For the purpose of the guidance below, serious incidents are identified as 'notifiable incidents'.
Under section 7 of the Act, one of the Regulator’s objects is 'to promote and support the delivery of safe and effective social services'.
Monitoring notifiable incidents in a timely fashion helps the Regulator promote and support the delivery of safe and effective social services.
The Regulator employs an integrated, intelligence-driven strategy to make decisions regarding reported incidents. By gathering and examining data, including from notifiable incident reports, we discern trends and needs within the sector. This decision-making approach aligns with one of the Regulator's legislative guiding principles under section 8 of the Act, to 'make decisions using an intelligence-led and integrated approach that is proportionate to risk and minimises regulatory burden'.
For this reason, the Regulator has developed the following guidance.
The guidance outlines:
- serious incidents that must be reported to us, and
- the steps for service providers to take to report these incidents, and forms to access and complete, to provide this information.
This information does not cover Worker Carer Exclusion Scheme (WCES) notifications. For more information on WCES notifications visit the Worker and Carer Exclusion page.
This content was updated on 25 June 2025.
Service providers registered with the Social Services Regulator are responsible for reporting notifiable incidents that occur during the delivery of a registered social service.
The requirement to report starts once a provider is registered.
You can find a downloadable Word document version of the below information here:
What is a notifiable incident?
Notifiable incidents include incidents that the Regulator considers critical based on the impact they have, where:
- Serious harm is reasonably likely – a serious incident that is reasonably likely to cause serious harm to a service user
- Serious harm has resulted – a serious incident that has resulted in serious harm to a service user, or serious injury to a service user of a supported residential service.
What incidents must be reported?
All notifiable incidents must be reported to the Social Services Regulator. The definitions of notifiable incidents are listed below.
These requirements come from section 48 of the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 (the Act).
Your reporting is important to help safeguard social service users.
Reporting notifiable incidents informs the Regulator of serious harm and risks of serious harm to service users during social service delivery, and of actions taken by service providers to address the immediate health and safety of their service users.
Monitoring notifiable incidents in a timely fashion helps the Regulator promote and support the delivery of safe and effective social services. This is an object of the Regulator under the legislation.
The Regulator employs an integrated, intelligence-driven strategy to make decisions regarding reported incidents. By gathering and examining data, including from notifiable incident reports, we discern trends and needs within the sector. This decision-making approach aligns with one of the Regulator's legislative guiding principles under section 8 of the Act, to 'make decisions using an intelligence-led and integrated approach that is proportionate to risk and minimises regulatory burden'.
Reporting serious risk and serious harm
A ‘notifiable incident’ is defined by the Regulator as one that results in serious harm. See below for descriptions and reporting protocols.
Notifiable incidents
'Serious harm' is defined by the Regulator as an incident which results in serious injury to a service user (physical or psychological). It is defined in section 3 of the Act as a single, repeated, or persistent incident of harm which results in one or more of the following:
- death
- loss of a foetus
- permanent or long-term serious impairment
- self-harm/attempted suicide (example)
- poor quality of care/neglect (example)
- permanent or long-term serious disfigurement
- permanent or long-term severe psychological injury or developmental delay
- Emotional/psychological abuse (example)
- Sexual exploitation (example)
- Financial abuse (example)
Some examples of serious harm are below.
Extra reporting step for critical notifiable incidents
Critical notifiable incidents are a small group of notifiable incidents that have an additional and more immediate reporting step due to the critical nature of the harm or risk of harm.
Because this group of incidents is critical, the Regulator has come up with an approach to reporting that ensures there is a timely review of the way the service provider responded to the incident.
This extra reporting step means providers alert the Regulator that a critical notifiable incident has occurred by completing a critical notifiable incident short form (referred to as ‘Short form’ in Table 2 below). Do this by close of business the next business day.
If the incident occurs on a Friday or on the weekend, report it by close of business the following Monday.
Because critical notifiable incidents are also notifiable incidents, providers have a second step, which is to complete a full incident report within 3 business days. This means that service providers have a two-step reporting requirement for critical notifiable incidents.
The Regulator's definitions of critical notifiable incidents are below.
Further reporting protocols for supported residential services
Supported residential services (SRS) have further reporting protocols for notifiable incidents. These protocols only apply to providers of supported residential services.
The following notifiable incidents must be reported to a resident’s guardian or person nominated:
- deterioration in health
- injury
- medication error
- death
- personal behaviour that may pose a serious risk to safety
- relocation of resident
- termination of residential and services agreement.
The Regulator has identified that because of the unique risk profile of SRSs, notifiable incidents are to be reported to the resident's guardian (or person nominated) within 3 business days.
- These reporting protocols apply in addition to the other requirements for reporting notifiable incidents under the Act.
- SRS providers may also, on request, need to provide further evidence to the Regulator about respnding to medication errors and changes in health and support needs.
Responding to medication errors
For medication errors, providers of supported residential services are to:
- seek medical advice (for example, the treating doctor, local chemist or Nurse-On-Call service) about the potential risks and recommended follow up action
- immediately make records after any medication errors, including:
- the date and time
- what occurred
- what was administered
- the name and signature of the staff member who administered or supervised the administration of the medication.
Change in health and personal support needs
If a resident’s health and personal support needs change:
- the service provider must ensure that the resident’s ongoing support plan is reviewed and varied as necessary to meet the changed needs of the resident
- ongoing support plans must set out the ongoing health and personal support requirements of the resident and agreements of how a service provider may assist with the resident ongoing health and support needs.
How to report
Reporting notifiable incidents
All notifiable incidents must be reported to the Regulator.
Service providers do this by completing a full incident report. There are different ways to complete the incident report.
Client Incident Management System (CIMS) is an e-system used by the Department of Families Fairness and Housing (DFFH) for incident reporting for providers funded by DFFH. Relevant reports made in CIMS will be sent to DFFH and the Regulator. This means that service providers report once. If your service is not funded by DFFH, you will not report through CIMS.
Reporting using CIMS
If you use CIMS, you can complete the full incident report using CIMS.
Step 1 Ensure the immediate safety and wellbeing of service users directly and indirectly impacted.
Step 2 Within 3 business days report using CIMS, via: https://providers.dffh.vic.gov.au/cims.
The CIMS guide has further information about reporting CIMS guidance and resources - DFFH Service Providers.
For all non-CIMS users
Some service providers do not use CIMS. Non-CIMS users include SRSs, providers funded by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and providers funded by WorkSafe.
This means you can complete the full incident report using a form on our website.
Step 1 Ensure the immediate safety and wellbeing of service users directly and indirectly impacted.
Step 2 Within 3 business days report using the Social Services Regulator incident report form.
Health services providers also complete the non-CIMS users’ full incident report form. It is not possible to report notifiable incidents through VHIMS. Providers of SRSs should also use this form to make a full incident report.
Reporting a critical notifiable incident
Determine if the incident meets the Regulator's definition of a critical notifiable incident.
Step 1 Ensure the immediate safety and wellbeing of service users directly and indirectly impacted.
Step 2 By close of business the next business day report using the Social Services Regulator critical notifiable incident short form.
This short form asks you to provide a brief description of the incident and actions taken.
If the incident occurred on a Friday or the weekend you are to submit the form by close of business the next business day.
Step 3 Within 3 business days complete and submit a full incident report.
- CIMS users submit the full incident report via CIMS https://providers.dffh.vic.gov.au/cims .
- Non-CIMS users submit the full incident report using the Social Services Regulator incident report form.
What happens after I report a notifiable incident?
Response to a full incident report
Shortly after submitting a full incident report, you will receive a confirmation email, which will include a reference number. You may need to check your junk email (or trash) folder.
After receiving the full incident report on a notifiable incident, the Regulator will:
• review the information
• confirm the report is in scope
• assess the risk of the incident and determine a response.
The Regulator takes all reports seriously and is committed to preventing and responding to significant harm or risk of harm to service users.
The Regulator may:
• ask you for further information
• monitor the response to the notifiable incident
• investigate the notifiable incident
• take action for non-compliance against the Social Services Standards (Standards), or breaches of the Act or the Social Services Regulations 2023
• close the report with no further action.
The Regulator records all notifiable incidents for intelligence purposes and identifying trends.
Response to critical notifiable incidents
In most cases, if the critical notifiable incident short form is completed correctly and the reported response is deemed appropriate, the Regulator will wait to review the full incident report before contacting the service provider. The information provided in the short form helps to inform the Regulator’s decision.
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