THE Hunter’s three large residential disability centres – Stockton, Tomaree and Kanangra (Morisset) – will be staying open well beyond the state government’s deadline of June 30 next year.
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In an announcement on Thursday afternoon, the Family and Community Services (FACS) agency said the complexity of the program, together with “unexpected challenges along the way”, meant it would not be able to move everyone from the three large centres into their intended group homes.
“Despite careful planning and progress to date, the [new] Hunter Residences will not be completed by 30 June 2018, . . . the date it was expected that all FACS operated disability services would transfer to non-government operators to support the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS),” the agency said.
It said 62 people from the Hunter centres had already moved into 11 new homes.
In February, Home4Life – a consortium of two not-for-profits, Newcastle’s Compass Housing and the Campbelltown-based BlueCHP – was selected to build the rest of the homes. The Newcastle Herald understands there are still about 320 people at Stockton, 60 at Kanangra and 35 at Tomaree, meaning that another 80 or so group homes will be needed.
FACS said it had bought land for most of the remaining houses. Home4Life was submitting designs for council approval and it was likely the first homes would be ready “towards the end of 2018 with the remaining homes to follow in stages”.
The agency gave no indication of how long it would take overall.
“We will develop plans for the transfer of staff and services to the new group homes as more is known,” the agency said. “These homes will transfer to the non-government sector, however the timing and scheduling of this transfer is not yet known.”
Despite the delay in the Hunter, the agency confirmed that the rest of the state government’s disability services would be transferred to the private sector by June 2018, with another 1500 staff to be transferred to Life Without Barriers, Achieve Australia and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.
Wendy Cuneo of the Stockton Hospital Welfare Association said the delay was good news for all of those who wanted the centres to remain open. She said that while the government was concentrating on its new group homes it was letting Stockton “run down badly”.
“They say they are keeping families and staff updated but that’s not been the case,” Mrs Cuneo said.
Public Service Association Hunter organiser Paul James also welcomed the delay and said the government should never have started its privatisation of disability services.
Newcastle state Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp said: “Given the tragic fatalities earlier this year, this Government needs to take a more measured approach. The safety of our most vulnerable must not be compromised. “
