Australian Capital Territory
Corrections Management (Incident Reporting) Operating Procedure 2018
Notifiable instrument NI2018-339
made under the  
Corrections Management Act 2007, s14 (Corrections policies and operating procedures)

1	Name of instrument
This instrument is the Corrections Management (Incident Reporting) Operating Procedure 2018.
2	Commencement
This instrument commences on 29 June 2018.
3	Operating Procedure
I make this operating procedure to facilitate the effective and efficient management of correctional services.
4.	Revocation
This instrument revokes the Corrections Management (Incident Reporting) Procedure 2014 (No 1).

Jon Peach
Executive Director 
ACT Corrective Services
27 June 2018

OPERATING PROCEDURE	Incident Reporting 	
OPERATING PROCEDURE NO.	A2.1	
SCOPE	Alexander Maconochie Centre  	
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
To provide instructions to staff to ensure accurate, timely and detailed incident reporting and enable effective monitoring and management of incidents. 
PROCEDURES
1.	Definitions
Notifiable Incidents
1.1	A notifiable incident is an actual or alleged event where:
•	The safety of the community is jeopardised
•	Staff or detainees are at or under significant risk
•	Serious injury or a death of any person has occurred at an ACT correctional centre
•	A serious security breach occurs
•	Any incident that may generate significant public or media scrutiny. 
1.2	Notifiable Incidents must always result in the Executive Director being notified within 60 minutes of the occurrence or discovery of the incident.
Incidents
1.3	An incident is an event that may cause a threat to the personal safety of staff, detainees or others and/or presents a threat to the security of a correctional centre and is not defined as notifiable. 

2.	Minimum Incident Reporting Requirements
2.1	Following an incident, an Incident Report must be completed by all officers involved, or who witnessed the incident. 
2.2	Incident Reports must be clear, concise, factual and must be completed as soon as practicable once the incident is concluded, other than where a staff member is required to leave the premises urgently, prior to the end of the duty period. 
2.3	The Incident Report should be completed in full, and use the 5WH approach:
•	When – the date and time of the incident
•	Where – the location of the incident
•	Who – who was involved and who was present, including the author’s name, role and involvement in the incident. This should include all known witnesses.
•	What – what occurred in sequence
•	Why – If known, the trigger for the event
•	How – how was the incident resolved or controlled.
2.4	Incident Reports must be reviewed by the Officer in Charge (OIC) by no later than the end of the next duty period, ensuring all reports have been complete and that any immediate concerns have been addressed. 

3.	Notifiable Incidents
Verbal Notifications 

3.1	The OIC must notify the Duty Manager of the incident immediately. 
3.2	The Duty Manager must notify the General Manager of the incident immediately. 
3.3	The General Manager must notify the Executive Director of the incident immediately. 
3.4	Where contact cannot be made immediately on the first attempt the notification should be escalated to the next level without delay. 
3.5	All attempted notifications and actual notifications must be recorded in the Incident Report.

Written Notifications 
3.6	The initiating officer must email a brief factual outline of the incident to ACTCSincident@act.gov.au within 60 minutes of the conclusion of the incident, or in the event of an ongoing situation as soon as practicable. 
3.7	The email must be marked as urgent and the words ‘Early Incident Notification’ in the subject line. 
3.8	All officers and staff involved in, or who witnessed the incident must complete and submit an Incident Report as soon as practicable, or prior to the end of the duty period. 
3.9	Incident Reports must be submitted to the OIC for review. 
3.10	The OIC must review and ensure all Incident Reports are completed and that any immediate issues of concern have been addressed. 
3.11	The OIC must complete an Incident Summary and submit this with all associated Incident Reports to ACTCSoperationalcompliance@act.gov.au within 2 days of the incident occurring.  
3.12	Any use of force reporting must be completed as per the Use of Force Operating Procedure. 

4.	ACT Policing Notifications 
4.1	In the event ACT Policing attendance is required, the OIC must ensure ACT Policing have been notified to attend. 
4.2	The OIC must notify the Intelligence and Integrity Unit that ACT Policing attendance was required. 

5.	Next of Kin 
5.1	In the event a detainee is seriously injured, ill or another circumstance requiring the next of kin to be notified, the OIC must notify the detainees next of kin, as soon as practicable. 
5.2	If the detainee is a foreign national, the General Manager must notify the relevant embassy or consulate of the detainee’s circumstance, as soon as practicable. 
5.3	If the detainee has a disability and is managed by the Public Advocate, the General Manager must notify the Public Advocate of the detainee’s circumstances, as soon as practicable. 
5.4	All attempted and actual notifications to a detainee’s next of kin must be recorded on the detainee’s electronic file. 

6.	Post Incident Management
6.1	Officers should where appropriate, be offered the opportunity to complete the remainder of their shift in a different location as to where the incident occurred. 
6.2	The Staff Peer Support Team should be informed and be made available to provide support to involved officers, where appropriate.
6.3	The OIC must ensure that all Incident Reports are completed prior to the end of the duty period. 
6.4	The OIC must ensure that any RiskMan notification have been completed prior to the end of the duty period. 

7.	Post Incident Debrief 
7.1	The OIC will determine whether an informal or hot debrief is required and make the necessary arrangements for these to occur. 
7.2	A hot debrief should be undertaken where there are clear and immediate learnings, or where staff have been subject to an incident which may cause a high level of stress.

Informal Debriefs 
7.3	Where an informal debrief is required, it should be conducted immediately after an incident and should be chaired by the OIC. 
7.4	The informal debrief should focus on identifying immediate concerns and learnings related to the incident, and ensure that any immediate health and wellbeing issues are addressed.  

Hot Debriefs 
7.5	Where a hot debrief is required, it should be conducted in the immediate aftermath of the incident and should be chaired by the OIC or higher. 
7.6	All staff involved in the incident should be in attendance of the hot debrief. 
7.7	The Hot Debrief must focus on reassurance, information sharing, normalisation and staff support.
7.8	The Hot Debrief Report must be completed by the chair and the completed report sent to ACTCSoperationalcompliance@act.gov.au immediately after the hot debrief concludes. 

Formal Debrief
7.9	A formal debrief will be conducted upon direction of the General Manager or Executive Director and must be conducted within 14 days of the incident occurring. 
7.10	The formal debrief must:
•	Examine an incident in its entirety
•	Look at how the incident occurred
•	Consider how the incident was managed
•	Identify any opportunities to improve responses to incident management
•	Identify and address any concerns from the incident.
•	A formal debrief is intended to identify opportunities for continuous improvement through all of the above.
7.11	The Formal Debrief Report must be completed and sent to ACTCSoperationalcompliance@act.gov.au within 2 working days of the debrief occurring. 

8.	Reporting of Suspected Misconduct and/or Potential Criminal Activity by Staff
8.1	Any incident relating to suspected or actual staff misconduct, whether on duty or off duty, must be referred directly to the Intelligence and Integrity Unit as soon as practical after a staff member becomes aware of the suspected misconduct or potential criminal activity.  
8.2	The report must be submitted to the Intelligence and Integrity Unit via the Integrity Reporting Tool on SharePoint or via ACTCS-integrity@act.gov.au, or to the Executive Director.  

9.	Security Information Reports
9.1	Officers and other staff must submit a Security Information Report where they identify any activity that appears abnormal or out of place within their working environment. 
9.2	Reports should be timely, factual, transparent and as detailed as possible to permit further investigation as may be necessary.

RELATED DOCUMENTS 
•	Incident Reporting, Notifications and Debriefs Policy 
•	Incident Response Operating Procedure
•	Duty Manager Operating Procedure
•	Emergency Management Policy 
•	Emergency Management Operating Procedure
•	Death in Custody Policy 
•	Death in Custody Operating Procedure  
RELATED FORMS
•	Incident Report
•	Incident Summary 

Jon Peach
Executive Director
ACT Corrective Services 
26 June 2018

Document details
Criteria	Details	
Document title:	Corrections Management (Incident Reporting) Operating Procedure 2018	
Document owner/approver:	Executive Director, ACT Corrective Services	
Date effective:	The day after the notification date	
Review date:	3 years after the notification date	
Responsible Officer:	General Manager, Alexander Maconochie Centre 	
Compliance:	This operating procedure reflects the requirements of the Corrections Management (Policy and Operating Procedure Framework) Policy 2017	
Version 1