Living with Disability Research Centre Online Seminar

Critiquing the recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission

This seminar focusses on two key aspects of the Royal Commission’s final report and implications for people with intellectual disabilities: group homes and inclusive school education.  Presenters will consider the evidence heard by the RC and its conclusions, and critique the recommendations.

A critical review of the approach to group homes taken the Disability Royal Commission
Professor Christine Bigby, Director, Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University

The Royal Commission on Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disabilities collected much evidence about harm experienced by people in group homes through submissions and dedicated and other hearings about disability services more generally. The Commission concluded that group homes to be both a flawed model and subject to weak implementation. Interestingly weak implementation was something that was identified across the Australian disability service system more generally.

This presentation describes the Commission’s approach to group homes, the evidence heard, and its conclusions; and critiques its stance, processes, and recommendations, identifying links to the NDIS Review published after the Commission’s Report in 2023.

The recommended reforms to practice, and replacement of group homes with alternative options reflect current policy directions but raise some important questions will be important for implementation. These include uncertainty about alternatives to group homes, the risk of alternatives not having better outcomes and thus the loss of good services, risk of neglecting quality of support practice in new alternatives and recurrence of institutional practice, and potential negative impacts on existing residents of signalling group homes as a flawed model.

The Commission’s approach missed opportunities for appreciative enquiry about conditions that lead to good outcomes in some group homes but importantly did single out long-term residents and people with complex or high support needs.

A Critique of the Disability Royal Commission Recommendations for a Pathway to Inclusive Education: Implications for Students with Intellectual Disabilities
Professor Teresa Iacono, Professor of Rural and Regional Allied Health, La Trobe Rural Health School and Living with Disability Research Centre

The Commission made 15 recommendations for achieving educational inclusion for people with disabilities. The last two recommendations reflected contradictory strategies in culminating in the total abolition of the specialist school system versus continuing them to ensure choice for students with disabilities and their families.

The Commission’s focus, and that of this presentation, is education during the primary and secondary school years.

The evidence received by the Commission in the form of written submissions, public hearings, and commissioned reports, reflect evidence of entrenched exclusion, stigmatisation, and trauma. The 15 recommendations represent attempts to address practices that have dogged previous attempts to achieve equal access to inclusive and quality education for students with disabilities.

In this presentation, the recommendations will be critiqued, with a focus on the implications for students with severe-profound intellectual disability, who are most likely to attend special schools or units within mainstream schools.

This Seminar will be hosted on Zoom. To join us via Zoom, please email lids@latrobe.edu.au requesting the Zoom link.