Servicing Job Seekers With Challenging Behaviours
Guideline
Document change history
Version
Start date
Effective date
1.0
01 07 2015
01 07 2015
End date
Change and location
Original version of document
Explanatory Note
All capitalised terms have the same meaning as in the jobactive Deed 2015–2020. In this document, ‘must’
means that compliance is mandatory and ‘should’ means that compliance represents best practice.
Disclaimer
This Guideline is not a stand-alone document and does not contain the entirety of providers’ obligations.
It must be read in conjunction with the jobactive Deed 2015-2020 and the jobactive Deed 2015-2020 —Work for
the Dole Coordinator and any relevant Guidelines or reference material issued by Department of Employment
under or in connection with the jobactive Deed 2015-2020 and the jobactive Deed 2015-2020 —Work for the
Dole Coordinator.
Summary
This Guideline provides information for Providers (Employment Provider, New Enterprise Incentive Scheme
(NEIS) Provider and Harvest Labour Services (HLS) Provider), on the servicing of Participants (job seekers) with
challenging behaviours. It also sets out requirements for lodging Job Seeker Incident Reports in the Employment
Services System (ESS).
This Guideline is not intended to be prescriptive in any way. Providers need to adapt the strategies that are
outlined here to suit their particular circumstances. This Guideline should supplement, not replace, existing
internal operational policies and procedures.
Providers are responsible for informing themselves of their legal obligations and taking appropriate measures to
comply with obligations.
Policy Intent
The aim of the policy is to provide Providers with guidance on how to continue to deliver services to job seekers
with challenging behaviours without risking their staff or property, while ensuring that job seekers meet their
Mutual Obligation Requirements. This Guideline also assists Providers to identify and report challenging
behaviours that job seekers display.
Relevant Deed clause/s
The relevant clauses in the jobactive Deed 2015–2020 (the Deed) are:
• Clause 69 — Compliance with laws and government policies
• Clause 72 — Employment Provider Services
• Part C — New Enterprise Incentive Scheme
• Part D — Harvest Labour Services.
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Relevant references
Reference documents relevant to this Guideline include:
• Documentary Evidence
• NEIS – Assistance and Business Mentoring Guideline
• Period of Service, Suspensions and Exits Guideline.
What is challenging behaviour?
Challenging behaviour is any behaviour that a reasonable person would consider unacceptable or hostile and
that creates an intimidating, frightening, threatening, offensive or physically dangerous situation in the
workplace or other location.
Challenging behaviours may include but are not limited to:
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physical violence against any person—for example, hitting, kicking, punching, spitting on or throwing
objects at a person
acting in a way that would cause a person to have a reasonable belief that assault was intended
adopting a physical position or state and/or producing an object that a reasonable person would
consider constitutes a serious and imminent threat of physical violence
oral or written (including email or communication through social media) threats, abuse or harassment,
inappropriate touching and stalking of staff members
damaging, defacing or destroying property intentionally or through inappropriate and aggressive
behaviour such as throwing objects or punching and kicking property
theft of property, illicit drug taking on Provider’s premises, use of Provider’s equipment and/or property
for illegal purposes
swearing, making offensive noises or gestures, inappropriate or suggestive comments, vilification
threatening suicide; causing injury to oneself—for example, cutting
any other behaviour that is deemed inappropriate and warrants an incident being recorded.
Incident management
Process
Details
General considerations
The Department of Employment acknowledges that Providers have a wide
variety of expertise and arrangements to address challenging behaviours.
Strategies will differ between Providers or their Sites. The circumstances
that result in incidences of challenging behaviour may be unique and there
may be a number and range of contributory factors.
For example, HLS Providers will only have contact with a job seeker during
the time they register for Harvest Work. After this time, the Harvest Worker
has no requirement to interact with the HLS Provider. As both NEIS and HLS
Providers are unable to record incident reports in the Departments IT
system, they will be required to create and retain file notes when recording
incidents of challenging behaviour.
Incident management plan
Employment Providers must have an incident management plan in place
that outlines the organisation’s approach to managing situations where job
seekers display challenging behaviours, or where staff identify that a
situation has the potential to result in this behaviour.
Reporting of incidents
Employment Providers should use the incident report screen in ESS to
record all instances where a job seeker exhibits challenging behaviours. By
recording incidents, staff are informed about the potential for further
incidents. The record also assists with future servicing arrangements.
Incidents should be recorded appropriately so that, if the job seeker is
transferred to another Site or Provider, the receiving Site or Provider is
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aware of the challenging behaviours and can arrange to service the job
seeker accordingly.
NEIS Providers and HLS Providers do not have access to the incident report
screen and should keep file notes of incidents of challenging behaviour.
Note: Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, a person has the right
(with limited exceptions) to access information or documents held by the
Department or the Departments’ contracted service providers.
Immediate notification
requirement
Where an incident has occurred and the Provider has reason to believe that
the job seeker who is displaying threatening, aggressive or violent behaviour
poses an imminent threat to another organisation, they should immediately
telephone that office to advise them of this.
Incident reports
Incident reports are intended to record incidents, inform Employment
Providers of the potential for further incidents and support compliance
measures where relevant.
There are three levels of incident reports for Employment Providers when
recording an incident in ESS:
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ES Level 1—No police involvement but incident was recorded to
ascertain a pattern of behaviour
• ES Level 2—Police were contacted and/or attended, but job seeker
was not threatening, aggressive or violent (could include theft,
inappropriate behaviour)
• ES Level 3—Police attended and job seeker has shown threatening,
aggressive or violent behaviour or has threatened to harm
themselves or others.
NEIS Providers and HLS Providers should also use these three levels of
incident reporting when writing their file notes where relevant.
If there is an ES Level 3 incident report on a job seeker’s ESS record, the job
seeker cannot be transferred to another Provider without the involvement
of the Department’s National Customer Service Line (Help Desk) or their
Department of Employment contract manager, who can authorise the
request.
Note: Employment Providers can also use ESS to view incident reports
lodged by the Department of Human Services. Those incident reports are
recorded at the following four levels:
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Level 1—Incidents where the Department of Human Services
Customer Service Officer believes they have been abused but no
warning letter will be issued to the Customer—for example, verbal
abuse
Level 2—A warning letter will be issued indicating that further
inappropriate behaviour may result in alternative servicing
arrangements
Level 3—Repeated inappropriate/aggressive behaviour where
alternative servicing arrangements may be required
Level 4—Serious incidents where restricted servicing arrangements
may be required.
NEIS Providers and HLS Providers do not have functionality in the
Department’s IT System. When a job seeker is referred by an Employment
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Provider to NEIS or HLS the Employment Provider should disclose current,
relevant incident reports recorded against the job seeker.
Case management for job seekers with challenging behaviours
Process
Details
Warnings
Warnings should be given to job seekers who show tendencies toward or
display challenging behaviours so that they are aware of the consequences of
this behaviour. Warnings may be verbal or in writing. Any warnings given to a
job seeker should be recorded on the comments screen on the job seeker’s
record in ESS or in the case of NEIS Prospective Participants and NEIS
Participants in file notes.
Temporary service
restrictions
If warnings do not have the effect of improving behaviour then the job
seeker’s access to an Employment Providers site can be restricted for up to six
months or, in the case of NEIS Participants, they can be suspended from
servicing (refer to the NEIS – Assistance and Business Mentoring Guideline).
Before implementing a service restriction, the Provider must discuss the case
with their relevant Account Manager and/or contract manager.
Where an Employment Provider applies a temporary service restriction the
job seeker is not permitted to attend an Employment Provider’s premises,
alternative arrangements must be arranged. For example, alternative
arrangements may include providing access to the Employment Provider
premises between certain times only; or servicing the job seeker by
telephone, email or post.
In the case of a Volunteer, an Employment Provider Exit can be performed if
the Employment Provider determines it appropriate that the Volunteer should
be Exited (refer to the Period of Service, Suspensions and Exits Guideline.).
However, if the Volunteer does not want to be Exited and chooses to continue
to receive Services, the provider must continue to service and assist the
Volunteer. In this circumstance, a case management plan should be created.
Where the option of restricting access to a site is to be applied, Employment
Providers must:
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record on the Restricted Service Arrangement screen on the job
seeker’s record in ESS all restrictions that are issued, including the
type of restriction, the primary contact and the start and end date of
the service restriction
write or email the job seeker to inform them of the service
restrictions that have been applied, the duration of the restrictions,
the way in which they will receive assistance during the period of
restriction and their continuing obligations to fully satisfy their Mutual
Obligation Requirements
regularly review restricted service arrangements and invite the job
seeker to contribute to the review
keep Documentary Evidence of warnings and service restrictions, as
these may be needed to support the transfer of the job seeker from
the Employment Provider’s case load, as appropriate.
If a job seeker who has had a restricted service arrangement is transferred to
another Employment Provider, the receiving Employment Provider will be
able to view incident reports and restricted service arrangements information
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created by the transferring Employment Provider. This information can be
viewed by the new Employment Provider for 12 months from the date of the
restricted service arrangement.
Note: A restricted service arrangement is not transferred with the job seeker
(it will end before the transfer takes place).
Case management plan
If a serious incident has occurred, the Employment Provider should assess
how it will continue to service and assist the job seeker.
A case management plan should be created for any job seeker that exhibits
challenging behaviours.
Case management plans need not apply only to job seekers who have had a
service restriction applied. However, if a service restriction is applied, a case
management plan must be created.
A case management plan should include a summary of the
incident/challenging behaviours; a strategy to manage challenging
behaviours; and the servicing arrangement for post temporary service
restriction.
Contact with the job seeker as per Employment Provider’s service plan needs
to be maintained, Mutual Obligation Requirements must be met and the
terms of the job seeker’s Job Plan need to be adhered to.
Any Non-vocational Barriers that are identified as a result of the incident
should be addressed. The Job Plan should be adjusted to include new
activities, and the job seeker will need to sign the Job Plan as per standard
requirement.
If the Employment Provider takes these steps and the job seeker does not
return the signed Job Plan by the notified date then a Participation Report
should be submitted for refusing to enter into a Job Plan. The Employment
Provider should document due diligence exercised (particularly the additional
notification and reasonable timeframe given) when submitting a Participation
Report to the Department of Human Services. Employment Providers should
speak to their relevant Account Manager and/or contract manager when
creating and maintaining a case management plan.
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Post temporary service
restriction
For Employment Providers, it is important to consider and record in the job
seeker’s case management plan how the job seeker will be serviced after a
temporary service restriction has been lifted. Consideration should be given
to what ongoing measures will be implemented to ensure job seeker
compliance and improved behaviour.
Incident report screen in ESS
Where a request for transfer is made for a job seeker with an ES Level 3
incident report, Employment Providers should contact the Department’s
National Customer Service Line (Help Desk) on 1800 805 260 or their
Department of Employment contract manager, who can authorise the
request.
The Job Seeker Incident Alert in ESS displays the number of active incident
reports that have been recorded against a job seeker in the previous
12 months, providing a visual indicator of potential risk. The incident alert is
activated at the time the user selects the job seeker’s record, and will also
display (if in place) the existence of a restricted service arrangement.
The number of active incident reports includes both those created by
Employment Providers and those created by the Department of Human
Services.
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