The Online Reporting System, has been updated and redesigned following the implementation and endorsement of the Child Safe, Member Protection and Complaints Resolution Policies by the SLSA Board in September 2021.

The centralised public facing online reporting system is a comprehensive report handling system that has the following features:

• Ensures all relevant questions are asked of the reporter according to the Complaints Resolution Policy;

• Triage all reports, complaints/grievances to the relevant complaint manager pending the nature of the complaint identified by the reporter;

• Notifies complaint manager when a report has been submitted;

• Complaint Manager can request to reassign a matter up to their relevant Branch or State;

• A state can request to reassign a matter to SLSA;

• Higher level entities (states and branches) can assign reports to clubs;

• Maintains confidential information and records of all reports and complaints received;

• Ability to upload photos, documents, video etc to the report file; and

• Historical reports to be maintained.

View sub-topics:

1.1 Architecture and Decision Hierarchy                             

The Reporting System has been redeveloped and is consistent with the Complaints Resolution Policy and Child Safe Policy and is designed to identify the type of report (nature of report) being submitted and the relevant SLS Entity in which the report will be sent.

Incidents are categorised into 2 categories, either a Child Safe Concern or a Complaint & Grievance:

•     Child Safe Concerns

All Child Safe Matters, regardless of the nature of complaint will be sent directly to the relevant State Centre, with SLSA notified too. A State will be able to initially review the matter and nature of the report and if deemed appropriate, may refer it to the SLS Club to handle in the first instance. This will only occur with low level/non-criminal offences.

•     Complaints & Grievances

When a person submits a complaint, they will need to firstly identify the level the act took place at – whether it was at SLS Club level, Branch level, State level or National level – as well as identifying the club they belong to. From there a complainant needs to select the nature of complaint or grievance from a list provided:

◦     Serious Criminal Conduct

◦     Bullying/Victimisation

◦     Discrimination (pregnancy, religion, disability, race, sexuality

◦     Verbal Abuse

◦     Complaint Against Paid Employee

◦     Sexual Abuse/Sexual Harassment/Misconduct

◦     Harassment

◦     Physical Abuse

◦     Member to Member Dispute

◦     Other Policy Breach

Matters that are categorised as Serious Criminal Conduct or Sexual Abuse/Sexual Harassment/Misconduct will in the first instance be sent to the State for review and, if deemed appropriate, the State may refer it back to the SLS Club to handle.

Decision process (to be updated)

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1.2 Security and Privacy                                        

Access to the Reporting System is limited to a 60-minute session to ensure the reports are not left open indefinitely. After the 60 minutes you will be required to log in again. All data is permanently stored for historical access to reports. Reports going back to 2019 are currently stored. Note that reports lodged prior to April 2022 have slightly different categorisations and may show up as “Cas Report One, Two or Three instead of those listed in the previous sub-topic.

There are 4 levels of Complaint Manager (CM) user in the reporting system:

•     National CMs

Reports: Can view and update reports logged for organisations in any state, branch or club. Can also create new reports for any organisation under their national organisation.

Dashboard: Additionally, National complaint managers can filter the dashboard reports down to any state.

National Complaint Managers also receive an email notification for every new report lodged across all states, branches and clubs.

•     State CMs

Can view and filter the dashboard reports down to any branch in their state(s).

State Complaint Managers also receive an email notification for every new report lodged for organisations in their state, including branches and clubs.

•     Branch CMs

Can only view the dashboard and reports for their branch and any club(s) belonging to that branch.

•     Club CMs

Can only view the dashboard reports for the club or clubs they have been assigned as Complaint Manager to.

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1.3 Accessing the System                                             

The Reporting System is accessible on all devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers. It requires internet connectivity to access all functionality.

Logging in to the Reporting System is done at https://complaints.sls.com.au/slsa/login

Further advice for accessing the system is addressed under Section 2 below.

1.4 User Access                                             

Club Administrators with full access to Surfguard have the overall responsibility of setting up user permissions to the Reporting System. They do this by assigning a Complaint Manager officer to one of three positions available under “Officers” in Surfguard. See the Managing Complaint Managers topic below for further details.

1.5 Need Further Assistance?                                          

If you have any issues using the Reporting System, including obtaining a relevant username, or resetting a password, please log a support ticket at https://help.sls.com.au.

If you have questions or concerns about how to address matters or complaints, please contact your State Centre in the first instance, after consulting the Complaints Resolution Policy which can be found under Documents Library in the in the SLS Hub. If you still require assistance, please reach out to SLSA Integrity via email: integrity@slsa.asn.au.

1.1 Terms and Definitions                                             

The following table explains the various terms used in this guide. A full explanation of terms in relation to the Complaint Resolution Policy can be found in the following document: Policy 6.06 Complaints Resolution available to download from the Resources section of the Report System.

Reporting System Roles