Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Cabinet meeting on the 17/12/24. The webcast can be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/941307
The council 'Staff Well-being Plan 2024 - 2028' was presented to the Plaid Cymru members. It reports staff absences cost the public purse £5.7 million -
14,404 (22.13%) work days were lost due to sickness absence related to stress, depression and mental health problems;
7,718 (11.86%) work days were lost due to sickness absence related to musculoskeletal problems;
'Other sickness' was recorded as the main reason for the sickness of 22.79%;
Long-term absences contributed to 51% of the Council's sickness absence days;
On average, every officer in the Council has lost 10.29 work days a year;
2.72% more sickness absence days were lost in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23.
The report also shows -
665 staff members were referred to the Occupational Health Service
194 Council staff members were referred to the Counselling Service (Medra)
129 Council staff members were referred to the Physiotherapy Service
Are there waiting lists for these services for council employees, like there are for the services available to the general public?
The COMPLAINTS AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT QUARTER 1-2 2024/25 was also presented. It included -
The complaint from a 'customer', raised earlier this year, concerning safeguarding issues within Education is not believed to have come before any scrutiny committee. So has anything been learnt from the Neil Foden case? Openness and transparency...?
One would expect that the cabinet member for Education, Dewi Jones, would have asked for an explanation at the meeting.
Jones did not attend the meeting...
There appears to be an ongoing issue with assessments too. Not one cabinet member asked for an explanation of senior officers. Perhaps they were updated behind closed doors?
Oddly, a children's SS complaint was included in the report -
As the Investigating Officer considered how officers dealt with the complaint serious enough to notify the council's monitoring officer, it is concerning that this complaint was not included in the SS annual complaints that was presented for scrutiny in September...
Menna Trenholme, the cabinet member for children, did not question this item and so another complaint involving the children's SS department appears to have avoided any scrutiny.
Whilst the MO, Iwan Evans, has asked the SS department(s) to consider the PSOW's guidance on responding to complaints, it is concerning that that Ian Jones, the head of democratic services recently commented in relation to the Ombudsman investigations -
It should be noted that it is not the role of the Committee to consider whether individual complaints have been dealt with appropriately, but rather to assess the effectiveness of the complaints process. As a result, there is no reference in this report to any individual complaint or departmental performance within the Council.
Annual Complaints and Service Improvement Report 2023/24 - by Ian Jones.
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/s42709/ANNUAL%20COMPLAINTS%20AND%20SERVICE%20IMPROVEMENT%20REPORT%20202324.pdf
So who does consider whether individual complaints have been dealt with appropriately..?
Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...
