Unexplained absence: when it is reportableBack to the SIRS guide

Primary source

This page is based on guidance published by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) under the Aged Care Act 2024 and the Aged Care Rules 2025, in force from 1 November 2025.

How Teiro helps

The record already exists by the time the clock is running

Teiro captures the incident at the point of care, timestamps the moment your team became aware of it, surfaces the classification question to your reviewer with the facts already attached, tracks the deadline once a priority is assigned, and produces the record you need to lodge your SIRS notification. The decision about whether something is reportable, and at what priority, stays with your organisation's delegate. Teiro makes sure that decision gets made in time, by the right person, with the facts already in front of them.

Teiro does not determine reportability, and does not submit notifications to the ACQSC or the NDIS Commission on your behalf. It produces the record your delegate needs to make the call and lodge it.

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