Conflict Of Interests - Cyngor Gwynedd Council...

Cyngor Gwynedd council - After the intervention of a Cabinet member, the translated feeds of the council's meetings are now working - the webcast library can be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/home

At the Governance and Audit Committee held on the 8th February, 2024, Clare Hitchcock, a lay member of the Committee raises concerns with how Gwynedd council deal with the recommendations for improvement they have agreed to undertake. 

The meeting can be found here - https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/852366
Clare's comments begin at timestamp 14.30.

At the committee's meeting in May, 2023, a Task and Finish Group was set up to look into the long standing issue with rent arrears and the low rents of council owned smallholdings. It was also meant to be dealing with -
DOLS (Deprivation of Liberty)
Exit Interviews/Staff Retention now called Planning - Communication Arrangements.

Last week, Gwynedd council reported that the group did not meet in 2023 due to 'a long term illness in the Internal Audit Service'. Have they met in 2024...?

The Cabinet member for Corporate Support/Democratic Services also passed on concerns that Carys Edwards, a lay member of the group lived in a smallholding rented from the council.
Conflict of interest...?

Gwynedd council responded with - 
...We agree that any member of the Governance and Audit Committee who has declared an interest cannot the be on the working group that considers the same matter in further detail.  In the matter that you have specifically raised, Carys Edwards will not be able to be at the working group when smallholdings are discussed.  The Head of Finance has informed me that this matter was subsequently discussed between the Chair of the Committee, the Internal Audit Manager and the Head of Finance.

Last year, the Chair and members of the committee allowed this without comment.
At least one officer from Audit Wales was also in attendence at the meeting...

More recently, the monitoring officer, Iwan G D Evans, had ruled that two Councillors put forward to a Task and Finish group to oversee the review of Gwynedd's Autism Plan were ineligible due to a conflict of interest. 

Many Councillors questioned the MO's decision and believed the Councillors experiences would be invaluable to the working group and so a special meeting was called so that the Councillors could apply for 'special dispentation' and join the group.

At the special meeting, the monitoring officer actually supported the councillors and 'dispensation' was granted. The financial cost to the public purse of this special meeting was £793...

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

Cyngor Gwynedd - A 'Children's Parliament...'

Cyngor Gwynedd held a full council meeting on the 6th July, 2023. The chair welcomed all and asked for everyone's full attention as the meeting was being webcast. Not all councillors got the message.

The Annual Report of the SS Statutory Director was presented. The report had not been corrected with regard to the work of the Youth Justice team and the recent imprisonment. Yet again, a generic report is published with incorrect data. The report was passed anyway. 

The full agenda can be found here - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=130&MId=4889

The former Chair of the Care Scrutiny Committee praised the work of scrutiny members and referenced a meeting he chaired that took the Wales Ambulance Service to task. But made no mention of the critical Ombudsman for Wales investigation(s) into the SS departments under the committee's watch. No mention either of the SS departments not being properly scrutinised for the past four years...

Some Councillors raised their own concerns with scrutiny practices and one compared it to a 'children's parliament.' 

Gwynedd council's monitoring officer did state that there is a code of conduct for members and officers - any concerns with his role are to be raised with the CEO.

Link to the webcast -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/789318

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

 

 

One Gwynedd Councillor Continued To Work In His Shed During The Meeting....

On Thursday, 17th February, 2022, Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Democracy Services Committee meeting. The agenda can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=140&MId=4494

There was an update on the May elections, an update on hybrid meetings, a diversity in democracy report, a Democratic Services team performance report, and the increase in salaries for Councillors were all discussed. After each report, a vote was called for and each one passed...

One councillor was present but not really present. He had taken the laptop into what looked like his workshop for the Zoom meeting and spent most of it pottering around away from the screen. He was shouted at to get his attention and asked how he was voting on the first report - he voted to accept. He then returned to his project and took little part in the rest of proceedings.

Regarding the increase of salaries to councillors only one councillor objected and voted against. She thought it disgusting with the cost of living crisis now hitting residents hard. It was explained that this was the recommendation from a renumeration panel...

Democratic services raised the following in one report -  

This is the experience of the Deiniol Ward Councillor, who has decided not to stand again in the May elections. He was very clear in an article published by the Bangor Aye -

“The largest part of the decision not to stand probably comes from the boundary changes. For those who don’t know, several new ‘mega-wards’ have been created in Bangor which only take account of the small number of registered voters, but take no account of the amount of businesses, infrastructure and 10,000 students population (plus most of the university campus) which fall in the new ward.".

He continued - 

“It’s also been a strange 5 years in the world of electoral politics, which I must admit was never my natural home. Elections – whether local or national – don’t change things much because the institutions we get elected to are tied into far too many patterns and systems that are designed to halt real change whilst keeping the money and the real power in the hands of a very small number of self-serving and corrupted people".

The article can be found here -
https://www.thebangoraye.com/gwynedd-councillor-to-stand-down-following-bangor-boundary-changes/

The Democracy Services Committee meeting should be available on the council's website for public viewing sometime soon - https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/home

 

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - 'it would frighten you how few members of staff undertake these trainings..'

Cyngor Gwynedd council's Care Scrutiny Committee meeting held on the 25th November, 2021 was interesting on so many levels....

All councillors on the committee bar two, were emailed calling out the Autism plan as a cut and paste of Hugh Morgan's, review summary and recommendations. Only one response was received and 6 councillors excused themselves on the day as not able to attend the virtual meeting. Gwynedd council's 'public' webcast does not include the start of the meeting where those apologies were given.
The webcast of the meeting can be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/621168

Moving on, the Cabinet Member for Children and Families, Dilwyn Morgan, talks about the difficult times during the pandemic but sees the autism plan produced during these times with 'pride'. He also mentions the importance of listening to young people and their families...

The councillor appears to have forgotten that in 2018, he, along with the children's senior complaints manager, refused point blank to discuss an investigation into this case with the Care Scrutiny Committee. Has he also forgotten the email exchanges he had with a family who raised issues of bad behaviour by officers where he stated in relation to the first Ombudsman's investigation that the council has 'accepted and acted upon his recommendations' ?
This was not correct...

It is also a matter of concern that issues were raised with the Cabinet member regarding the accuracy of annual SS complaints handling reports written by the children's department. A SAR has revealed that the Cabinet Member did indeed discuss the matter - not with the council's democratic services as one may expect but with the senior complaints manager for children and families.  The conversation does mention that a corporate complaint could have been made, but the email exchange has been so heavily redacted by Gwynedd's Information Manager that the remainder of the conversation is unreadable.

Regardless, the Cabinet Member did not pass on that information...Sshh...

During the webcast, Dilwyn Morgan attempts to blame the system for the deficiencies highlighted by the various investigations and implies that he and the officer's will 'sort it out'.
The same people who ignored their responsibilities under the Autism SAP, the Equality Act 2010, the SSWB (Wales) Act 2014, NICE guidelines, code of ethics et al and ignored the SS complaints procedure (in order to squash complaints)...will now sort it out. Right oh...

Regarding the training of members and staff, the Cabinet member states - "it would frighten you how few members of staff undertake these trainings..."

Imagine what it is like for people on the receiving end of these untrained staff - from a Head of Services that does not know what the Equality Act,2010 is to a Gwynedd social worker who 'suggested' parents setting up an autistic child up to 'fail' re safeguarding  - "I can't help him otherwise..."

He also states that the situation is more difficult and far worse in other counties of Wales. Which counties are those, Mr Morgan and have you raised concerns ?

And where was the voice of the Cabinet Member for Adults, Dafydd Meurig ? Still sitting on an Ombudsman's report where an autistic young man was left to rot in bed when his commissioned hours were taken from him and the staff used elsewhere in the home to cover for its own staff shortages...

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...