Some of the ACT's most vulnerable children have been found living in a squalid care home with broken walls, blood on the door and smashed glass in the kitchen.
The property was run by Premier Youthworks, a for-profit venture that provides out-of-home care to around 30 children in the ACT.
Children and teenagers wind-up in Premier's residential care homes when they are unable to live with their families, often because they are at risk of abuse or neglect.
Concerns about the state of the home have been uncovered in a joint investigation by The Canberra Times and The Newcastle Herald.
The conditions inside one home were so bad they prompted a Legal Aid ACT worker to write to the ACT government in April this year after visiting a Premier Youthworks property in Canberra.
"The house was in an unsatisfactory condition. There were at least two windows broken, broken doors, many holes in the walls, and broken window fittings," read the letter.
"The children appeared to have dragged their mattresses in to the living room, which was extremely messy.
"The most concerning observation was of blood on one of the doors and broken glass in the kitchen."
Do you know more about out-of-home care in Canberra or child, youth and family services? Contact steven.trask@fairfaxmedia.com.au
In the same letter, the lawyer highlighted concerns about the children's safety in such an environment.
"This letter is not intended as a 'finger pointing' exercise," they wrote.
"However it is important to make [it] clear... there are real concerns about the children's safety in the current placement."
Three days later, the Legal Aid lawyer also wrote to the ACT's Public Advocate seeking help to clean-up the conditions inside the property.
"As you will be aware, I hold concerns about the children's current placement with Premier Youthworks," the letter read.
"Please advise whether you have, or intend to attend the property and what, if any, involvement the Public Advocate will have in addressing concerns around housing for the children."
Pictures from inside the property showed clothes strewn across the room, a mattress without sheets on the floor and a large hole in a wall covered by graffiti.
The ACT Public Advocate Jodie Griffiths-Cook has regular meetings with Premier Youthworks to monitor the care of children in residential homes.
She said her office had not received any complaints about the company.
"Premier Youthworks staff engage positively with this process and have been responsive to concerns when raised," she said.
"For example, in early 2017 the Public Advocate became aware that a couple of properties had been damaged and needed repair.
"My office raised these concerns with management staff in Premier Youthworks, who took action to respond to the concerns in a timely manner."
The ACT government's Community Services Directorate also said Premier Youthworks had been quick to address concerns brought to their attention.
"As with any organisation there have been from time to time concerns raised about individual matters," a spokesman for the Community Services Directorate said.
"Premier Youthworks has been responsive in working with government to resolve matters as they arise and in June 2017 received the highest level of accreditation of five years from the Children's Guardian in New South Wales."
Premier Youthworks operates 15 residential care homes as part of the ACT Together consortium, which is funded by the ACT government and led by the Barnardos charity.
A Premier spokesman declined to answer any questions about the company's operations in the ACT, instead referring them on to Barnardos.
The Community Services Directorate pays Barnardos and Premier Youthworks to perform their own regular property inspections, with results then forwarded on the government.
"There are specific safeguards relevant to the monitoring of quality of houses used for therapeutic residential care," a directorate spokesman said.
"These include a specific requirement in the service funding agreement with Barnardos to inspect properties and to do so against agreed standards."
All Premier Youthworks properties are visited by an Official Visitor each month, and the Community Services Directorate performed scheduled inspections twice a year, the spokesman added.
A spokeswoman for Barnardos said all residential care homes were operated under a strict "quality assurance program" of weekly and monthly inspections.
"This is backed by a series of therapeutic house standards audits every four months, overseen by senior management from Barnardos Australia and Premier Youthworks, with audit reports provided to the ACT government," the spokeswoman said.
Barnardos declined to say how much Premier Youthworks was paid under the consortium arrangement, but did say it received $600,000 every year to cover rent and property maintenance.
Tender documents showed Premier Youthworks received more than $13 million in ACT government contracts between 2013 and 2016.
The Barnardos spokeswoman said property damage could be a result of "challenging behaviours" displayed by children in care.
"Damage is always repaired as a priority," she said.
"For some children, destruction of property isn't a one-off instance, hence timely repair is vital in order to maintain a home-like environment."
The spokeswoman also said the conditions illustrated in the photos obtained by Fairfax Media had been addressed as a priority at the time.
"Our skilled staff responded appropriately to the critical incident with the following priorities in mind," she said.
"Safety of the child or young person, safety of the staff, clean-up [and] property repair."
Barnardos also declined to say how many allegations of reportable conduct had been made about Premier Youthworks employees in the past year.
"There were some allegations in both regions in 2016-17, however none of these allegations were substantiated in either NSW or the ACT," the spokeswoman said.
"All matters were documented and reported to the relevant government agency and the ombudsman in both NSW and the ACT."
The reportable conduct scheme covers allegations of child abuse or misconduct towards children, according to the ACT Ombudsman's website.
The ACT Together consortium was launched by the ACT government in December 2015.
The consortium is led by Barnardos and also includes OzChild, Relationships Australia, the Australian Childhood Foundation and Premier Youthworks.
A Community Services Directorate spokesman said all organisations delivering out of home care in the ACT were assessed by the directorate's human services regulator.
"Once a year there is a scheduled review of the suitability of all providers," he said.
"In addition to this, any organisation providing a service, is required to be able to demonstrate their suitability at any time and may be subject to periodic targeted reviews at random intervals. On-going monitoring is part of standard practice."
