Cocoon manager’s warning to Carers Queensland chair Jim Toohey: `I can’t sleep at night’
The head of a peak carers body was emailed a warning in 2021 that people with disability were at risk from a rapidly growing company responsible for their safety and welfare that is only now being exposed for years of concerning practices.
The head of a peak carers body was emailed a warning in 2021 that people with disability were at risk from a rapidly expanding company responsible for their safety and welfare that is only now being exposed for years of concerning practices.
Carers Queensland chair Jim Toohey was working for the Cocoon group founded and run by former bankrupt Zaffar Khan when a senior firm manager and colleague sounded the alarm about the business.
In a lengthy personal email to Mr Toohey, the manager explained that he was resigning from Cocoon after losing sleep over the danger the company posed to vulnerable people with acute needs.
“If I was to ignore my assessment of this I would be ignoring everything I know and have learnt over the years in my roles in the sector,” the email stated.
The manager had been a colleague of Mr Toohey for a number of years. His email said the disclosures were “out of respect” for Mr Toohey, who was putting his standing in the community on the line for a company that had a high likelihood of failing and being unable to provide safe services to vulnerable people.
Holding an influential public figurehead role at Carers Queensland, Mr Toohey could also have been in a position to follow up on concerns and ensure people with disability were not at risk.
No reply was received from Mr Toohey to the email, and Mr Toohey did not follow up with the manager about his resignation, The Australian was told.
Mr Toohey said on Friday that he could not locate the email, but that his role at Cocoon had been as a part-time consultant from about April 2021 to August 2022.
He advised Cocoon on potential opportunities to partner with disability organisations on financing and managing specialist disability accommodation, he said.
“My consultancy had no responsibilities for oversight, delivery of and quality of services or government relations within Cocoon SDA,” Mr Toohey said.
“If any person with operational responsibility within Cocoon SDA had identified serious concerns, they had an obligation to raise them either directly through formal and informal internal channels or alternatively through an anonymous complaint to the NDIS.”
Carers Queensland was the nation’s largest local area co-ordinator for the National Disability Insurance Scheme at the time of the email. It is still the state’s largest co-ordinator for the scheme that has blown out to cost $48.5bn a year and that is battling a rise in fraud and disreputable operators.
In March this year, the National Disability Insurance Agency started manually reviewing all NDIS payment claims submitted by Cocoon SDA Care’s parent company Horizon Solsolutions Australia. The same month, the NDIS Commission notified Horizon of a proposed permanent ban on the company and its sole director Muhammad Latif.
Action against the company followed 32 tip-offs over more than four years including whistleblower reports from Cocoon’s former chief executive Tanya Quinn in August 2023.
The company was issued infringement notices in November 2023 after three women with disabilities were locked out of their home, the company had a debt of almost $10m to the tax office in mid-2024, and it was the subject of a damning independent auditor’s report in December 2024.
Horizon denies wrongdoing and says it is a victim of heavy-handed government bureaucracy.
Sent on October 26, 2021, the email to Mr Toohey stated the manager wanted to “put some context around my concerns and decision to resign”.
“I have some genuine concerns about Cocoon SDA Homes’ current capacity to provide safe and quality care to participants who are highly vulnerable and have complex, high-care needs,” the email states.
The manager had direct accountability and responsibility for NDIS participant care and wellbeing and felt “vulnerable and exposed” due to risks being out of his control.
His email warned of “an evident lack of understanding or awareness” from Cocoon directors about its ability to “sustain current care requirements”, and raised “non-compliance to some key NDIS practice standards”.
The manager noted Cocoon’s “very strong focus and appetite on rapid growth and acquisition of new properties and new clients”.
Cocoon’s absent or immature systems and processes meant it could not provide “consistent or guaranteed quality and safe care to (the) current client base”, the email added.
“This is driving a disconnect and tension between property and participant acquisition and ability to deliver services effectively. This is my greatest concern. I see a strong drive for growth without a clear connection to our capability or capacity to deliver safe and quality services.
“Current service delivery and participant intake decisions are driven by investment aspirations and pressures rather than assessed by organisational readiness to deliver appropriate services.”
The manager had “observed and identified a series of incidents”, some serious in nature, that required real attention.
He did not believe things would change quickly “as there is not enough capacity of staff to do so in a prompt timeframe or focus and understanding of directors to enable that in the manner that’s needed”.
As such, he was “not comfortable taking the risk of being in a role that assumes direct accountability … I found myself not sleeping too well the last two nights as the situation became clearer.”
The email went on to warn of “a very real potential of systemic failure” that could prevent Cocoon “discharging their legal and moral responsibility of ensuring the safety and protection of their participants and staff in some instances”.
“I have discussed this verbally with (another senior colleague) and provided a summary report to him of my concerns in terms of issues, risks and recommendations and feel I have discharged my responsibility in being open and transparent with him about these things.
“Im (sic) sorry I ever had to bother you about this Jim. But I felt it was the right thing to do. I felt out of respect for you saying nothing to you was not the correct thing to do.”
In a post on LinkedIn from three years ago, Mr Toohey said Cocoon was a “wonderful organisation I’m proud to be part of”.
The post added: “Cocoon Housing is a well-regarded, fast-growing national provider of quality accommodation and NDIS care to some of the most vulnerable people in our community.”
Mr Toohey’s Facebook profile states that he was executive general manager for community engagement at Cocoon Housing. His role involved “leading engagement with government, major NDIS providers, community and disability groups throughout Australia”, according to the profile.
Mr Toohey confirmed on Friday he was Carers Queensland chair when he was a Cocoon consultant. In January he became managing director at the peak body representing unpaid family and community carers.
“At the time I accepted the consultancy, I formally advised the board of Carers Queensland as per our charter,” he said.
“The board independently assessed the terms of the consultancy and determined that it did not constitute a conflict of interest because Carers Queensland does not provide disability accommodation or deliver any services to people with disabilities.”
Mr Khan said Friday the firm treated all concerns seriously and every issue was “logged, investigated and resolved with full transparency”.
Cocoon had achieved “an internationally recognised quality standard” and was “proud to have had someone of Mr Toohey’s outstanding calibre work with us”, he said.
The NDIS website states that “local area co-ordinators support people with disability to create and work towards their goals, build capacity to make their own decisions and choices and access the supports they need to live the life they choose”.
Contact David Murray at murrayd@theaustralian.com.au
More Coverage
Move to block coalmine expansion over ‘human rights’
Environmentalists will use the argument of human rights in a legal bid to block the expansion of a coal mine in central Queensland.
Lead investigator questioned over seizing Patterson’s devices
Defence counsel Colin Mandy SC has questioned the lead detective into the beef Wellington lunch about devices seen in Erin Patterson's home when police executed a second search warrant.