A barista course aimed at people with disability that allegedly lacked basic equipment and had no specific training manuals was established using a $300,000 federal government grant, an inquiry has heard.
Guardian Australia reported on Wednesday that the Busy Beans program, run by disability employment services provider AimBig, was facing claims aired at the disability royal commission that it had “no established policies, procedures, safety measures or proper facilities to train the participants”.
The program is the main case study of three-day hearings this week examining the troubled $1bn-a-year disability employment services program.
The royal commission heard on Thursday that on top of $874,000 in government payments for putting jobseekers through the training, the program was also funded using a grant from the National Disability Insurance Agency worth “in excess of $300,000”.
Guardian Australia can reveal grant documents show $313,769.50 was awarded in 2019 to Rehab Management, which shares a holding company with AimBig.
Under the Busy Beans model, people with disability – who were either paid in part using about $100,000 in government wage subsidies or were unpaid interns – learned to make coffee by serving as in-house baristas for workers at AimBig and Rehab Management offices or other external businesses.
People on the autism spectrum or with “moderate intellectual disabilities” were to “receive barista, job readiness and customer service training delivered by qualified barista trainers at ‘coffee schools’ across Australia”.
An AimBig manager, Matthew Ting, who was responsible for introducing the Busy Beans program, was asked about photos from one of the several “coffee schools” run out of a Rehab Management office.
The photos showed the site of a Rehab Management office with two “home”-style coffee machines laid on office desks in the corner of an office floor.
“It boggles my mind why that was set up like that and who did that,” he said. “I don’t understand a reason for that.”
Mzia*, a woman with ADHD who was employed as a Busy Beans barista trainer, claimed on Wednesday that she arrived on her first day to find there was not even a coffee jug, or “proper milks”.
Trainees had to carry a bucket of hot water across the office to the kitchenette because there was no sink near the “barista training” area, the inquiry was told.
Ting said he had never visited the site where Mzia had worked and described the environment as “not at all suitable”.
Ting claimed Mzia was “responsible” for the coffee school set-up, though he acknowledged responsibility also lay with her managers. The inquiry heard on Wednesday that Mzia, who told the inquiry she had been employed as a barista trainer but then required to set up a program from “scratch”, had complained about the set-up and lack of equipment to her superiors.
Ting said looking at the site as it was in “June 2019, gave a wrong impression in my view of what the program was”.
Ting provided other photos to the royal commission of another barista training at an external employer which he said showed a “very, very different environment”, suggesting the program had improved over time.
Despite the significant government funds flowing to the company, Ting also noted the Busy Beans program was “expensive” and insisted it “did lose quite a good deal of money for AimBig”.
The inquiry also heard that between March and November 2019, there were no specific training materials for the Busy Beans program.
“How is it possible to construct a training program without documentation that explains what’s to be conveyed to the people who are being trained?” the chair, Ronald Sackville, asked.
Ting said the course was supposed to be “hands-on” and “definitely not accredited training”, which was “what was needed for these participants”.
The inquiry heard on Wednesday that Mzia had been frustrated about the lack of direction for the program and created her own training documents. These were adopted in November 2019, before Busy Beans was suspended in March 2020 due to Covid.
The counsel assisting the royal commission, Cathy Dowsett, put it to Ting that Rehab Management sought to exit participants from Busy Beans after 26 weeks. A 26-week “outcome” triggers a substantial government payment to a disability employment services provider.
Ting denied the claims. “We did continue to give them rostered shifts after the 26 weeks, so I think the argument that it was 26 weeks and you’re on the street is not quite accurate,” he said.
A web page promoting the Busy Beans program on the NDIS website was no longer accessible on Thursday.
Last year, Guardian Australia revealed a damning consultants’ report that discovered myriad problems with the disability employment services program.
The chief executive of the holding company for AimBig and Rehab Management, Arriba Group, Marcella Romero, will give evidence on Friday.
A national disability insurance agency spokesperson said: “In October 2020, administration for the grants component of the ILC building program transitioned from the National Disability Insurance Agency to the Department of Social Services.”
The Department of Social Services was approached for comment.
The inquiry continues.
*Mzia is a pseudonym provided by the royal commission
