Tools and resources

Incident reporting

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The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing and the Department of Health have separate incident reporting systems and requirements.

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing funded organisations are required to report client incidents through the Client Incident Management System (CIMS). The services in scope for this policy align with the prescribed social services of the Social Services Regulation Act (the Act), including: 

  • child protection services
  • community-based child and family services
  • disability services
  • family violence services
  • homelessness services
  • out-of-home care services
  • secure welfare services
  • sexual assault services.

The incident reporting system that applies to Department of Health funded organisations is the Victorian Health Incident Management System (VHIMS).  Please note – health organisations that do not report in the VHIMS, and who provide the following service types are in-scope for the reporting of client incidents in the CIMS:

  • aged care and carer’s support services
  • alcohol and drug treatment services
  • community palliative care services
  • home and community care services for people aged under 65 or under 50 for Aboriginal people
  • mental health community support services

More information on services in scope of CIMS can be found in section 1.7 of the new CIMS policy <https://providers.dffh.vic.gov.au/client-incident-management-system-policy-and-guidance-word>. 

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  • Reporting privacy breaches

    Privacy incidents must be reported within one business day using the online form.

    Visit the Privacy page for more information, including a link to the Privacy incident report web form, fact sheets and guidelines..

  • Failure to disclose child sexual abuse

    The  failure to disclose child sexual abuse offence came into effect on 27 October 2014.

    The offence requires that all adults, not just professionals, who have reasonable belief that a sexual offence has been committed in Victoria report that belief to the police.

    For more information including, how to report an offence, visit the about the regime and how to report, visit the Criminal offences to improve responses to child sex abuse page.
     

  • Safeguards for people with a disability

    ion about service quality, improvement and protecting the rights of people with a disability can be found on the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Disability webpage.

  • Incident reporting information for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) organisations

    NDIS organisations in receipt of funding from both DFFH and the NDIS, will remain subject to both state-based (CIMS and national) (NDIS) reporting obligations.  For more information relating to the reporting obligations for NDIS, visit at: https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/providers/reportable-incidents.

  • Reportable Conduct Scheme (RCS) and CIMS investigations

    The Reportable Conduct Scheme (RCS) enables the Commission for Children and Young People (the Commission) to provide independent oversight of how organisations respond to allegations of child abuse. See the Commission's website to access their information sheets and a more detailed description of the types of reportable conduct.

    For incidents in scope of CIMS and the RCS, an investigation report completed for the RCS can be submitted in CIMS in lieu of a CIMS investigation report. This reduces the impact on clients and carers as well as duplication of effort arising from parallel investigation requirements. 

    For more information on the RCS including reportable incident types, visit chapter 3.7 and chapter 4.4 of the CIMS policy https://providers.dffh.vic.gov.au/client-incident-management-system-policy-and-guidance-word. 

  • Services in scope of the social services regulator

    The Social Services Regulation Act 2021 specifies registered social service providers, as soon as reasonably practicable, must notify the Regulator of any serious incident that has occurred, or may pose a serious risk to service users, during the delivery of a social service (s.48(1)). 

    Service providers currently required to report incidents through the Client Incident Management System (CIMS), and who are in scope of the Social Services Regulator, are able to use CIMS to submit incident reports under s48 (1) of the Social Services Regulation Act 2021.

    Service providers should also be aware of, and comply with, the separate Critical notifiable incident reporting requirements for the Social Services Regulator. Further information can be found at: https://www.vic.gov.au/ssr-reporting-notifiable-incident. 

     

Contacts
Website
CIMS webpage

Email us

 

CIMS@dffh.vic.gov.au  - email contact for specific policy questions, organisation and user registration support, or issues using the DFFH CIMS IT platform.

 

StatewideCIMS@dffh.vic.gov.au – email contact for specific questions or issues relating to incidents or outcomes that have been submitted to the department’s divisional office for endorsement. An example is seeking further clarification around why an incident has been withdrawn.

 

cims.api@dffh.vic.gov.au – email contact for stakeholders and IT vendors using standalone incident management systems and submitting incidents to the CIMS via the Application Program Interface (API). External staff experiencing system issues with a standalone system should first contact their IT vendor prior to raising any issues via this email address with DFFH.