Social Work Information System (SWIS) 003-12130000

SWIS is a management information system designed to record and store information about the customer contact activities and non-casework activities of Services Australia's social workers. Social workers can access SWIS via Customer First.

SWIS gathers a wide range of information about the referrals and contacts with customer groups seen by social workers. It provides details on interventions undertaken and outcomes achieved by social workers through their professional interactions with customers. It also records details of non - casework activities undertaken by social workers, such as policy feedback, community outreach and professional development.

SWIS performs a significant function as a reporting tool for social workers to demonstrate outcomes and community trends to internal stakeholders such as the Minister, departmental executive and social work managers.

SWIS is also used:

• to analyse casework and non-casework trends and inform service planning for the social work service
• to prepare indicative costing for new business or budget proposals, as SWIS data provides an indication of potential workloads and customer demand
• with Commonwealth Public Sector Union (CPSU) endorsement, as one of the tools used to inform the social work component of Strategic Cost Management (SCM)

SWIS may contain highly sensitive customer information. Social work reports and case notes must not be copied, snipped or pasted into other sections of a customer’s record. This includes non-social work reports, Online Document Recording (ODR) documents, Fast Notes, or customer related correspondence.

The part of SWIS that allows social workers to record detailed information about their interventions with specific customers and third parties is known as referrals and contacts.

The referral field

The referral contains demographic information about the customer and details of how and why the customer was referred to a social worker.

The contact field

The contact details information about the type of contact the social worker has had with the customer as well as what type of actions the social worker has taken with, or on behalf of the customer. There is also a field to record the outcome of each specific contact.

Third party contact

Contacts can also be added to a referral when the intervention has been with a third party, either for verification, or where the third party is a community or government agency contacted in relation to the customer's circumstances.

Each referral can have many contacts attached depending on the complexity of the issues being addressed.