E.08.07 Incident Reporting

Procedure Standard

All incidents are reported as required by Section E08.02 Incident categories for all staff related incidents and the Department of Corrections Human Resource Manual.

Necessary Forms and Requirements

Forms:

• E.08.01.F1 Notification of Incident involving staff (National)
  (To be used when IOMS is unavailable and for reporting staff incidents. See Section E08.02 Incident categories for all staff related incidents)

Requirements:

• E.08.07.R1 Incidents notification Detailsa and Standards
• E.08.07.R2 Operational Debriefing
• E.08.07.R3 Post Incidence Response Team (PIRT)

Procedure Standards

1. All incidents are to be reported as required by the Section E.08.02 Incident categories for all staff related incidents and this PPM system.
2. In addition to any other reporting requirements all major incidents shall be reported to an Operations Adviser at National Office through the incident line phone number, as soon as practicable and within one hour of their discovery.
3. If a hazard has been identified the Hazard Register must be updated.
4. Copies of reports relating to work hazards or staff injury shall be forwarded to the institution Health and Safety Co-ordinator.
5. Copies of all Incident reports are placed on the relevant staff / Prisoner file.
6. Where appropriate the Police, Coroner, Visiting Justice, Chaplain, and PIRT leader shall be advised of any incident.

See Related Links to access the Process Summary Flowchart.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

Staff Identifying Incident (First Responding Officer)

The first staff member to identify that an incident has occurred (first responding officer) should:

1. Take immediate action to reduce risk of further harm; ensure first aid is provided; and maintain life and prevent secondary incidents.
2. For incidents involving suicide attempts by hanging, staff should use First Responding (cut down) knives, which are held in wall mounted breakable glass-front cabinets placed in: a) areas easily accessible to staff in units (i.e. wing offices; b) areas easily accessible to staff in close proximity to at-risk cells.
3. Notify Master Control. 
4. Notify health services or emergency agencies.
5. Action urgent notifications according to requirements.
6. Use staff notebook to record details at the scene.
7. Complete Information report on IOMS as soon as practicable and notify the Manager responsible for the area.

Master Control

• Contact emergency services.
• Either commences an incident log and records events OR opens an IOMS Incident report.
• Ensure incident log is complete.

Manager Responsible for the area

1. Initiate immediate actions to prevent recurrence or maintain control of the incident situation.
2. Plan and initiate actions required to remove the underlying cause or reduce the frequency of the incident.
3. Complete and forward message to National Office Operations Advisers where necessary.
4. Complete IOMS component (assign category(s) and participants) complete IOMS summary.
5. Undertake action to resolve problems/issues where indicated.
6. Contact Post Incident Response Team and personnel to provide cultural or spiritual support where required.

Prison Manager

1. Approve incident on IOMS and initial action prior to urgent notifications.
2. Approve actions from incident report and ensure follow up.
3. Advise Regional Manager of incident and follow up actions implemented.

See Related Links to access the Process Responsibility Process and Activities table.

Sources of Further Information

• Post Incident Response Team manual
• List of approved local PIRT members
• CorrNet
• IOMS Bulletin Board