Gwynedd Council - FOI Internal Review - 50 Working Days And Counting.

                     

In June, 2019, the Chief Executive Officer of Cyngor Gwynedd Council, Dilwyn O Williams, wrote a letter of apology for the failings found within Gwynedd Children's Social Services department. 

It was short, making no mention of the Ombudsman's findings of Gwynedd SS's interference in an 'independent' investigation, nor the behaviour by senior officers meted out to the Investigator who felt 'bullied' and 'overwhelmed' to change critical aspects of a complaint report. But he did affirm the SS department's agreement to implement the recommendations within three months that included -

The Council should (within three months) seek specialist input to develop a plan for dealing with future assessment and support requests from/for those suffering with Autism

In November, 2019, Mr Williams, declared to a Care Scrutiny Committee that all recommendations had been met, bar a nuance. Mr Williams, was then summoned to Cardiff by the Ombudsman for Wales to discuss why the recommendations had not been met.

Previous blog articles have published excerpts of emails from the Ombudsman for Wales that contradict the statements of Mr Williams and Mr Dafydd Paul to the Care Scrutiny Committee and the general public - so where are we now?

The specialist input involves a review of Autism services in Gwynedd which should have been presented to the council in March,2020. The council then told the Ombudsman that the external expert commissioned to undertake the report had failed to complete on time due to the pandemic. The Ombudsman was informed that the consultant would present the report to the council by the 30th September, 2020.

Having lost all trust in the council, a copy of this report was requested. Morwena Edwards, Director of SS, replied saying that the request had been treated as a Freedom of Information request (FOI) and the council had decided to refuse the request. So on December 3rd, 2020, an Internal Review of the FOI refusal was requested. This should by Law take 20 working days.

The 20 working days came and went with no response - then 30 days. An email was sent to the Information department asking for an update - this was ignored. A second email was sent to both the Information department and to customer care, this time asking for acknowledgment of the email - no response from either.

An email was then sent to the officer who originally dealt with the FOI request. A response was received on a Sunday explaining that the Monitoring Officer, Iwan G D Evans, was dealing with the Review and had been since December 3rd. So an email was sent to the Monitoring Officer asking for an update. This too was ignored.

As no-one had responded, the original email to Mr Evans was resent to customer care asking them to pass on the email to the Information department and the Monitoring Officer and to acknowledge receipt that the email had been received. 

A response was forthcoming this time, again from the same officer who had refused the original request. He replied that he hoped the Monitoring Officer would be in contact soon. It is now 50 working days since Mr Evans received the request for an internal review.

The Monitoring Officer has a statutory responsibility to ensure that the Council operates in a lawful manner and that it does not do anything which could amount to maladministration.
How's that going ?

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council.

                

 

Failings Within North Wales Vascular Services - #BCUHB

The Extraordinary Meeting of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board held on the 21st May, 2020, to discuss the Review of its Vascular Services was a complete shambles.

From the 'technical' difficulties experienced through to the final decision by the Board to review the Review. Were part of the technical difficulties caused by some Board Members complaining they were not comfortable being on screen for the meeting ?

The Report - described as a whitewash by members of the public and some employees - is highly critical of the Health Board and its decision to close the vascular services at Ysbyty Gwynedd and centralise the service at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.

The Review raises many questions for diabetics and renal patients and some of the data for limb loss and antibiotic use should be of high concern for everyone.

Ultimately, it is yet another report into Local Government Organisations in North Wales that raises issues of bullying and staff fearing for their jobs if they speak out.

Sitting on the Board from Gwynedd are R. Medwyn Hughes, County Councillor for the Hendre ward, Bangor and Morwena Edwards, who is an Associate Director of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

Morwena is also the Director of Cyngor Gwynedd Social Services - both Adult and Children's Departments.
 
There have been 5 Ombudsman for Wales Investigations highly critical of the departments that Mrs Edwards has overall responsibility for - in the last four years

There may be more as these Departments have a history of sitting on critical Reports, whilst trumpeting mediocrity.

One Ombudsman's Report highlights an Independent Investigating Officer feeling 'overwhelmed' and 'bullied' after a meeting with Head of Department, Marian Parry Hughes and the senior Operational Manager. Aled Gibbard amongst others to change the findings of her Report.

More on that here -  https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/2019/06/bullying-cyngor-gwynedd-council.html

Four to five pages regarding a Social Worker undertaking an inadequate assessment of an autistic child's needs and the withholding and censoring of personal information by a senior manager deleted along with Recommendations for improvement.

To someone with no knowledge everything looks rosy in the garden - the data is false.

Recommendations for improvement and to create a pathway for autistic individuals to receive support and SS assessment have been agreed to - so where is it ?

Concerns that the legal documents and data are being manipulated to cover for bad behaviour and poor management have been raised with a Cabinet Member but as yet no response has been forthcoming.

Now the Ombudsman for Wales had arranged a phone call conversation with the Director, Morwena Edwards, to discuss matters of non compliance of Ombudsman's recommendations.

This call was arranged three weeks in advance but the Council cancelled the meeting one hour before the arranged time and the Council told the Ombudsman that they would be sending a letter instead.

This letter did obviously not impress the Ombudsman as the CEO was then summoned to discuss non compliance - alongside other agenda items, in Cardiff.

Concerns have been raised that the story as explained by the CEO and the Senior Safeguarding Officer to a Gwynedd Care Scrutiny Committee is misleading. Questions have been asked concerning the truthfulness of the Officer's statements but no answer has been forthcoming.

Officer's promoted above their abilities ? A social worker being moved to a third sector organisation to protect reputations ? - and their pension ? Social workers lying and senior managers colluding in cover up ?

All that is missing is a sex scandal..... 

Something is very wrong within both Gwynedd Council and BCUHB.