Recording contacts in the Social Work Information System (SWIS) 003-12130020

An interview with a customer is regarded as one contact. Any subsequent activities that take place either before the interview commences or after the interview concludes, should be recorded as separate contacts.

The exception is:

• All contacts with parents/guardians or third parties for verification, which should be recorded as separate contacts, even if these occur during the interview
• When the contact occurs via a form or letter (e.g. Over 18 statements), this should also be recorded as 'Contact with Parents/Guardians' or 'Discussion with Third Parties'

This field refers to the type of contact with the customer (or relating to the customer) as a result of the referral.

This includes contacts directly with the customer, contacts with parents or third parties or file/paper assessments. This is often referred to as a channel.

This field is also one of the critical fields in the Strategic Cost Management (SCM) process for social work services.

If the social worker rings or provides a written referral to an agency during the course of the interview, this should still be considered as part of the interview and should be recorded as a Referral Out within the original contact.

There is an option of recording up to 3 Referrals Out to different types of agencies on one contact. This does not mean that all Referrals Out must be recorded as part of the initial contact, just those that take place during the course of the interview with the customer.

This field covers both payment recommendations and delegations. Depending on the initial selection, further drop down lists will appear requiring more detail.

This field is not mandatory and should only be completed once for each delegated assessment undertaken.

This should be done once the final decision has been made about the customer's entitlement. For example, if recording a contact with a Youth Allowance (YA)/unreasonable to live at home (UTLAH) customer and the parents have not yet been spoken to, this field would be left blank until a subsequent contact when a decision about entitlement has been made.

An Entitlement Decision should not be recorded for every contact. Recording of an Entitlement Decision should reflect the work effort that has included the writing of a social work report, or adding, or contributing to, a Recommendation DOC that has been placed on the Centrelink system.

In most cases, only one Entitlement Decision will be recorded for each referral, but there are exceptions to this, for example:

• A customer has sought social work assistance to claim Crisis Payment, and is also seeking a Child Support Scheme (CSS) Exemption
• These assessments can be recorded on the 1 referral with separate contacts recorded for each of the actions relating to the individual assessments
• In these circumstances there will be 2 reports attached to 2 separate contacts for the one referral, one for the CSS Exemption and one for the Crisis Payment claim
• Where a social worker has undertaken one or more of these activities, it is vital that this information is added to the customer's SWIS record to ensure consistency and accountability

This category is intended to reflect the type of activities the social worker has undertaken for, or on behalf of, the customer. Up to 3 types of intervention (during the course of the contact) can be recorded.

Select the most significant actions undertaken. There is no facility to prioritise the selections.

This field is intended to collect information about the outcome of the specific contact with the customer (not of the overall intervention) and from the perspective of the social worker.

This is a mandatory field. Up to 2 outcomes may be selected for each contact. There is no facility to prioritise the selections.

This field defaults to 'No' but if the circumstances warrant the social worker writing a report (even though not mandatory) this can be changed to 'Yes'.

On completion of the contact a general social work report template will be displayed for completion.

This can be used for all types of assessments and reviews where the social worker feels that is important for the circumstances of their decision to be documented and remain as a permanent part of the customer's record.

Whenever a delegated decision is selected in 'Entitlement Decision' a report is mandatory, and this field will not be available for selection. A note will advise the user of the type of report they are creating.

The following standard reports are in this field:

• Crisis Payment
• CSS Exemption
• Income Management
• UTLAH 18+
• UTLAH ABSTUDY
• UTLAH DSP
• UTLAH Under 18

The DOC Title? field allows social workers who are intending to add a DOC to the customer's record the option of adding a more meaningful heading to bring the DOC to the attention of Service Officers.

The options available are:

• SW Contact
• SW Contact - ABSTUDY UTLAH
• SW Contact - At Risk
• SW Contact - CrP
• SW Contact - CCA
• SW Contact - CSAT
• SW Contact - CSS Exempt
• SW Contact - Disaster
• SW Contact - FCM
• SW Contact - IM
• SW Contact - JCA/JCAc
• SW Contact - PF/SPF
• SW Contact - UTLAH
• SW Contact - VWPR

SWIS will automatically default to 'SW Contact' and can be changed to a more appropriate title where required.

The DOC Completion and DOC boxes allow the social worker to write a DOC that will be added to the customer's record without having to go in and record it manually.

The DOC Completion field allows the user the option of having the DOC completed or leaving it open for further activity. The default option is 'Complete the DOC'.

When using this field, remain mindful that the DOC will display on the Document List (DL) screen of the customer's record and be available for all staff to read. The amount of text should be kept to a minimum.

Should the social worker require further follow up with the customer in respect to the referral issue a Fast Note needs to be created and placed on hold and assigned to the social worker's Inbox.

Anonymous customers are added into SWIS for the purposes of recording the social work effort for customers who, for a range of reasons, do not want to, or it is not appropriate for them to be identified as Services Australia customers.

Some examples of these customers would be:

• Referrals from Department of Home Affairs for Family Violence assessments where the applicant is not a Services Australia customer and cannot be identified or recorded on any Centrelink system
• Calls to Smart Centre social workers from people who are enquiring about their eligibility or the services provided by the Services Australia without wanting to divulge their identity
• Assistance provided to people, or their families, who have been affected by disasters who are not Services Australia customers or do not wish to be identified as Services Australia customers

To record an anonymous customer, click on the Add Anonymous Client option in the left hand menu.

This will open the Add Anonymous Client screen.

On completion of the customer demographics, click on Continue to continue recording any referrals and contacts had with the person.

Note: the system automatically generates a dummy Customer Reference Number (CRN) for the anonymous customer. These records are designed to be used for one-off and short term (1 or 2 days) recording and not accessed again. The CRNs are cleared on a random basis by IT Support. Reports or case notes should not be added to any anonymous customer record.

All requests for deletions of contacts or referrals from a customer record must be made via SWIS and cannot be actioned by sending the Social Work Services Branch an email.

There is the option to delete either an entire referral (including any attached contacts) or just a specific contact by using the 'Delete' option that appears on the far right hand side of the referrals/contacts list.

Enter a reason for the deletion of the referral/contact and click 'OK'.

This action does not actually delete the information but sends an email through to National Support Office (NSO) for it to be actioned as appropriate.

The turnaround time for deleting the referral or contact is dependent on the current workload in the Social Work Services Branch.