Neil Foden And The Culture Of Cover Up - Cyngor Gwynedd Council...

The full council of cyngor Gwynedd held a meeting on the 11th July, 2024.
The leader of the Independent group, Angela Russell, asked a question with regard to Neil Foden -

The Cabinet member for Education, Beca Brown, responded and spoke of her disgust for Foden and that lessons will be learned. She added that details of what exactly happened will be known after the North Wales Safeguarding Board Child Practice Review.

Many people have little faith that a review will be adequate including the Cabinet member herself who has spoken of the need for a pubilc inquiry. This is not a reflection on Jan Pickles, who has been appointed to lead the review - more on the officers who will be giving 'evidence'...

Will the former Cabinet member for Education, Cemlyn Rees Williams, be giving evidence to the review? It is believed Williams was in post in 2019 when Garem Jackson received the email from a teacher at Ysgol Friars whistleblowing on Neil Foden. Did he know of the safeguarding officer's advice to Jackson to simply have a chat with Foden about his behaviour?

During William's tenure, articles critical of Foden were appearing in the press. In 2020, he was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by the Education Workforce Council-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54300055

Then there was the furore over the School meals: Head teacher of 2p debt threat 'thrown under bus'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59341464

Both Williams and Garem Jackson, then head of education, were questioned by Gwynedd council's Education and Economy Committee on the matter. Jackson refused to answer. Williams just complained that he was being compared to Boris Johnson, who at that time was being accused of lying to the nation. Councillors did not challenge their behaviour.

In early 2022, the video of Foden allegedly grabbing a pupil by the neck appeared online. This was raised at the next Education Scrutiny meeting. Again Garem Jackson chose not to comment, promising an update at a later time. Some have suggested that Foden took the rap for the Education department's callous approach to school meals during the pandemic and that perhaps this was the reason that no action was taken over the alleged assault. Whatever the reason, it was another missed opportunity to address serious issues surrounding Neil Foden.

A reminder that the education department only changed their stance on school meals after the intervention of footballer, Marcus Rashford...

It is concerning that many councillors appear to care more for the reputation of Cyngor Gwynedd Council and the senior officers than they do for the county's children and families.

Councillors of the Care Scrutiny Committee have ignored emails warning of maladministration and bad behaviour of senior officers - on more than one occasion. 

Cabinet member, Dilwyn Morgan has also failed to pass on crucial information relating to the senior complaints manager of the children's SS department when he misled councillors. The complaints manager is also the senior safeguarding officer for Gwynedd council - he wears many hats...

Another Cabinet member appears to suffer from amnesia in relation to one Ombudsman for Wales investigation. She was handed a copy of the report after a council meeting but when later asked what action she took, she said she had no memory of receiving the report. Councillors may suggest that Gwynedd council do not make critical reports available to them. This is no excuse as many are reported in the press and regulators publish them online anyway.

Councillor R. Medwyn Hughes, shut down communication with one family when he was asked for a meeting to discuss behaviours of senior officers. Hughes was also a school governor at Ysgol Friars but left the post after Foden's trial. There are suggestions he may return as governor as he is considered a safe pair of hands for the council...

When councillors turn a blind eye to the bad behaviours of senior officers, it emboldens them and embeds the toxic culture within the council even more.

Luke Clements, a Professor of Law, at Leeds University wrote of the culture within Gwynedd council  -

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

One councillor who sits on the Employment Appeals committee remarked that no-one was interested in the meetings and since then the committee has been closed to the public. There is a perception that this statement was taken as a request to officers to shut it down before one of the teachers suspended on full pay for 9 years was due to come before the committee.

In other news, one councillor refused to vote for the election of a vice chair at one meeting, protesting that Plaid Cymru were taking all the seats. This meeting was not webcast...

At another meeting, a councillor complained that committee meetings were not available on the council's website. The council's democracy service officer explained that though the meetings are recorded, they are not webcast and so can not be viewed later. The councillor was not content.

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

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Leader Of The Gang...?

In November, 2021, Neil Foden, headteacher at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle in Penygroes wrote to parents informing that any child with a debt of 2p would be refused school meals. This caused a national furore with interventions from Marcus Rashford and blogger Simon Harris (men behaving dadly)

The headteacher blamed the decision on his council bosses who he claims 'threw him under a bus' -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59341464
"All I did was to pass on the authority's message to parents."

Gwynedd Council blamed "lack of clarity" from its education department on school food debt policy -
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/council-apologises-school-meal-debt-22153658

Councillors of Gwynedd's Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee challenged the Head of Education, Garem Jackson, for an explanation. He did not provide one but promised an update for the next meeting.

Two months later, a video was posted online that appears to show Neil Foden grabbing a pupil by the scruff of the neck -
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/head-teacher-filmed-appearing-grab-22967578

At the next scrutiny meeting, Mr Jackson failed to answer the committees previous concerns and was also unwilling to respond to the latest incident. Once again, promising to get the full facts and return with an update for councillors.
There is no record of Mr Jackson updating the committee on either incident...

Mr Foden has a history of controversy. In 2018, a Biology teacher was awarded £8,000 compensation after an 'outrageous' suspension by the Ysgol Friars headteacher -
The tribunal was convinced Mr Foden had at one stage been “looking for an excuse to make things difficult for the claimant”.
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/biology-teacher-awarded-8000-compensation-14867550

Also -
“We developed a particular view about the evidence given by Mr Foden which undermined his credibility and/or reliability as a witness.”
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/autocratic-gwynedd-headmaster-included-malpractice-14853841
How is this not perjury?

In 2020, he was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by the Education Workforce Council.
It was proved that Mr Foden treated a third teacher unfairly when providing a reference in 2016 in which he said he was facing an allegation of malpractice when, in fact, the teacher had been cleared.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54300055

The panel heard evidence that included -
"I felt victimised by Neil Foden due to the way he operated. You were either in his gang or you were not," person D told the panel. He claimed he was never interviewed by school governors and that Mr Foden's daughter had investigated the allegations against him.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51710557

The teacher claimed Mr Foden was looking to "pressurise" him after he made whistleblowing complaints over erroneous submissions of exam results by his department boss.
Person D said he made the whistleblowing complaints in 2014 because pupils had been "awarded an exam pass" and he was initially concerned it was an "administrative error".

However, he said the evidence had been moved for the five pupils concerned. "The evidence had been removed from a computer file. It had taken a year and a quarter for the exam board to be told."
Person D said he and two other concerned teachers were not interviewed about the exam concerns until "four to six months later".
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/headmaster-victimised-teacher-who-blew-17850450

The delay in interviewing the teachers will affect any legal process as there is a very short window to lodge complaints and/or take legal action. After one year, it is presumed that the exam board would dismiss any concerns as out of time...
Mr Foden is also Head of Ysgol Friars in Bangor.

Perhaps the scrutiny committee could remind the Head of Education of his promise to report on the incidents and also ask for an update on the two teachers believed to have been suspended on full pay for 9 years...

In 2014, the council's safeguarding team began an investigation alongside north wales police.. It did not go well. In 2018, the CPS threw out the case after they did a deep dive of the 'evidence'. 

A spokesman for the council said -
"This process concluded with the CPS deciding not to proceed with any prosecutions. The council is currently carrying out its own subsequent internal investigation into the matter and as a result the individuals remain suspended from their posts.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20180729072902/https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-councils-paid-9m-staff-14876849

Gwynedd council also paid over £800,000 of public money to north wales police. For what...?
The costs of this case, including the legal fees, must be approaching 2 million pounds - if not more... 

An FOI seeking information on the matter was shut down by the monitoring officer who simply ignored the request for an internal review. The next step in the legal process - a complaint to the ICO - usually requires an internal review to have been undertaken. Regardless, the ICO can only 'advise' the council to release information. Gwynedd council have ignored the 'advice' of the ICO in the past...

Questions to the integrity and professionalism of the safeguarding team remain. The senior safeguarding officer for Gwynedd has not been seen at a council meeting since 2019 when he was called out for deceiving the care scrutiny committee in another case.

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...