The Ombudsman for Wales investigation(s) into cyngor Gwynedd social services has changed nothing but revealed much - the legal process to challenge a council's behaviour and its social care policies is broken...
The optics after years of dealing with these officers are that there is no such thing as an independent anything in Gwynedd. The investigators are employed by the SS senior complaints manager - who is also the senior safeguarding and quality officer. The two roles are not compatible and could be considered bad practice...
Some investigators are not as 'independent' as they should be - one is perceived as acting against one complainant and sabotaging her own investigation by not wishing to interview a witness and producing an unacceptable 'remit' for investigation. Shameful...
Social workers, tasked by their managers to fake assessments on disabled children. 'We are here to help''' They are most definitely not...
It is not just the ignorance of law and policies and procedures that has been revealed. It is the culture of cover up and pushback when challenged. Council officers have presented evidence to official investigations that is false and misleading, complainants have been smeared and the councillors lied to.
Then there are the official reports written by the officers in the course of their duties...
Concerns to the integrity of these reports and the issue of data manipulation have been raised but shut down by the same officers who write the reports. One wonders if they were still presented to the Sir Hugh Morgan review as accurate? Then again it is the only data they have...
The Ombudsman wrote to express its own frustrations with officers (more than once) and bemoaned that its recommendations are not legally binding merely a 'gentleman's agreement'. So they lied to you, too...?
The same regulator who has literally had a front row seat into the disingenuous nature of these officers - over many years - seemed genuinly upset when officers yanked its chain, too. The PSOW was warned...
A CEO renaging on agreements after long and costly investigations is contemptible...
Why the Ombudsman did not instigate further action after the behaviour of the senior officers is not clearly understood as this could amount to risk to the council and a matter for the council's insurers.
When one department can persuade another department's manager to investigate an issue (that had already been been investigated and upheld) and produce a report in spite of the evidence the problem is systemic...
Whilst evidence of this did not make the Ombudsman's 'remit' to investigate, the Ombudsman was clearly unimpressed with the SS department's complaint officers and ordered retraining in their statutory duties.
So the same people responsible for the culture are now tasked with changing the culture.
How's that going...?
