Royal commission report finds Life Without Barriers in Newcastle had shocking instances of violence, sexual assault and neglect

The damning report, from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, follows public hearing 20 which was held in December, 2021.

It was the third in a series of hearings held by the Commission and looked closely at the experiences of two groups of people with disability living in Life Without Barriers-run homes.

It is intensely critical of the Hunter-based organisation, and its Chief Executive Officer, Claire Robbs, who has made numerous appearances at the commission.

Its criticisms relate to alleged and proven instances of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of residents at the hands of staff, other residents, and outsiders.

The measures Life Without Barriers (LWB) had in place to prevent those incidents were inadequate, as were the organisation's responses, the report says.

Some of those failings were systemic, but LWB failed to take active steps to monitor, detect, and rectify deficiencies in its operations.

The Commissioner's report on public hearing 20 says it aims to bring LWB to account for those failings, as well as to identify systemic issues.

Commissioners have recommended the organisation consider making an ex gratia payment to a woman given the pseudonym Natalie, who was the victim of sexual misconduct at the hands of a worker.

The commission has investigated about 7000 "reportable incidents" and complaints about supports in group homes belonging to seven different providers who, in 2021-22 collectively handled more than $1.2 billion in National Disability Insurance Scheme funds.

Of those, LWB was the biggest, with 3579 NDIS participants, of whom 1219 received Supported Independent Living funding.

LWB started out in Newcastle in 1995, and now provides services throughout Australia with a revenue last financial year in excess of $790 million.

Some of the experiences about which residents and their families gave evidence at public hearing 20 included the mismanagement of very serious instances of sexual assault, violence, and neglect.

One woman, given the pseudonym Sophie, was sexually assaulted in a park after being taken out by a man she met online in 2017. He had picked her up from the group home where she lived and he was subsequently charged and convicted of a criminal offence.

Previously, Sophie had been engaged, but her fiance was not permitted to sleep overnight at the group home.

LWB could, and should have done more to support Sophie, and help her to achieve her goal of having a safe intimate, and sexual relationship, the report says.

"The fact that individual LWB staff were not sufficiently equipped to facilitate the provision of appropriate sex and relationship education does not mitigate LWB's failings in this respect," the report says.

Contrary to that, LWB had "relationship rules" in place which lacked respect for Sophie's dignity of risk and privacy, did not support her right to intimacy, and had "the real potential of creating unsafe situations for Sophie".

The incident was not reported in the organisation's management system, was not subject to an internal investigation, and was not escalated to senior executive management.

And in 2018, LWB failed to provide the "relationship rules" document to the NSW Ombudsman, despite the fact it fell within the scope of documents the watchdog sought access to,

Another incident involving Sophie, which should have been reported to the NDIS Commission the same day, was not reported until 48 days later.

In the case of another resident, Natalie, managers did not report a worker's alleged sexual misconduct, despite staff alerting them to it.

Afterwards, LWB repeatedly assured Natalie's mother that male workers would not provide her with personal care.

However, the organisation could not deliver on those assurance, failed to communicate with Natalie's mother about that, and subsequently exacerbated Natalie's trauma, the report says.

LWB did not keep proper records in relation to Natalie's medication, did not get her medical attention in a timely manner before she had to be hospitalised with a bowel obstruction, which amounted to neglect, and did not report that incident either, the report says.

In another LWB group home, the mismanagement of challenging behaviours and violence allowed that violence to become normalised, the commission said.

The "high frequency" of violence between residents, included objects being thrown around and used as implements to hit people resulting in bruises, cuts, wounds and, on at least one occasion, a fracture.

LWB management, including its operations manager and CEO, were aware of the adverse effect that was having on residents, their family members and staff but did not communicate with families when violence occurred, and didn't do enough to reduce or eliminate that violence, the commission found.

The incompatibility of some of the residents was at least a partial cause of some of the resident-to-resident violence, and in future that needed to be weighed up and discussed with residents, their families, carers and representatives.

The report also found LWB failed to apologise to Natalie or her family for the sexual misconduct of one of its workers, and failed to inform Natalie of her right to legal advice about seeking compensation.

The report said Ms Robb was reluctant to accept there had been "any significant deficiency in the operations or services provided by LWB".

"It was only where the evidence was quite clear was she prepared to concede that LWB's approach involved systemic failings," the report says.

Other findings related to poor communication between staff and families, residents and management, and poor handling of their concerns and complaints.

There was not enough support, leadership and training for staff to manage resident-on-resident violence, as well as to do critical paperwork, and none for those dealing with residents during the aftermath of sexual assault or sexual misconduct.

Management also failed to ensure staff were properly trained in preventing and recognising sexual abuse.

Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission proposed eight recommendations, seven of which were directed to LWB.

Commissioners made six recommendations in the Public hearing 20 report, which all related to LWB, including that it should review its policies, procedures and training to better equip staff to support residents to enjoy relationships.

It should review its personal care policies, and the way staff should respond if rostering decisions could not accommodate personal preferences, and it must improve its record keeping.

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