Social work service referral 003-12010000

Before starting this process, staff must read the Operational Message.

If the customer talks about suicide or harm to themselves or others, see Customers talking about suicide or self-harm.

Risks to a customer's privacy have been identified. See Separating Safely - protecting personal details to make sure the customer's personal details are safe before progressing.

This is a Family and Domestic Violence Interaction Point. If the customer is with another person, on speaker phone, or already identified with family and domestic violence concerns, continue with the current business conversation. Otherwise, go to the Family and domestic violence procedure to conduct the risk identification and referral process.

If a child is in immediate danger or risk of harm you must act, and a delegate must call 000.

This document explains how and when staff can refer a customer to a social worker.

Child Safe Framework

Services Australia has a zero tolerance approach to child abuse.

A staff member must act when they see or hear behaviour that raises concern about a child or young person’s safety.

Follow the agency’s Risk Identification and Reporting model when identifying and responding to child safety concerns. See Risk identification and management of threats to the safety or welfare of a child.

Immediate referral to a social worker

The following must be immediately referred to a social worker:

Customers aged under 16 without support
Customer talking about suicide or harm to themselves or others

The Process page has details on how to make the referral.

Book in social work UTLAH appointment

Customers aged between 16-17 years who are applying for UTLAH must have a social work UTLAH appointment booked in when they contact the agency.

See Table 2, Step 7 in Unreasonable to live at home (UTLAH) initial contact for Youth Allowance (YA), Disability Support Pension (DSP), Special Benefit (SpB) or Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) for details.

Offered a social work referral

Some customer groups may be offered a social work referral if they are not linked in with external services or they need a delegated social work assessment.

This includes customers who are:

experiencing family and domestic violence
impacted by declared disasters and emergency events
experiencing very vulnerable circumstances, such as multiple barriers and limited support

Do not book in a social work referral if the customer has not asked for one.

Customer requests social work referral

If a customer rings and requests a social work referral, find out more details about the reason why. Creating a social work referral may delay the customer getting the help they need.

Consider other options before making a social work referral.

Social workers cannot help with:

overturning urgent payment decisions
new claim escalations
claiming or processing Income Support Payments (ISP)
payment restorations
financial planning advice
determining disputed care situations
UTLAH assessments for customers aged 18-21

See Resources Additional Support Options for links that may help the customer experiencing these issues.

There may be times where a customer is experiencing vulnerabilities or complex circumstances requiring an assessment or referral to another business area (not social work).

If appropriate, refer the customer for: