Managing and Reporting School Incidents (Including Emergencies)

Stage 5 – Incident review and closure

Incident review

In the context of these Guidelines, an incident review is defined as 'an analysis of all incidents that should occur to identify what happened and the cause. This is to help determine whether an incident was managed correctly and to identify learnings to reduce the risk of similar events occurring in the future'.

An incident review is discretionary and may be initiated by the school principal, regional director, area executive director or other senior executive within the department. It is recommended that a review is facilitated by a peer who was not involved in the incident.

The review should seek to examine what was effective in the incident management, identify opportunities for improvement and develop recommended actions, focusing on:

• people
• process
• organisation
• systems
• training.

Principals or peer reviewers may seek support from the relevant region or central division as part of this process.

Incident reviews generally should be initiated within 3 days and completed within 21 days of the incident occurring.

Incident closure

Incident closure is a formal process of closing an incident. An incident is closed with comments in eduSafe Plus once the responsible authority is confident that appropriate ongoing supports are in place and, if relevant, pending investigations are underway and/or reviews have been completed and recorded.

Authority to close an incident in eduSafe Plus is determined by the final severity level in which the incident is rated, as outlined in Stage 2 – Reporting an incident. Incidents are closed when current and/or future risk is eliminated, mitigated or accepted.