Life Without Barriers CEO Claire Robbs apologises to residents and their families

The woman, given the pseudonym 'Sophie', was sexually assaulted in a park after being taken out by a man she met on line in 2017. He had picked her up from the group home where she lived at 9pm. The man was subsequently charged and convicted of a criminal offence.

The commission has heard that LWB created 'relationships rules' preventing Sophie from having a boyfriend come to the house after 6pm.

In her apology, Ms Robb said she recognised LWB should have been "more supportive in relation to Sophie's wish to engage in sexual relationships, including to ensure she had a 'safe' place to do so".

But, in answer to questions from Patrick Griffin SC, Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, Ms Robb said she did not report the incident to the board.

It "didn't occur whilst she was in our care", Ms Robb said. Mr Griffin said he was troubled by her response.

"What I'm suggesting to you is the imposition of those rules in effect made LWB in part responsible for what subsequently happened because Sophie was denied the opportunity to have someone in her home, and consequently was put in a more vulnerable position," he said.

Commission chair Ronald Sackville was also concerned, asking Ms Robb if she agreed with the evidence of Stephen Doley, a LWB director who gave evidence on Monday, that those rules which applied to Sophie were inappropriate.

"I'm not sure 'inappropriate' is the right characterisation," Ms Robb said.

But she agreed she would have liked to have come up with a different way to manage 'the risk and Sophie's goals'.

Mr Sackville, however, pushed that line of questioning further, asking when did she become aware of the details of the sexual assault, forcing her to admit she was not across the details until preparing for the hearing.

"How could you possibly know, if that was all you knew, that this was not Life Without Barriers' responsibility? How could you know that without making detailed inquiries as to the circumstances that led Sophie to be outside her home at night in circumstances that led to a sexual assault? How could you make the judgement that this was not Life Without Barriers' responsibility? You couldn't know, could you?"

Sophie had also been the victim of resident-on-resident violence while living in the LWB home, for which Ms Robb also apologised, saying the physical abuse she experienced was "unquestionably' not in keeping with Sophie's right to "feel safe and respected in her own home".

Ms Robb also apologised for the sexual misconduct of a staff member in another household, against 'Natalie'.

"For Natalie and her family, the sexual misconduct by a staff member is completely unacceptable, and I acknowledge the pain and trauma that has caused Natalie and her family.

"Our priority should have been to protect Natalie earlier. I offer this apology to both Natalie and her family with a full understanding that our delay in offering a genuine and human response was also unacceptable."

Mr Sackville questioned why LWB had not paid compensation to Natalie regarding the incident, noting investigations had found two staff members had been involved.

"Isn't it pretty obvious that in that situation, LWB has committed a serious breach of a duty that it owed to Natalie?" he said.

The hearing also examined LWB's compliance with a legal obligation to allow community visitors to examine documents, having heard they had "enormous difficulty" accessing records of incidents.

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.

The services LWB provides to people with disability include accommodation, including Supported Independent Living (SIL), access to the community and health services and NDIS plan support coordination.

According to its 2008 annual report, the organisation "pursued the philosophy that positive, healthy relationships" were essential for people in care to feel safe and have an opportunity to improve their lives.

Their focus was on "integrating people back into the community, helping them form relationships". It has since come under fire for how it managed to do those things, as well as high staff turn over, and residents having little or no say in who they lived with, where they lived, or with how many people.

Families have given evidence about poor communication, as well as inadequate health care resulting in hospitalisation, a lack of cleanliness, failures to adhere to dietary requirements and allegations about the ongoing mishandling of residents' funds.

The sometimes harrowing evidence has included examples of resident-on-resident violence in another LWB home included an incident where a resident was hit over the head multiple times by another resident until the plastic chair broke.

Police were not called and immediate medical support was not offered.

In another incident, a resident 'Rebecca', sustained serious bruising and had hair ripped out by another resident - when her mother saw the marks, she was not given an explanation to how it happened.

"No home should feel violent and unpredictable and I appreciate the conflict between residents can cause considerable distress, both to those directly impacted and people living in the home," Ms Robb said.

Ms Robb said she had not been to either of the two homes which were the subject of the hearing.

The Commission has also heard from Sophie's family that she was regularly left alone, including after a spate of epileptic fits, and that she was housed with people with much higher support needs than her own, so workers were often busy with other residents. That meant she relied on a house mate to help her get dressed "95 per cent of the time".

When asked about better models of care and accommodation for people with disability, Ms Robb said that more contemporary models where people were able to have more personal space, but still ''balance up'' the access to staff support, was better.

"I think that's been proven that that can be really, really successful for people even with quite complex behavioural or medical needs, .... things like small units together, or units that have staff on site but not there all the time," she said.

The Royal Commission is has published reports based on the evidence of seven public hearings and more reports are expected in the first half of 2022.

IN THE NEWS:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: