The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a government funded scheme that provides support to eligible people with intellectual, physical, sensory, cognitive and psychosocial disability. The NDIS involves personalised plans to accommodate the need of each participant, hence the scope and delivery of services under NDIS should be explicated in written agreement.

This Incident Management Policy is designed to be used by providers of NDIS-funded services to outline the provider’s policy and procedures for handling incidents and accidents.

Please note that strict requirements have been set by the NDIS around the reporting of particular significant incidents, referred to by the NDIS as ‘reportable incidents’. For this reason, we highly recommend that you use this template as a starting point, and review it with a lawyer to customise this document to your organisation’s specific needs.

Reporting incidents to the NDIS

This section provides a brief outline of the reporting requirements for what the NDIS refers to as reportable incidents. Please consult this link for further guidance on reporting.

A reportable incident, as defined by the NDIS, is an act or event that has happened (or is alleged to have happened) in connection with the provision of supports or services. This can include: the death of a person with disability; serious injury of a person with disability; abuse or neglect of a person with disability, etc.

When a reportable incident occurs, or is alleged to have occurred in connection with the NDIS supports or services you deliver, you must notify the NDIS using the NDIS Commission Portal within the required timeframes. These can be found by following the link above. Generally, most reportable incidents must be reported to the NDIS within 24 hours.

For further information, this link provides access to two NDIS information documents: The 'Reportable Incidents Guidance' document and The ‘Incident Management System Guidance’ document.

Use this NDIS Incident Management Policy if:

• You are engaging the services to participants under the NDIS; or

• You provide services to children aged from birth to 18 years regardless of funding source, disability clients aged 16-65 not being funded under NDIS, or older clients aged 65+; and

• You want to ensure that your business’ policies and procedures regarding incident management are clear.

What does this NDIS Incident Management Policy provide?

• Clearly-defined policy objectives for incident management;

• Clearly-defined incident management outcomes;

• Procedures for identifying, addressing and following up on incidents; and

• Procedures for mandatory NDIS reporting.