"WE are accountable, we are listening, and we are acting" says Life Without Barriers in the wake of a damning report from the Disability Royal Commission.
The report, made public on Tuesday (February 28) is intensely critical of the Hunter-based organisation, and its Chief Executive Officer, Claire Robbs, who has made numerous appearances at the commission.
Public hearing 20, the third in a series of public hearings held by the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation and held in December 2021, looked at the experiences of two groups of people with disability living in Life Without Barriers-run group homes
The Commissioner's report on public hearing 20 makes 34 adverse findings against LWB relating to alleged and proven instances of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of residents at the hands of staff, other residents, and outsiders, as well as other issues.
The measures Life Without Barriers (LWB) had in place to prevent those incidents were inadequate, as were the organisation's responses, the report says.
In a statement released in response to the report, LWB says it accepts the Commissioners' recommendations and is committed to continuous improvement.
"We also acknowledge the negative experiences received in our care and made a public apology to people with disability and their families from the case studies in December 2021," the statement says.
"We take this opportunity to reiterate our deep regret for these experiences and we are taking action to ensure they never happen again...
"We remain absolutely committed to continuous learning across our organisation, and this means being led by people with disability in the design of our services and taking a national approach to improvements. We are accountable, we are listening, and we are acting.
"Furthermore, the work of the Commission is invaluable to Life Without Barriers, and we will integrate learnings from its activities into our organisation."
Andrew Vodic, Executive Officer of the Community Disability Alliance Hunter, said the findings in the report were 'disturbing'.
"We at CDAH are greatly disturbed by the revelations now coming out of the Disability Royal Commission," he said.
"Unfortunately, there are many broad industry wide issues within the disability service sector. We hope these findings will bring a cultural change within the sector, a change that returns genuine voice, choice and control to every person with a disability that engages with a support service."
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