Stakeholders lead the way on new Impairment Assessment Guidelines for work injuries

A new Third Edition of the Impairment Assessment Guidelines (IAGs) for the Return to Work Scheme will commence from 1 October 2025, following an extensive consultation and co-design process led by stakeholder representatives.

The IAGs play a critical role in South Australia’s workers compensation scheme and are applied by accredited medical experts to assess the degree of impairment resulting from workplace injuries. These assessments are then used to determine a worker’s entitlement to lump-sum compensation and ongoing income support.

The Second Edition of the IAGs, published by Vincent Tarzia’s Liberals, was revoked by Parliament in 2022 following an outcry from doctors and legal representatives about the rushed consultation process and unfair changes that harmed workers. This resulted in new requirements that future editions of the IAGs would be subject to greater Parliamentary scrutiny.

In October 2022, a dedicated Stakeholder Representative Consultation Group (SRCG) was established to oversee a review of the IAGs and to lead consultation and co-design of a new Third Edition.

The SRCG consultation process took place over more than 2 years and involved 12 specialised medical sub-committees involving 55 doctors and medical professionals, followed by two rounds of public consultation involving over 500 stakeholders.

At the conclusion of the consultation and co-design process the SRCG unanimously recommended a Third Edition of the IAGs, which has now been accepted and published in full by the Government and will commence from 1 October 2025.

The Third Edition of the IAGs has been developed with a strong focus on ensuring that workers receive fair, consistent and objective assessments based on the best medical knowledge available. These changes support the goal that workers with similar impairments will receive the same assessment outcomes.

The changes in the Third Edition are expected to be cost-neutral to the scheme.

The Third Edition of the Impairment Assessment Guidelines for the Return to Work scheme can be found here.

Members of the SRCG were:

• (Chair) Dr Michelle Atchison, Psychiatrist and past president of the Australian Medical Association SA
• Dr Peter Jezukaitis, Accredited Impairment Assessor
• Paul Black, Barrister and Co-Chair of the Law Society of South Australia Accident Compensation Committee
• Guy Biddle, Lawyer and Co-Chair of the Law Society of South Australia Accident Compensation Committee
• Kristen Rogers, Coordinator of Policy and Industrial Services, SA Unions
• Julianne Flower, Leader Scheme Support, ReturnToWorkSA

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Quotes

Attributable to Kyam Maher

Expert medical practitioners play a critical role in South Australia’s workers compensation scheme assessing the impairment resulting from workplace injuries.

It is essential that those assessments are fair, consistent, objective and based on the best medical knowledge available. This new Third Edition of the Impairment Assessment Guidelines will help achieve that.

The Government firmly believes that stakeholders affected by our workers compensation scheme should be involved in decision-making about how the scheme operates.

The process for designing the new Guidelines has been led from the start by stakeholders, and I thank the members of the Stakeholder Representative Consultation Group for their work and dedication to this project over several years.

This stands in stark contrast the disastrous Second Edition of the Guidelines made by Vincent Tarzia’s Liberals, which resulted in an outcry from the medical community and legal professionals about its rushed consultation and unfair changes.

Attributable to Dr Michelle Athison, Chair of the Stakeholder Representative Consultation Group

The review of the Impairment Assessment Guidelines has been a long process, but the extensive consultation has ensured that we have input from everyone that this affects.

The SRCG committee has representatives from the medical field, the legal profession, representatives for workers and from ReturnToWorkSA.

The Guideline is a document primarily for doctors. There has been significant input from different medical specialties, and the review has been medically-led, with the intention of elevating the voice of the medical profession.

The SRCG is very proud of the document that has been produced.

Attributable to Paul Black, member of the Stakeholder Representative Consultation Group

Consultation on the new Impairment Assessment Guidelines has involved a number of groups from the legal profession (including the Law Society, the Bar Association, many law firms and other groups that represent lawyers and injured workers).

The Guidelines now provide for greater clarity about the responsibilities of compensating authorities and workers and their representatives before assessments take place, which will assist assessors and improve assessments. That will then reduce the number and duration of disputes, allowing workers to be compensated earlier.

Attributable to Michael Francis, CEO ReturnToWorkSA

ReturnToWorkSA supports the introduction of the third edition of the Impairment Assessment Guidelines.

While most people make a full recovery and return to work following a work injury there are others who are left with a permanent impairment for which the scheme offers additional compensation.

The process for creating the third edition guidelines has been comprehensive and provides for a medically informed, fair and objective way to assess such impairments.