Cyngor Gwynedd Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee met on the 14th September, 2023. The webcast can be found here - https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/805628
SEND provision was discussed - or the lack of it. For those children with complex needs the committee was told that though medical cares and technologies have evolved to keep certain children alive they do bring extra pressures on the sector...
Absences and exclusions from school was discussed - the figures are high... Gwynedd council's exclusion officer blamed the pandemic and praised the schools for being open with the figures. The officer was asked twice before informing the highest number of exclusions are in the Arfon area.
The former inclusion officer tried to ensure an education for all - including those with complex needs, autism, behavioural issues et al. What is the problem with the Arfon schools? Has policy changed?
Why have these children been excluded? More importantly, what are they doing now? The exclusion officer did comment that the youth clubs are to be 'reinvigorated'. Will these be the same youth services the council cut previously?
The meeting is notable more for what was not discussed...
Garem Jackson, the Head of Education at cyngor Gwynedd, quit his post shortly after the meeting...
For too many years, Cabinet members and other Gwynedd councillors have
turned a blind
eye to the behaviours and maladministration of senior officers but it is the CEO and leader of the council who are ultimately responsible
for the culture of their organisation...
Cyngor Gwynedd's executive officers have commented on the culture within the council. They give little detail - and any insights are hidden amongst word salads with no explanations given. The comments can be found amongst the Ffordd Gwynedd report - https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/g4839/Public%20reports%20pack%2007th-Mar-2023%2013.00%20The%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10
The report by the leader of the council, Dyfrig Siencyn, and Geraint Owen, Corporate Director states - ...This is all rooted in a change of culture, behaviours and mind-set and its aim of realising the ambition across all parts of the Council's activities is acknowledged as a substantial challenge and one which requires a comprehensive programme of support...
The report starting at page 18 begins well enough with the present CEO stating - Building on the culture and way of working, which is based on the principle of providing the best possible services to the residents of our county, with every one of us supporting each other to achieve this, is central to the Council's vision. The aspiration to ensure continuous improvement can already be seen widely across the Council and the next step is to ensure that nothing prevents us from embedding that mindset further and aim to improve even further what is already being delivered" (Chief Executive)
But the leader and executive officer are more honest - ...in order to maintain the "way of working", the mindset must be changed above anything else. Doing the right things before making the things better" is the mantra. Unless we change the mindset before, or during, changing a process, we will certainly fail and the changes will not be sustained in the long-term.
The executive are adamant that they will focus on collaboration and developing appropriate leadership behaviours Also - Develop methods to nurture an environment where managers feel safe to declare that performance is not up to scratch.
But it is officers of a lesser paygrade and the public that do not feel safe. What methods have been developed by the executive to protect them? Recording all telephone calls to the council would be a start. Removing the senior safeguarding officer from his role as the senior complaints handling manager? Ensuring that cabinet members have the conviction to challenge the departments they have responsibility for? How are the exit interviews going?
Other nuggets from the executive incude - Each person working for the Council should have a job description setting out core expectations for their role, duties and way of working. Focus on appropriate 'Behaviours' Acting on the basis of evidence, rather than on the basis of what appears to be logical, is one of the cornerstones of the "way of working"and here there is an important function to ensure that managers and their teams use the information and data available to its full potential.
"Acting on the basis of evidence, rather than on the basis of what appears to be logical..." This admission is the most frightening. That senior officers have acted without evidence on the basis of their unconscious and conscious biases...? Which officers? Which cases? How many people harmed? What cost?
In other news, there is a bin strike in Gwynedd. This is another crisis of the council's own making. Relationships between the staff and senior officers have not recovered since the pandemic when a bonus was denied the essential workers. -
From the article by Gareth Williams, July,2020.- Sent to the authority’s leader and chief executive, the letter notes:
“In our view its totally unfair to expect us to work through this period
on standard pay while the majority of (council) staff have been sent
home on full pay or are working from home. https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/gwynedd-bin-collectors-call-front-18556569
Now there is a cost of living crisis and the council are again digging in their heels...
Also the Education and Economy scrutiny committee met on the 14th September 2023, Due to legal matters, scrutiny of the Education officer was presumably constrained. This meeting, like so many others, was plagued by technical difficulties during the live feed and following the dicussion became impossible. The translated feed has still not been uploaded to the council's website...
Many people will remember the banner protesting cyngor Gwynedd officers misuse of council vehicles, in 2021. It was attached to the railings outside Morrisons supermarket in Caernarfon before being swiftly taken down by council officers...
A council spokesman said - “We are aware that there are some instances where staff may not have
adhered to this policy, and we are working with our trade union partners
to address this matter and update our policy.
The picture is from the article written by Gareth Wyn Williams, in 2021 - https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/gwynedd-council-review-vehicle-policy-19777848
On the 13th April, 2023, Dafydd Meurig, Cabinet Member for the Environment reported - A letter and email
was sent to officers who had the right to take vehicles home as part of
their working terms, on 29/03/2023. The letter stated that the
consultation period has ended and that
no officer from the Waste and Recycling service is now exempt from the
new policy - 'Use of Council vehicles for commuting'. In accordance with
the procedure, a period of notice must be given to staff and the period
of 90 days has started on 31/03/2023 and
ends on 29/06/2023. So by the end of June the exercise of using the
council's vehicle for journeys between home and work will come to an
end. Does this mean that officers continued to misuse the publicly funded vehicles for nearly two and a half years? Perhaps councillor Meurig could give an explanation for the long delay?
The public and local politicians may presume that this directive applies to all departments. Where cyngor Gwynedd is concerned nothing should be presumed...
In November, 2021, Neil Foden, headteacher at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle in Penygroes wrote to parents informing that any child with a debt of 2p would be refused school meals. This caused a national furore with interventions from Marcus Rashford and blogger Simon Harris (men behaving dadly)
The headteacher blamed the decision on his council bosses who he claims 'threw him under a bus' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59341464 "All I did was to pass on the authority's message to parents."
Gwynedd Council blamed "lack of clarity" from its education department on school food debt policy - https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/council-apologises-school-meal-debt-22153658
Councillors of Gwynedd's Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee challenged the Head of Education, Garem Jackson, for an explanation. He did not provide one but promised an update for the next meeting.
Two months later, a video was posted online that appears to show Neil Foden grabbing a pupil by the scruff of the neck - https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/head-teacher-filmed-appearing-grab-22967578
At the next scrutiny meeting, Mr Jackson failed to answer the committees previous concerns and was also unwilling to respond to the latest incident. Once again, promising to get the full facts and return with an update for councillors. There is no record of Mr Jackson updating the committee on either incident...
Mr Foden has a history of controversy. In 2018, a Biology teacher was awarded £8,000 compensation after an 'outrageous' suspension by the Ysgol Friars headteacher - The tribunal was convinced Mr Foden had at one stage been “looking for an excuse to make things difficult for the claimant”. https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/biology-teacher-awarded-8000-compensation-14867550
Also - “We developed a particular view about the evidence given by Mr Foden
which undermined his credibility and/or reliability as a witness.” https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/autocratic-gwynedd-headmaster-included-malpractice-14853841 How is this not perjury?
In 2020, he was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by the Education Workforce Council. It was proved that Mr Foden treated a third teacher unfairly when
providing a reference in 2016 in which he said he was facing an
allegation of malpractice when, in fact, the teacher had been cleared. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54300055
The panel heard evidence that included - "I
felt victimised by Neil Foden due to the way he operated. You were
either in his gang or you were not," person D told the panel. He
claimed he was never interviewed by school governors and that Mr
Foden's daughter had investigated the allegations against him. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51710557
The teacher claimed Mr Foden was looking to "pressurise" him after he
made whistleblowing complaints over erroneous submissions of exam
results by his department boss. Person D said he made the whistleblowing complaints in 2014 because
pupils had been "awarded an exam pass" and he was initially concerned it
was an "administrative error".
However, he said the evidence had been moved for the five pupils concerned. "The evidence had been removed from a computer file. It had taken a year and a quarter for the exam board to be told." Person D said he and two other concerned teachers were not interviewed about the exam concerns until "four to six months later". https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/headmaster-victimised-teacher-who-blew-17850450
The delay in interviewing the teachers will affect any legal process as there is a very short window to lodge complaints and/or take legal action. After one year, it is presumed that the exam board would dismiss any concerns as out of time... Mr Foden is also Head of Ysgol Friars in Bangor.
Perhaps the scrutiny committee could remind the Head of Education of his promise to report on the incidents and also ask for an update on the two teachers believed to have been suspended on full pay for 9 years...
In 2014, the council's safeguarding team began an investigation alongside north
wales police.. It did not go well. In 2018, the CPS threw out the case
after they did a deep dive of the 'evidence'.
A spokesman for the council said - "This process concluded with the CPS deciding not to proceed with any
prosecutions. The council is currently carrying out its own subsequent
internal investigation into the matter and as a result the individuals
remain suspended from their posts.” https://web.archive.org/web/20180729072902/https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-councils-paid-9m-staff-14876849
Gwynedd council also paid over £800,000 of public money to north wales police. For what...? The costs of this case, including the legal fees, must be approaching 2 million pounds - if not more...
An FOI seeking information on the matter was shut down by the
monitoring officer who simply ignored the request for an internal
review. The next step in the legal process - a complaint to the ICO - usually requires an internal review to have been undertaken. Regardless, the ICO can only 'advise' the council to release information. Gwynedd council have ignored the 'advice' of the ICO in the past...
Questions to the integrity and professionalism of the safeguarding team remain. The senior safeguarding officer for Gwynedd has not been seen at a council meeting since 2019 when he was called out for deceiving the care scrutiny committee in another case.
Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...
