Ms Anne O'Connor:

We recently put a placement improvement project in place. The Senator has correctly stated that many people are managing in very difficult circumstances. Some people go into placements, while we try to support other people through respite and different types of home support. We are very conscious that we get very different responses across the sector in terms of the placements we purchase. We are now conducting a review of all placements. The costs of placements in the disability sector increased by 22% between 2014 and 2018. The range of costs for placements is very wide and we are very focused on trying to provide very good quality and person-centred care and standardising placements around the country. In different parts of the country there are different practices and different reasons for putting people into placements.