The Problem Is Systemic...PSOW - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

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...?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did Ombudsman For Wales Ignore Whistleblowing By An Independent Investigator?

Having survived Cyngor Gwynedd council's SS complaints process, you then have the option of approaching the Ombudsman for Wales. If the Ombudsman accepts your complaint, they will investigate the council for how it dealt with your complaint...

A 2019 Ombudsman for Wales report into Cyngor Gwynedd council's senior SS officers and the children's customer care/complaints team focussed on senior officer's interference with the Stage 2 complaints process and their treatment of an Independent Investigator...

The Stage 2 complaint - an investigation of an assessment undertaken by the children's department - was running alongside a previous Ombudsman's investigation of failings and non compliance with recommendations from a 2010 report. The Independent Investigator and the Ombudsman even had discussions to work out the remit and who would be focussing on what...

The council received the completed Stage 2 report in November, 2018. All points of complaint were upheld. The SS department refused to accept the report...

Emails show the investigator had contacted the Ombudsman with 'concerns' that the council were not following the process. A phone conversation took place where presumably the Investigator raised issues with officer's 'pushback' and refusal to accept the report. Whistleblowing?

The Ombudsman did not act nor advise the Investigator leaving her with little choice but to continue with the 'process' and 'work' with the senior officer's. If a report is not accepted by the council do the Investigator and Independent Person still get paid...?

(The Ombudsman has refused requests for the detail of this conversation to be released)

The Ombudsman commented in his report -

But 'hard evidence' was provided to the Ombudsman...!!!
Copies of the original report and the amended report and the 'final' report were sent to the Ombudsman for comparison. The senior officers had managed to downgrade the complaint against the social worker from 'upheld' to not requiring to be upheld and a recommendation removed. In all, four to five pages critical of the department are missing...

This was pointed out to the Ombudsman - the report was not changed...

The Ombudsman chose to single out the social worker for her disingenuity but bad behaviour by her line manager and other senior officer's involved were not properly addressed. Whilst the report was indeed 'damning' the Ombudsman had failed to address the main thrust of the complaint - that the second assessment was as fake and 'predetermined' as the first.

Concerns were raised with the Ombudsman that he had investigated the wrong complaint and a review of his investigation was asked for. The Ombudsman's office did indeed review the work of the Ombudsman and found no fault with the Ombudsman. The review was dismissed...

The Ombudsman for Wales also failed to investigate Gwynedd council for non compliance with recommendations from a previous investigation. A complaint to the Ombudsman was not acted upon and so the 'work' undertaken by Gwynedd council was ticked off as complete - when it was not...

The Ombudsman wrote personally to apologise for the failing of the officer and a policy of verifying evidence from Welsh councils before ticking the box has now been implemented. The Ombudsman felt unable to return to the council on this matter due to the box already ticked so non compliance and false assurances from the senior officers was not investigated...