LIFE Without Barriers is disputing 23 findings proposed to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People With Disability.
The disputed findings include that they failed to let a resident know about her possible entitlement to compensation after the sexual misconduct of a worker, and the failure to record the sexual assault of another resident, conduct an internal investigation into it, and escalate it to the Board and others.
There were 81 proposed findings put to the commission during a one-day hearing on Thursday, relating to two group homes in Melbourne and Lismore. A small number of the findings explore the responsibility of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Quality and Safeguards Commission which the organisation reports to.
Life without Barriers started out in Newcastle in 1995, but it now provides services throughout Australia and had a revenue last financial year in excess of $755 million.
Life Without Barriers has conceded that it did fail to keep proper medical records for a group home resident, and failed to treat the lead up to and hospitalisation of her as a reportable incident and report it to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Commission.
The organisation has agreed that staff and managers were aware of resident-to-resident violence and conflict in a group home between 2013 and 2020 and that it was having adverse effects on residents and some staff, and that on some occasions there were not enough staff to adequately support and supervise residents.
Findings of a high turnover of staff, inadequate support and leadership, and an excessive reliance on casual staff remain in dispute.
Other findings related to management of residents' finances; maintenance, upkeep and cleaning of the homes, and management's failure to be proactive when serious issues were raised or emerged.
Recommendations include that the Royal Commission should consider whether to recommend that there be a development of a national Community Visitor scheme to complement the NDIS Commission's oversight of the quality of services provided by registered and unregistered NDIS-funded service providers to NDIS participants.
The proposed findings and recommendations follow a public hearing held in December examining the two homes. Commission Chair, Ronald Sackville QC, said that Life Without Barriers had failed to demonstrate its own internal reflection on the issues raised.
"Why was it allowed to happen, how could this have happened for so long, what went wrong, and what did LWB and ... LWB's board plus senior executive, what did they do to try and work out where things had gone so wrong," he said in response to submissions from Life Without Barriers counsel Ms Sophie Callan.
"They are fairly obvious question that arise from the large number of proposed findings that have been accepted."
Common themes which emerged during the hearings, including seven days during December 2021, included allegations of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by residents living in Life Without Barriers group homes at the hands of staff, other residents, and persons external, the commission heard.
The findings centre on the adequacy of measures that Life Without Barriers to prevent that from occurring, the adequacy of its response to those allegations, the role of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission in its uncovering of r response to those allegations, and the NDIA in allocating and funding and planning of supports and services to residents and how that may have contributed to their vulnerability.
A report is expected to be finalised by September 2023.
