Cyngor Gwynedd Council - The Dog Ate My Homework...

Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting on the 18th April, 2024. First up on the agenda was the 'Gwynedd and Anglesey Public Services Board delivery arrangements' report authored by the council leader, Dyfrig Siencyn.

The committee will remember last years annual report being presented. It was ridiculed for its lack of detail and concerns were also raised that documents were missing from the Board's website. Councillors asked how there could be proper scrutiny without them. One councillor compared the plans to a ‘slow motion car crash whilst laughing along the way.' A proposal to defer the report was voted down and bizarrely the committee passed the report in spite of their concerns.

Just as last year, Cllr Siencyn did not turn up for this meeting either and his report had to be presented by Geraint Owen, the council's executive officer. Councillors again criticised this report for its lack of detail and no 'meat on the bones'. Geraint Owen, who explained that he now sits on the Board agreed with some of the criticism. For councillors who were present at the July meeing it must have been a case of deja vu.

Just as last year, a councillor proposed that the report be deferred until more detail was provided. The chair, who had herself been very vocal in her criticism of the report asked that the conversation be completed first. 

But Elin Hywel did not deal with the request for deferral and went straight on to make her own recommendations one being to accept the report. Once again, a Gwynedd scrutiny committee passed a report in spite of their serious concerns and what many consider to be wholly inadequate.
A mere tick box exercise to cover for officers badly produced homework..?

This is NOT scrutiny.
For far too long, it would appear that Gwynedd councillors have followed the party line and supported senior officers to avoid reputational damage. The leader and executive officers have warned that the culture within the council must change - not fully grasping that they themselves are responsible for the culture that exists.
This culture exists because of the failure of scrutiny members to hold officers to account also.

The report, for what its worth, can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=40660
Cllr Siencyn's report is notable more for what the Board is NOT doing...

The webcast of the meeting can be found here - press the english tab for the translated feed.
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/875173

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...

 

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Collective Amnesia...

Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Governance and Audit Committee on Thursday, 8th February 2024. Unlike most other meetings of this committee, this one was webcast and can be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/852366
Yet again, the translated feed is not working. This happens too often to be an error...

It was notable that the minutes of the previous meeting could not be presented...
Geraint Owen, the former Head of Democratic Services and now an executive director of the council, began by asking the committee not to scrutinise the reports...

The first report up is authored by Dewi Morgan, Head of Finance. His report is based on the Intenal Audit Section published last year by Luned Fon Jones which can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/s38031/OUTPUT%20OF%20THE%20INTERNAL%20AUDIT%20SECTION.pdf

At last years meeting, a service improvement group was elected to look into three main areas of concern -
Staff retention (exit interviews)
The Liberty Protection Safeguards formerly Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards DOLS
Smallholdings.

An excerpt from last years report -

Last years meeting discussed a possible rent increase for smallholdings. The committee, along with the Audit Wales officers in attendance will remember that Carys Edwards, a lay member, had to leave the meeting during the discussion on the rent increases as she herself lives in a smallholding rented from the council.

After the discussion ended and the lay member returned, the committee then elected her to the service improvement group totally ignoring the obvious conflict of interest...

Staff retention was a major concern for last years meeting and the exit interviews were deemed crucial to discover why staff were leaving the council and the SS departments in particular.

Dewi Morgan's latest report makes no reference to exit interviews - he now calls them 'Planning - Communication Arrangements'. He writes that 'plans are in place to re-establish the working group but no meeting has taken place so far...'

Why Gwynedd council's Head of Finance has altered the wording is unclear as is the reason for disbanding the improvement group in the first place. More importantly, are the committee no longer interested in staff retention? - have they all just given up?

The Estyn report was also discussed and yet another meeting that did not mention the arrest of school teachers and the effect that will have on school performance and the well being of pupils...
Estyn does comment that -

It would be interesting to discover how many of the 275 children looked after by Gwynedd council regularly miss school. Also how many of those with ALN/SEN are marked as absent?
Perhaps the exclusion officer could be asked for the information...?
Perhaps not...

The agenda pack for this meeting along with the reports sans minutes can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g4963/Public%20reports%20pack%2008th-Feb-2024%2010.30%20Governance%20and%20Audit%20Committee.pdf?T=10

Something is so very, very wrong within Gwynedd council...