The Aged Care Safety and Quality Commission (ACQSC) has introduced a new Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) decision support tool to help residential aged care providers determine Priority 1 or Priority 2 reportable incidents.
SIRS is a new initiative to help prevent and reduce incidents of abuse and neglect in residential aged care services subsidised by the Federal Government.
The SIRS legislation was brought forward to 1 April 2021 after the Royal Commissioners highlighted the need for the $67.9 million scheme in their special COVID-19 report released in October 2020.
Aged Care Services Minister, Senator Richard Colbeck (pictured above) said in December last year that SIRS will expand the responsibilities of aged care providers to identify, record, manage, resolve and report assaults as well as a broader range of serious incidents in residential care.
