The Culture And Mindset Within Gwynedd Council...

Five years ago, Audit Wales flagged the culture within cyngor Gwynedd as 'destructive'.

 
https://www.wao.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/ffordd_gwynedd.pdf

At the recent extraordinary meeting of the full council, councillors Nia Jeffreys and Olaf Cai Larsen spoke of staff feeling safe to challenge. 
Irony indeed - speaking to a full council meeting where councillors had been 'advised' not to challenge...

The webcast of the meeting can be found here - 
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/1063308

Larsen, the chair of the Plaid Cymru constituency party and Jeffreys may have missed the council's recent audit on whistleblowing. Staff do not feel safe...

It is not just staff...
People who do raise concerns have been smeared by senior officers and ignored by councillors.  

Actions not words...
Safeguarding, scrutiny and culture are now buzzwords for council officers/members since Neil Foden's arrest in 2023.
The reality is somewhat different...

On April 11th, 2024, the children's department finally released their annual complaints handling report from 2022/23 to the care scrutiny committee. 

Standards...
It was the first time the SS annual complaints reports had come before a scrutiny committee since 2019, after which a complaint was made against a senior officer for misleading the committee. The same officer had refused to answer questions of the care scrutiny committee at a previous meeting. 

The report can be found in the agenda pack here - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g4975/Public%20reports%20pack%2011th-Apr-2024%2010.30%20Care%20Scrutiny%20Committee.pdf?T=10

Page 36 mentions a historic complaint –

The Senior Manager discussed fully with the Senior Complaints Officer as ten years had passed. The social worker did not work here anymore, therefore we would need to rely on records only to investigate the complaint...

Who is the senior manager?
It is believed that Dafydd Paul was the senior complaints officer at this time. 
Did the legal department give advice to the officer's on the matter..?

The Ffordd Gwynedd way...
The PSOW can investigate historic complaints. 
Treating the complaint in this way may have shut down the pathway to the Ombudsman for Wales. 

There was another historic complaint on page 37 – 

The cabinet member for children was silent on the historic complaints and not one councillor of the committee raised concerns. The report was voted through by the committee...
Shameful...

 

The presentation of the 2022/23 report for scrutiny had been long delayed. 
The report - with the historic complaints of safeguarding failures - was finally released to the committee after Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) had completed its review of the council.
 

Would the CIW's report been different if they had known of the historic complaints of failure to listen and safeguard these two individuals ?

  

Playing catch up..?
5 months later, on the 26th, September, 2024, the SS departments presented their annual complaints handling reports for 2023/24 to the care scrutiny committee. The agenda pack for the meeting and the reports can be found here - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/g5188/Public%20reports%20pack%2026th-Sep-2024%2010.30%20Care%20Scrutiny%20Committee.pdf?T=10

The 2023/24 complaints report credits Marian Parry Hughes – Head of Children and Supporting Families Department and Aled Davies – Head of Adults, Health and Well-being Department as the authors.

During the meeting, Dafydd Paul, acting as the senior complaints officer and presenting the report gave the impression that he was the author of the children's report. 
 

Darvo...
Paul, did not update the committee on the investigation that had taken place of the historic abuse from 2013/14 nor did any councillor ask...

Instead, Paul gave a diatribe on how hard it was for the customer care team dealing with 'difficult or tiresome complainants...'

 

Neil Foden used the same tactic of denial and blaming others...

The committee also scrutinised this complaint from the adult's learning disability team - 

Dodgy..?
What was the 'relationship' between the support worker and the service user?
No proper explanation was given nor asked for by councillors.
Councillors passed the reports anyway...

 

3 months later, on the 17th, December, 2024, a cabinet meeting was held.

The 'Complaints and Service Improvement Report Quarter 1-2 2024/25' was presented.
The report can be found in the agenda pack here - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/g5260/Public%20reports%20pack%2017th-Dec-2024%2013.00%20The%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10

The contact officer for the report is Ian Jones, Head of Corporate Services.

 

For some reason, a complaint from the children's SS department was included.
Neither Jones nor Menna Trenholme, the cabinet member for children, explained why the report was being presented to the cabinet rather than the care scrutiny committee...

'difficult and tiresome complainants...?
So a complaint to the children's service was brought to the attention of the monitoring officer who had to remind the children and adult's SS customer care/complaint officers of the law when dealing with complaints...

 

Nolan Principles...

The officer's are well aware of the law, procedures and guidelines.
It is a choice to ignore them and infringe on the rights of the residents of Gwynedd.

 

Jones, also included two complaints concerning the education department.
Again, these complaints were not presented to the education/economy scrutiny committee... 

The complaints in question are on page 53 and 54 of Jones' report.
Three serious complaints - one a safeguarding issue -  avoiding proper scrutiny.

Cabinet members should have challenged Jones' report. 
Instead, cabinet members voted to accept the report without real discussion...

 

All this has taken place after Neil Foden's arrest...
Many councillors continue to turn a blind eye...

 

Trauma informed...
For many families, seeking advice and support from Gwynedd's SS departments is traumatic - 
SYSTEMS GENERATED TRAUMA 
How disabled children and their families are traumatised by dysfunctional public services when they ask for support - 
https://cerebra.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Systems-Generated-Trauma-Report-web.pdf

  

The Cerebra report is authored by Professor Luke Clements and Dr Ana Laura Aiello.
They give insight to the damage caused to children and families by the very departments that were created to support them...

 

Culture...
Clements is a Professor of Law at Leeds University and has written an article on Gwynedd council - 
‘Omg … will it never end’
https://www.lukeclements.co.uk/omg-will-it-never-end-2/

 

This was in respect of an Ombudsman's investigation under the last administration. He warns - 
 

Grooming...? 
Some councillors and senior officer's have mentioned they were also groomed by Foden.
This is disingenuous...

Cabinet members through to scrutiny committee members – most complicit in the toxic culture that has been allowed to continue to cover for incompetence and protect reputational damage - for years. 

 

A public inquiry is needed.
Has the Children's Commissioner for Wales, Rocío Cifuentes, been approached?

 

When will the monitoring officer give an account of the 'advice' given by a senior officer within the legal department to the safeguarding meeting re Neil Foden in 2019? 

 

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council... 

 

 

 

 

Gwynedd Council - "for a local authority to behave in the way described by the ombudsman towards independent investigators is shocking"

Has the 2020/21 Children and Families Annual Complaints Handling Report circumvented Gwynedd council's Care Scrutiny Committee and any issues that councillors may have wished to raise ?

The last complaints report to go before scrutiny was in 2019 and that was not a meeting the senior complaints officer would have enjoyed. The Committee asked for more detail than usual and the officer made several references to the Ombudsman for Wales. The Ombudsman has since denied the words of the officer.

The latest report, authored by the Head of Children's SS refers back to the June, 2019 Ombudsman's report and writes -  "...recommendation asked the Department to look at the pathway within the Children’s Service in relation to Autism."

There is no pathway - that is the point.
The Ombudsman for Wales recommendation from the investigation dated June, 2019 is quite clear - 
71.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.

Under 'lessons learnt' -
"Moving forward, we have learnt an important lesson. At the first point of contact, we need to ensure that we read and understand the report and recommendations..."

The Ombudsman's report and recommendations the Head of Children and Families failed to read and understand can be found here -
http://www.lukeclements.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Gwynedd-CC-FINAL-REPORT-201801474.pdf

 
Another recommendation from the same Ombudsman's report was -
68. The Council should, through its Chief Executive, apologise in writing
to Mr & Mrs A (and through that letter to X for failings...).
The apology must cover the following matters:
• the delay in providing its response to their complaint.
• the officer’s apology for distress caused by his comments.
• the failure to review X’s child in need plan.
• the other failures identified above.

The 'other failures identified above' include the circumstances that led to an investigating officer feeling 'overwhelmed' and 'bullied' at a meeting which the Head of the Children's department chaired.

Evidence from the council is noted as 'disingenuous' in the Ombudsman's report that also found senior officers had indeed interfered with an 'independent' investigation. Four/five pages were deleted from the original report - these pages included criticism of officer's and departmental failings.

It must be remembered that this investigation was hampered by the council informing the investigators that one officer involved had left the council and so could not be questioned. Once the investigation had concluded the officer then rejoined the council. What of the officer's continuity of employment ?

Luke Clements is the Cerebra Professor of Law and Social Justice at the School of Law, Leeds University. In 2013 he was the Special Adviser to the Parliamentary Committee that scrutinised the draft Bill that resulted in the Care Act 2014.

He wrote an article on the case -
Hopefully the local authority in question will implement the ombudsman’s recommendations and take a long hard (and reforming look) at the organisational culture that allowed these deplorable events to occur.

This report is incredibly troubling on many levels – not least that a local authority had so clearly failed to understand its legal obligations.  What is (to an outside observer) of most concern, is the level and nature of challenge experienced by the IIO.  We are well aware of families being fearful of the consequences of complaining – fearful of retaliatory action by authorities – but for a local authority to behave in the way described by the ombudsman towards independent investigators is shocking.  Complaints’ investigators are acting on behalf of Chief Executives / council members.  For a culture to develop where such an investigator considers that she is being bullied and for the ombudsman to agree that the impression given was of a council seeking to influence the outcome of an independent review – strikes at the very heart of the review process.  Ultimately senior legal officers and council members are responsible for the organisational culture of their authority – and these officers / members should take a long hard look at this report.

The full article can be found here - http://www.lukeclements.co.uk/omg-will-it-never-end-2/ 

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...