Reporting Incidents & Near Misses

We report incidents and near misses not to assign blame but to prevent a reoccurence or injury.

The School has a legal requirement under Occupational Health Safety & Welfare legislation to report all work-related injuries.  All employees and students at the school are required to follow an Incident Reporting Procedure.

Procedure
What is an accident/incident?
What is a near miss?
What is a work-related injury?
Notifiable Incidents
Records & Confidentiality
University HSW Handbook: Chapter 3.29 - Incident, Near Miss Reporting and Investigation

Procedure 

University Policy demands that an Incident/Property Damage/Hazard Report Form (yellow card) is completed for any incident or near miss that causes, or has the potential to cause injury and/or damage.

• The form is completed by the person/s concerned in the incident or near miss, their supervisor, and the School Safety Officer or their nominee.
• The incident or near miss must be reported to the School Safety Officer or the School Manager in the Safety Officer's absence; and the form should be completed as soon as possible.

Reporting incidents and near misses helps to create a safer place for you to work and study.  It gives us valuable information on hazards and potentially harmful situations in the workplace.  With this information, we can work towards eliminating or minimising the risk to staff and students.

Clink the link to download an Incident/Property Damage/Hazard Report Form (yellow card).

What is an incident/accident?

An accident is an unplanned event or series of events which causes or has the potential to cause injury to people and/or damage to property and/or equipment.  The terms accident and incident are interchangeable.

What is a Near Miss?

A near miss is an event where no person was injured, or property was damaged, however; a reoccurence of the event may lead to an injury or property damage.

What is a Work-Related Injury?

A work-related injury is any injury, disease or disability which occurs during the course of any School related activity which requires first aid or medical treatment.  Incidents and near misses that occur during the travel period to and from work to home are not considered to be work-related.

Notifiable Incidents

Government legislation requires that incidents and occurences above a certain level of severity must be reported to SafeWork SA. A notifiable injury or dangerous occurence must be notified to SafeWork SA immediately. 

Should there be a notifiable injury or dangerous occurence, immediately notify your supervisor and the School Safety Officer. If they are not available, contact the School Manager.  If all of the above persons are not available, report the incident to the University OHS Unit.

A notifiable injury includes:

• A work related injury that causes death;
• An injury that requires treatment as an inpatient in hospital;
• Acute symptoms relating to exposure to a substance at work;
• Electric shock.

A notifiable dangerous occurence is an incident or event where there is an immediate and significant risk to any person that could have been in, on or near the relevant place.

Examples of a notifiable dangerous occurence include:

• An uncontrolled explosion, fire or escape of any gas, hazardous substance or steam;
• An electrical short circuit;
• The unintended ignition or explosion of an explosive.

 On receiving the report, the School Safety Officer will:

• Decide what level of investigation is needed;
• Co-ordinate any investigation with the supervisor and staff/students concerned
• Prepare a report with recommendations for any remedial action found necessary in the investigation.  This report and remedial recommendations will be presented to the school for ratification.

Records & Confidentiality

The school will keep on file:

• A copy of the "yellow card"
• Any investigation report and remedial action recommendation
• A record of any remedial action completion

All personal information provided in an incident or near miss report is kept private and confidential at all times.

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