Page 3428 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 September 2019
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During the incident, one young person gained access to keys, left the unit and made his way to another unit in the centre, where he released one other young person. These two young people then entered the facilities area of the centre. Staff continued to monitor these young people closely during this time. It was whilst these two young people were in the facilities area of the centre that a decision was made to seek assistance from ACT Policing.
ACT Policing were called at approximately 6.51 pm and arrived the centre at approximately 7 pm, with three officers entering the centre to negotiate with the two young people who were in the facilities area. These young people were then secured without further incident. Police considered the centre secure at 7.40 pm and the incident was concluded at 7.45 pm.
Madam Speaker, the assault on staff was significant. As has been previously reported, four staff attended the Canberra Hospital for treatment. A further three attended Calvary hospital for review. All staff left hospital that evening, with some having follow-up medical care. All the young people involved were visited by a GP on the night to ensure that they had a medical assessment, and no young people required hospital treatment.
Mr Muir’s interim report includes provisional findings in respect of six out of the seven issues he has been asked to consider. Based on the evidence examined by Mr Muir to date, he does not find that there were any precursors which the centre management or staff should have responded to above the systems and actions that were already in place.
Further, Mr Muir has not found any significant failing in the systems of behaviour management over the young people involved in this incident. Mr Muir’s provisional finding notes that “some systems observed could be more consistently applied, but this is not an issue of substantial concern”.
Significantly, Mr Muir has found, and I think it is important to highlight this:
Staff responded to this event with a high degree of professionalism, courage and teamwork.
He states that there is no evidence available to him at this point in time that staff were inadequately trained to respond to the situation. Mr Muir notes that during the incident there was evidence of staff showing high degrees of care and restraint in their dealings with the young people involved. He goes on to note that, based on the evidence available to him at this time, he believes the staff responded to the emergency in accordance with the procedures and did so with professionalism. Mr Muir finds that the centre director exercised sound judgement on the night and her decisions in managing the incident were correct.
The interim report also notes several issues for further discussion and exploration, and some identified areas for improvement. These include the need for further discussion on the adequacy of therapeutic support available to the centre; consideration of
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