Damage to a building caused by water coming from within the building is possibly not a risk that is top of mind for many businesses. However, at Guild Insurance we have seen these types of claims steadily rising over the past few years, causing more damage and more disruption than business owners expected.

How does this occur?

Water inundating the premises can be caused by several factors, usually related to faulty or damaged plumbing. The most common culprits are water pipes and flexi hoses either inferior design, becoming old or damaged and consequently bursting with large volumes of water flooding the premises, while another cause, blockages in sinks, also result in water overflow. Ultimately these failures or issues create water havoc and cause significant damage to premises.

These types of incidents can happen in any business or home, though those businesses with a high number of basins and toilets, such as early learning businesses, face greater risk simply due to the number of pipes, hoses and sinks.

What’s the business impact?

Sometimes businesses are not immediately aware that a pipe has burst, particularly if it’s happened over the weekend or on holidays. Unfortunately, that means a lot of water has flowed into the premises before any action taken and more often than not, it means a lot of damage has occurred.

It takes time to completely dry an area that has been inundated with water, often requiring industrial driers which are quite loud to operate. As a result of the noise and disruption, businesses often need to close while the drying out process occurs. As well, high volumes of water can lead to mould issues, forcing businesses to temporarily close while they work to resolve these due to the health & safety risks.

On top of the drying process, there will most likely be furniture and equipment which needs to be repaired or replaced, particularly flooring, which requires clear access to complete.

Risk mitigation

While Guild Insurance prides itself on settling these matters as quickly and stress free
as is possible, insurance can’t mitigate the timing issues described above, which is why at Guild Insurance we believe that prevention is the key and can be achieved by any business with a few simple changes.

All businesses should have a maintenance program that includes routine inspections of the plumbing so that problems can be detected and repaired before an incident occurs. These inspections should be carried out by staff and supported by regular inspections by a licensed plumber.

Businesses should also consider installing automated devices which can protect against water leaks. Some of these devices will shut off the water supply when a leak
is detected, preventing the inundation of water, while others will also notify the
property owner when a leak is detected, meaning the incident can be acted on much
sooner. Business owners are advised to speak to their plumber about what will work
best for their business.

How you can save

By making these simple changes you may be eligible for a discount on your premium,
so talk to your Guild Account Manager today to see how you can save.

The State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) is the New South Wales (NSW) government organisation that regulates the state’s workers compensation system. It’s a requirement of SIRA that all NSW employers have a return to work (RTW) program in place within 12 months of starting the business. However some employers aren’t complying with this; either they’re not aware of this requirement or they may not understand what they need to do to meet it. This article has been created to assist employers understand what it is they need to do, why it’s important and how to best meet this requirement.

Please note this information must be read in conjunction with that provided by SIRA, it does not replace it. SIRA’s website (www.sira.nsw.gov.au) contains detailed and valuable information which employers should make themselves familiar with.

What is a RTW program?

A return to work program is the formal policy that outlines your general procedures for handling work-related injury or illness. It represents your commitment to the health, safety and recovery of workers following an incident. It sounds quite simple, however unfortunately it’s not always the case. And when not done well it can have a detrimental impact on the employee and employer.

The program is required to be in place irrespective of whether an employee has been injured. It’s about having the plan in place for when it may be needed.

Why it’s important to have a return to work program

While creating a RTW program is something you must do, it’s important to understand why it’s a must and how it benefits your business. A RTW program provides clarity and a clear process for the business in the event of a workplace injury. Supporting an injured worker return to work can be a challenging and sometimes stressful situation; this will be compounded if you haven’t previously thought about how you’ll do it. Creating a program means you’ve planned for the situation before it occurs.

Having a program means the business has agreed who’s responsible for assisting the different aspects of an injured worker returning to the workplace. The person appointed is responsible for recovery at work. If your business reaches a certain size, a return to work coordinator needs to be appointed.

Helping your worker to recover at work may reduce the financial impact on your business and enables you to:

• maintain the skills and knowledge of an experienced worker
• reduce the cost of training a replacement worker
• demonstrate to all workers that they are valued employees
• maintain good employer-employee relationships
• reduce the length of time your workers are away from work
• avoid the cost of hiring new staff
• help to comply with your legislative obligations.

In addition to the workplace benefits, businesses need to know that SIRA is taking compliance breaches seriously. SIRA can issue fines of up to $2,000 to businesses found to not have the required program in place.

Resources to assist the process

Before the requirements of a RTW program are explained, it should be acknowledged that some businesses have found it a bit challenging to fully understand what they need to do. Therefore it’s important to know there are resources and supports available to you.

Guild Insurance (Guild) offers personalised support and guidance for those businesses who hold a workers compensation policy with Guild or Guild Early Learning. Our Injury Management Specialist, Julia Lock, will walk you through the process of creating a RTW program specific for your individual business. If you would like to take advantage of this invaluable offer of support, please contact Julia directly at jlock@guildinsurance.com.au. And further to this, when a business lodges a claim, Guild’s case managers will have a discussion with the business to be sure the RTW program is in place and created for the correct business category (as described below). If it isn’t, the case manager will refer them to Julia for assistance.

In addition to this, the SIRA website has a great deal of information about creating a return to work program, as well as various supporting documents to assist this process. The majority of the information needed can be found in their Guidelines for workplace return to work programs document, found here.

What’s required in the program?

The information below can be found in more detail in SIRA’s guidelines mentioned above.

There are two types of requirements depending on the size of your business. These are separated into 2 categories; Category 1 employers and Category 2 employers. The table below defines which category a business fits into.

Category 1 requirements

For Category 1 employers there are four parts to implementing a RTW program, and these are:

1. Appoint a RTW coordinator – this person looks after the tasks required under the RTW program, such as identifying suitable work opportunities and liaising with key people such as doctors and insurers. This person must be able to demonstrate knowledge and skills specific to this role as set out by SIRA.

2. Develop a RTW program – there are eight key areas which need to be covered in the program and they are:

   a. leadership and commitment

   b. workplace arrangements

   c. rights and obligations

   d. after an incident

   e. support for the worker

   f. recovery at work

   g. dispute prevention and resolution

   h. administration.

   Details on what needs to be done under each of these areas can be found on a checklist for Category 1 employers in the appendix of the SIRA guidelines document mentioned earlier.

3. Consult workers and unions – this step ensures workers are involved in the development of their RTW program. Effective communication between all parties, in a way which can be understood by all, ensures everyone is able to contribute to the process.

4. Implement the RTW program – the information gathered during the previous consultation step is used to finalise the program and implement it. Employers must make the workplace aware of the RTW program and review it at least every two years.

Category 2 requirements

For Category 2 employers there are three parts to implementing a RTW program, and these are:

1. Nominate the person responsible for recovery at work – this doesn’t need to be a return to work coordinator as with Category 1, but this person will manage workers compensation and recovery at work activities.

2. Develop a RTW program – employers can develop their own program or they can customise the Standard return to work program for Category 2 employers; this can be found in the appendix of their guidelines previously mentioned. Employers must consult with their employees when developing this program.

3. Implement the RTW program– this step requires the employer to inform workers of their rights and obligations under the program. The program should be reviewed at least every two years.

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There will be occasions when a speech pathologist needs or wants to end the therapeutic relationship with a client. However, this isn’t an easy thing to do. Knowing how to do this in a professional way that doesn’t cause any distress for either the speech pathologist or the client can be quite challenging.

Why do therapeutic relationships end?

There can be many reasons why a speech pathologist considers that the therapeutic relationship needs to end. It may be because the needs of the client won’t be met by that speech pathologist and they should be seeing someone else who has the knowledge and expertise they require. It may also occur because the relationship has become strained or difficult and therefore it’s no longer effective. A speech pathologist may inform a client that services are not able to continue if there are concerns relating to safety, or because the client has not complied with their obligations, such as payment of outstanding invoices, or other practice/organisational policies that the speech pathologist has provided to them.

Speech pathologists need to know they can end a therapeutic relationship. In some cases it may not just be that they’re able to end the relationship, it may be something they must do as it’s in the speech pathologist’s and/or the client’s best interests.

Provision of speech pathology services within consumer directed models of funding/care can be challenging. A client may have expectations that will never be met by any speech pathologist, they may not have had much contact with any allied health services in the past and have limited understanding of ‘how it works’. A speech pathologist has an ethical obligation to provide all the information a client will need to understand their communication, swallowing or mealtime support difficulties and how speech pathology may be able to assist them to improve their function or support them. This may mean that information needs to be provided in a variety of ways, with frequent checks of the client’s understanding and support to develop a positive therapeutic relationship.

Communication is key to maintaining positive therapeutic relationships. A speech pathologist has an obligation to ensure they have provided information in a way the client can understand and has discussed any questions or addressed concerns in a professional and respectful manner. Sometimes however, this still does not result in the development of a positive and beneficial relationship and the speech pathologist must consider how to proceed.

Tips for ending a therapeutic relationship

• If there’s tension or conflict arising within the therapeutic relationship, discuss these with the client early. Not doing this allows problems to escalate which makes them harder to manage and de-escalate later. Managing these problems early also allows the speech pathologist and the client to potentially improve the relationship, meaning it may not need to end.

• Records should be made of any discussions with the client (this includes phone calls and emails) about difficulties within the therapeutic relationship and suggestions to end the relationship. Unfortunately, there will be occasions when the client is unhappy with ending the relationship and they may feel they’ve been treated unfairly. The speech pathologist should keep of record of all conversations had as evidence they’ve addressed all concerns respectfully and professionally.

• Reasons for ending the relationship should be provided to the client so they understand why this action is being taken. Understanding the reason is most likely going to lead to them being accepting of the decision. However, what information is provided is at the discretion of the speech pathologist. For example, if a parent is non-compliant with home practice, the speech pathologist should provide sufficient information for the parent to understand why home practice is important and the lack of progress if none is completed, however, stating that the parent is very difficult to work with may not assist that understanding.

• Provide the client with information regarding other speech pathology services available in their area, keeping in mind specific requirements or limitations the client may have, e.g. other practices that offer school/home/residential facility visits etc.

• If a referral to another speech pathologist is made, the specific reasons why this speech pathologist is being recommended should be explained, such as this person has specific skills which would better meet the needs of the client. When recommending that a client see a colleague for their specific knowledge and skill, the speech pathologist must have personal knowledge of the colleague’s expertise. Speech pathologists should refer to information about referrals in Speech Pathology Australia’s (SPA) Policy and Procedure Manual found on the SPA website. Speech pathologists are reminded that they will breach client confidentiality if they share reasons for ending the therapeutic relationship with the new treating speech pathologist. If there are specific concerns regarding the behaviour of a client or family members, speech pathologists should seek independent legal advice about what can or cannot be provided to the next clinician.

Support and assistance can be sought from Speech Pathology Australia, they can be contacted on 1300 368 835.

Ending therapeutic relationships in Speech Pathology