When to Escalate in Disability Support, and When Not To

Escalate Well means

Spot when it needs to go up (risk, health change, safeguarding) and act, not too early, not too late.

What it looks like on shift

Something changes, you are not sure how serious it is, and you ask rather than deciding alone.
You escalate with what you observed rather than what you concluded.
You follow your organisation's policy first, and you know where it is before you need it.

What it looks like when it slips

Waiting until you are certain. Certainty usually arrives after the moment to act.
Passing it up with no detail, so the person receiving it cannot tell how urgent it is or what you actually saw.
Telling the next shift instead of telling somebody who can act.

Three things to try on your next shift

Learn your organisation's escalation policy this week, before you need it. Where it is, who is on call, what the number is.
When you are unsure, describe rather than diagnose. “She has eaten almost nothing for two days” travels better than “I think she is depressed”.
If you escalated and were wrong, say so. A team that can be wrong out loud escalates faster than one that cannot.

The things that go up regardless

Some of this was never a judgement call. If somebody tells you they have been hurt, or you have reason to think they have, that goes up. It goes up when you are not certain, when the person seems alright, and when the person it concerns is a colleague.

If somebody asks you to promise to keep a secret before they tell you something, you cannot give them that promise. Tell them you will have to pass it on to keep them safe, and then pass it on. Saying so first is fairer than agreeing and then breaking it.

The usual route is through your organisation. It is the organisation that has to notify the regulator, not you, so your job is to make sure the right person inside your service knows, quickly, and in writing. If the concern is about your organisation, or you have raised it and nothing has happened, you can contact the NDIS Commission yourself. And where a child is involved, your state has its own reporting rules and they apply to you directly.

And nobody is in trouble for raising something that turned out to be nothing. If that is not true where you work, that is worth knowing about your workplace. It is not a reason to stay quiet.

Before you act: Always follow your own organisation's policy first. For a suspected poisoning or medication error, the Poisons Information Centre is 13 11 26. In an emergency, call 000.