FOI 24/25-1367 - DISCLOSURE LOG DOCUMENT 33
Respond to participant critical incidents
SGP KP Publishing
Exported on 2025-05-20 02:37:51
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Table of Contents
1 Recent updates …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4 2 Before you start …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5 3 Ensure immediate safety ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 4 Gather information ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7 5 Respond to a disclosure of a participant critical incident ……………………………………….. 8 6 Respond to a child or young person who discloses abuse or neglect …………………….. 9 7 What to do ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10 8 What not to do ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11 9 Respond to a past or non-emergency incident……………………………………………………… 12 10 Non-emergency incidents the person would like investigated …………………………… 13 11 Reports from registered NDIS providers …………………………………………………………… 14 12 Incidents involving allegations of NDIA or Partner staff …………………………… 15 13 Next steps ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 16
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This article provides guidance for a local area coordinator, early childhood partner, planner delegate, internal review delegate, complaints officer, participant support officer, National Contact Centre, liaison officers (HLO/JLO) and complex support needs (CSN) planner to:
- ensure immediate safety
- gather information
- respond to a disclosure of a participant critical incident
- respond to a child or young person who discloses abuse or neglect
- respond to a past or non-emergency incident.
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1 Recent updates
October 2023 Current guidance.
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2 Before you start
You have:
- been made aware of a participant critical incident
- read and understood article Understand participant critical incidents
- read and understood article Principles for responding to participant critical incidents.
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3 Ensure immediate safety
When you become aware of a participant critical incident (PCI) report, you may need to undertake an emergency response. This is to ensure immediate safety.
- Assess the situation to determine if there is any immediate risk of harm.
- Make sure you and the people around you are safe from harm.
- If the PCI is currently taking place, or there’s an immediate threat or risk of harm, call the appropriate emergency services on 000. You can also encourage the notifier to contact any authorities themselves. You may wish to consult a line manager before this. This is not a prerequisite.
- Notify a line manager.
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4 Gather information
You will need to gather and document available information about a PCI notification. You must record accurate and factual details about the information provided or observed. It’s important to actively listen and be empathetic to the person’s concerns. Try to understand the outcome they want to achieve.
- Listen without judgement or making assumptions.
- Write down the details in their exact words.
- Ask open questions and avoid leading questions. For example, ‘can you describe how you felt?’ is an open question, while ‘you must have felt scared, right?’ is a leading question.
- Give them time to fully express their concerns without accidentally counselling them.
- Remind them of the responsibilities of the NDIA.
- Encourage them to report the incident directly to relevant state authorities, where appropriate.
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5 Respond to a disclosure of a participant critical incident
Sometimes you won’t see a PCI, but a participant (or their authorised representative) will tell you about it.
- Reassure and support the participant or the notifier, by staying calm and explaining what will happen next.
- Assure the person that we treat incidents seriously. Discuss their options with them and ask them how they would like to be supported throughout the process.
- Explain the role of the NDIA in relation to incidents. Tell the notifier that you will report the incident.
- Explain that any internal use, or external disclosure, of the information will align with the NDIS Act 2013 and Privacy Act 1988. Refer them to the Agency’s Privacy Policy (external) and Our Guideline – Your privacy and information (external) for more information.
- Explain that they can choose to remain anonymous. They can report the incident to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (external) or other authorities directly. Learn more about external reporting contacts in article Understand mandatory and external reporting for participant critical incidents.
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6 Respond to a child or young person who discloses abuse or neglect
A child or young person may tell you they’ve been abused or neglected. This is a clear message they want the abuse to stop. It’s important to take the allegations seriously.
Remain calm and professional. Reassure and support the child or young person without trying to counsel them. Avoid specific questioning, for example asking for details about a medical exam. Seeking information from children about abuse and neglect is the role of the Police and State Child Protection Authority. Instead, invite the child to talk about:
- how they are going
- if anything is bothering them
- how they are feeling.
Always seek consent to have a conversation from a child or young person’s parent, caregiver or guardian if they are present. If they don’t consent to having the conversation, make a report to the relevant state child protection authority.
Learn more about external reporting in article Understand mandatory and external reporting for participant critical incidents.
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7 What to do
- Listen carefully to what the child is saying.
- Control your verbal and facial expressions.
- Tell them you believe them.
- Reassure them that they have done the right thing by telling you.
- Acknowledge it is hard to talk sometimes.
- Reassure them that they are not to blame.
- Tell them what you will do next. Let them know you want to protect them and will need to tell someone else who can help.
- If you can’t answer a question, tell them you don’t know but will talk with the right people to get them help.
- Make written notes about what the child or young person told you. This is so you can document this in the PCI case. Speak to a line manager and contact your state Child Protection Authority.
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8 What not to do
- Don’t express anger about the alleged abuser. They may be an adult the child loves.
- Don’t confront the alleged abuser.
- Don’t make promises you cannot keep, like promising you won’t tell anyone.
- Don’t pressure the child for information or quiz them for details beyond what they freely want to say.
- Don’t store any information about the PCI in PACE outside of the PCI case.
Receiving a report of child abuse or neglect can be difficult and unsettling. You should always debrief and seek support, including talking to a line manager. Go to article Debrief after a participant critical incident.
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9 Respond to a past or non-emergency incident
Discuss reported incidents connected to, or potentially connected to, criminal offences with a line manager or the PCI team. This includes past and serious but non-emergency incidents.
Think about if you need to refer the incident to the non-emergency police support line on 131 444. You should do this if you believe, on reasonable grounds, that it’s necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to an individual’s life, health or safety.
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10 Non-emergency incidents the person would like investigated
If the notifier would like the matter investigated, encourage them to contact the relevant authority directly. Explain that it’s best for the relevant authority to hear the information directly from them, rather than through the NDIA.
Give the notifier contact details for the relevant authority. Go to article Understand mandatory and external reporting for participant critical incidents.
If they don’t want to raise the matter with the relevant authority directly, explain that the NDIA will generally only do this on their behalf if the NDIA either:
- has contacted the participant and they want the NDIA to investigate and report the matter on their behalf
- reasonably believes there’s a serious threat to the life, health or safety of a person, and the report will lessen the threat.
Advise the notifier that you’ll consult further with the participant, if required, and a manager about whether it’s appropriate for the NDIA to make a report in this situation.
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11 Reports from registered NDIS providers
Registered NDIS providers are legally required to report PCIs that relate to services provided by a registered provider, to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (external).
You should request providers report directly to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (the NDIS Commission). They can do this by contacting the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (external).
Learn more about reporting to the NDIS Commission in article Understand mandatory and external reporting for participant critical incidents.
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12 Incidents involving allegations of NDIA or Partner staff
There may be allegations made about PCIs involving NDIA staff or Partners.
All Australian Public Service (APS) employees must comply with the APS Values, Code of Conduct and Employment Principles (external). Staff have a duty to report inappropriate behaviour and suspected misconduct.
If you receive allegations against NDIA or Partner staff, do not record their name in PACE.
You must report any PCI relating to employee behaviour and the APS Code of conduct to the People and Culture team. This is as well as reporting through a PCI case.
If you are notified of a PCI that may involve:
- an NDIA staff member, immediately report this to the People and Culture Team through the People and Culture Service Desk.
- a Partner staff member, immediately report this to the National Partner Performance Team at
redacted: s47E(d) - certain operations of agencies@ndis.gov.au. They will triage the report to the relevant state partner performance team for action with the relevant Partner executives.
You also need to report this to the PCI team by creating a PCI case. To do this, go to article Create a participant critical incident case. Clearly document all information and be careful not to compromise any investigation by the NDIA, Police or external agencies.
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13 Next steps
- To understand mandatory and external reporting requirements for the PCI, go to article Understand mandatory and external reporting for participant critical incidents.
- If you need to debrief, go to article Debrief after a participant critical incident.
- You must report the PCI internally within 24 hours of the Agency receiving the report. To do this, go to article Create a participant critical incident case.
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