The managing director of a disability care provider contracted by the state government says allegations it has mistreated children in its care are “completely false”.
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Total Support Services is a for-profit organisation with its head office in South Australia.
Three children with disabilities are currently under TSS’ care in Tasmania.
It is believed TSS has provided residential care in the state since January 2017.
Question Time in the House of Assembly on Thursday morning was dominated by allegations that TSS had engaged in “inappropriate” discipline of the Tasmanian children in its care, supposedly leading to one teenager being hospitalised in the Royal Hobart Hospital’s psychiatric department.
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It comes after former Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma came under fire in 2017 for contracting another for-profit care provider, Safe Pathways, which also faced allegations of mistreatment of children in its care.
Ms Petrusma’s successor in the human services portfolio, Braddon Liberal MP Roger Jaensch, confirmed on Thursday that the former state manager of TSS was also a former employee of Safe Pathways.
TSS managing director Sandy Liddell said she was “extremely upset” when she first became aware of media reports on the recent allegations.
“It’s completely false,” Ms Liddell said.
“We’ve been in business eight years and we’ve never had something like this happen before.”
Ms Liddell declined to comment further on the matter.
Mr Jaensch, who endured an intense line of questioning from Labor and the Greens in Parliament on Thursday, said three children were currently in TSS’ care in Tasmania.
In a statement, Mr Jaensch said he had been briefed “multiple times on concerns [relating to TSS]”.
He said he could not comment on individual allegations.
Mr Jaensch also said no children had been removed from TSS’ care in the wake of the recent allegations.
Opposition child safety spokesman Josh Willie said the allegations needed to be investigated further “as a matter of urgency”.
“[Mr Jaensch] also needs to update the Parliament on the progress of that investigation,” Mr Willie said.
Community and Public Sector Union state secretary Tom Lynch said for-profit providers were not suitable for child protection.
“The profit motive just doesn’t fit in there,” Mr Lynch said.
“This is core public sector work.
“And the fact that this government didn’t get that message from the previous failure of for-profit providers for vulnerable children should be worrying for every Tasmanian.”