How neglect is framed
Under SIRS, reportable neglect is when a registered provider, aged care worker or responsible person has, or is suspected of having, provided a service that puts an older person at risk of serious injury or illness; caused or contributed to a significant failure to provide a service or a systematic pattern of conduct (Aged Care Rules 2025, s16-5(10)); provided a grossly inadequate service; or been reckless or intentionally negligent in how they provided a service. Serious injury or illness does not have to have happened: being put at risk is enough. It can be a single serious failure, or a pattern of smaller failures that add up over time.
Exclusions. Decline from disease when all care has been taken is not neglect. In a home or community setting, an informed choice excludes an incident only if it would otherwise be neglect alone, the person told the provider, and the provider recorded it in writing before the incident (Rules s16-10(3)). In residential care, an incident resulting from the resident refusing services is excluded (s16-10(2)).
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 has caused the person physical or psychological injury or discomfort that requires medical or psychological treatment (treatment that only a medical practitioner, nurse practitioner, registered nurse, psychologist or social worker can provide); 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 may be a significant failure to provide a service. 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 may still need to be recorded in your own incident management system (Aged Care Rules 2025, s164-10), and a cluster of these is exactly what reveals an emerging pattern.
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.