Media Statement - 17 April 2024
MEDIA STATEMENT 17th April 2024
Federal Court approves an agreement between the NDIS Commission and LiveBetter
Everybody in the LiveBetter community has been deeply saddened by the death of Kyah Lucas in February 2022. Kyah’s death is a tragedy that has impacted all of us and our deepest sympathies remain with her family.
Today, the Federal Court approved an agreement between the NDIS Commission and LiveBetter, imposing a penalty of $1.8 million on LiveBetter for 17 breaches of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013.
This is a very significant penalty that reflects the seriousness of the circumstance surrounding Kyah’s death.
We accept the outcome of the legal process and will continue to offer our full support to Kyah’s family, our staff, the communities we serve, and others who have been impacted by this case.
Our commitment to safety and quality of care remains unwavering.
The legal action has put a spotlight on our training and assessment processes. We have independently reviewed all aspects of our training policies and procedures and taken significant steps to strengthen our processes and overall safety measures:
- We have restructured our management and governance framework to provide greater oversight and accountability.
- We have dedicated additional resources to establish the LiveBetter Academy to provide comprehensive training to all frontline staff, ensuring they are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver safe and effective care and supports.
- The Academy also delivers training to our senior frontline people in how to train new staff on the job, with a focus on customer safeguarding, compliance, and the assessment and management of risk.
- We have implemented stringent procedures around safe bathing and in-home risk assessment, planning, compliance and management of risk.
- We have zero tolerance for non-compliance with mandatory training.
ENDS
About LiveBetter
Founded over 40 years ago, LiveBetter is a not-for-profit community organisation dedicated to serving more than 45 communities in regional and remote areas of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
We provide local services and local employment to support the needs of often disadvantaged people living in isolated areas with little or no access to other service providers. We take our responsibility to provide critical community services extremely seriously and look forward to serving our communities for many decades to come.
Every day our workforce of 1,300 caring, committed professionals work diligently to deliver disability services, in-home aged care supports, child and family services and early education, as well as providing community transport for people who have no access to other public transport options. https://livebetter.org.au/
Media contact:
Laura Traeger
Laura.Traeger@livebetter.org.au
0436 658 354
