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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-09 Daily Xml
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Disability Services

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (14:48): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding government-run disability accommodation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: The disability royal commission has heard damning and disturbing evidence about government-run disability accommodation and services. In fact, a senior DHS executive at the royal commission, who has since been quoted in the media, spoke about disability accommodation as having, and I quote, 'an air of neglect'. My question to the minister is: after more than three years in government, what kind of culture has the minister created and is overseeing when our own senior executives admit to neglect of those with disabilities?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:49): I thank the honourable member for his question. I think he is actually quoting someone slightly out of context in that the quote was from one of our managers who was referring to a particular group home which we have actually since shut down.

I should also say that, since we came to government in March 2018, we have discovered many aspects of our supported accommodation services that needed reform. We have implemented some of the strongest safeguards for people with disability ever enacted in South Australia and there is now more accountability across the board and a new zero tolerance to abuse and neglect policy, among other new safeguarding measures.

We are committed to continuing improvement, which is why we are implementing new initiatives for people with disability, such as the disability app. I may have outlined these before. While they may read as dot points on a piece of paper, what sits behind them is a lot of training and development which goes on behind the scenes to ensure that these practices are adopted across our services.

We have a zero tolerance to abuse and neglect strategy, which is part of our new practice quality and safeguarding framework. I as minister of course receive critical client incident notifications. My understanding is that that did not take place under the former government. We have also lowered the threshold and broadened those criteria. We have improved education and training for staff on how to recognise and report suspected abuse or neglect. We have restructured the services to increase supervision in group homes to better manage and mentor frontline support workers. We have:

undertaken robust internal and external auditing;

recruited a team of quality and safeguarding officers to monitor and improve practice;

implemented a more robust system and expanded the scope of checklists for internal audit site visits;

improved reporting through a new anonymous complaints option for staff, clients and families;

begun a pilot of CCTV in disability homes; and

established a customer group to self-advocate for a greater voice in support and access to community.

In relation to some of the matters that have been raised, there will be some clarification, which I am not at liberty to go into. I have also spoken to the Chief Executive of the Department of Human Services in relation to these matters.

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