Autism And Dementia Support Update - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

As if by magic, Cyngor Gwynedd have now added an Employment Appeals Committee to its calendar. The meeting will take place on Friday, 21st April, 2023 at 9.00 am. The agenda is yet to be published.

The Care Scrutiny Committee meet on the 20th April. The agenda includes the overdue update on the council's autism plan. Some members of the committee will remember the Senior Operational Manager, Aled Gibbard, launching the 'innovative' plan in the 2021 meeting.

Full Minutes of the Autism Strategy from the 2021 meeting can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/mgAi.aspx?ID=22140
An excerpt -
'The Cabinet Member elaborated on the content of the report noting that this Plan was one of the Council's improvement priority projects, namely to ensure that Families and Children with autism had access to the support they needed to thrive...'
'It was added that work on the Plan had continued during the recent difficult period and the opportunity was taken to thank Council Officers for their work along with other partners including the Health Board'

There was a high number of councillors absent from that meeting including apologies from the Head of childrens SS and the Cabinet member for Adults. The former Chair of the committee was clear to point out to Mr Gibbard the department's long standing failure to support autism services. Other observations included -
'It was enquired whether the number of people with the condition was increasing. It was also stated that it would have been useful to see more input from families during the consultation. It was suggested that regular feedback should be received from service users and their families in order to review whether or not this Plan had improved their experiences...'

The updated report contains no data...
The link to the updated report can be found here - https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/s37702/UPDATE%20ON%20THE%20GWYNEDD%20AUTISM%20PLAN.pdf

Under Staffing Update - the officers write that the previous 'innovative' plan had 'originally included the appointment of a co-ordinator and transition age social worker..'
Note 'originally'.This post was a specific requirement of the 2020 Hugh Morgan OBE Review. The post has been paid for, after all.

The update report continues - An Autism Practice Lead has now been appointed and will take up her role in May 2023. This post will co-ordinate the development of Autism services in Gwynedd and will act as the line manager for the other posts. The Social Worker post has been advertised for the second time, with no applicants responding to the first advertisement. Interviews for the post are currently being arranged. The Key Worker posts are due to be advertised shortly...

It mentions that one SW job was advertised but had no candidates - the report fails to mention that the permanent position was originally advertised as a 4 year, temporary position. No wonder there was no response.

A copy of the Hugh Morgan review into Gwynedd autism services can be found here -  https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/2021/04/finally-gwynedd-councils-autism-report.html 

With the senior officers accepting the recommendations of the review this also re-assured the Ombudsman for Wales who was looking into non compliance from another investigation. Councillors will remember the Ombudsman's 'outrage' with the council and the summoning of the former CEO to Cardiff to personally apologise for the failings.

The council have not yet employed the staff - and appear to be sitting on the funding.
Just smoke and mirrors...

The Cabinet Member for Adults is to also update the Committee on dementia support. The report is...bad and shows the deep crisis in Gwynedd. Did the embargo on care homes affect dementia placements too? So many questions and a member that has refused to answer to the Committee in the past. It is not looking good for the elderly...

That report can be found here - https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/s37698/Support%20for%20Individuals%20with%20Dementia%20in%20Gwynedd.pdf

Concerns For Safety - Cyngor Gwynedd (But Whose Safety?)

The minutes presented to cyngor Gwynedd planning committee on the 20th March, 2023, were challenged by its own Councillors.

At the previous planning meeting, a recorded vote was asked for due to the controversial decision to refuse an application. The recorded vote was absent from the minutes.
One Councillor was not recorded as attending the meeting when they had attended and another Councillor pointed out the lack of detail in the english translated minutes. The lack of information could effect any legal appeal if referring to the english version only.

The webcast can be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/760497

In other news, Councillor Louise Hughes recently spoke to the Daily Post with regard to the reporting of a council meeting that debated the Relationship and Education Curriculum and ended with police being called. Councillor Hughes challenged the narrative of a near riot and said that concerns for officer/member safety were 'over-egged.'

"As far as I’m concerned, there was no physical danger to the councillors or to anyone. There was no violence or threats, certainly no need to bring the police in. I've seen much rowdier meetings when we discussed the closure of our small village schools. If we can’t have robust or opposing debate during council meetings, then what is the point of local democracy?"
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/concerns-over-safety-gwynedd-sex-26535355

The council's 'concerns for safety' are simply an excuse to dilute its duties under the new law - Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021. Scrutiny and public participation are not welcomed by senior officers of this council. Whilst Welsh government is trying to make councils more open cyngor Gwynedd appear as closed as ever...

All this coincides with the disappearance of the Employment Appeals Committee from the council's calendar. Is an appeal due...?

Will this have anything to do with the employees rumoured to have been suspended for nearly 10 years? As so much time has passed, the officers will be confident of no legal comeback due to time restraints on reporting. The investigation has been completed and the executive officers with reponsiblities at the time have recently left the council. 

With all this going on behind closed doors it was no surprise to find that someone had made a complaint about Councillor Hughes.

A meeting of Gwynedd Standards Committee will be held on the 18th, April, 2023.
From the agenda -
Following a complaint that Councillor Louise Hughes had breached the code of conduct for members of Gwynedd Council, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales decided to conduct an investigation. The Ombudsman concluded that the matter should be referred to the Monitoring Officer for consideration by the Standards Committee.
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/s500008403/Cover%20Report.pdf

Something is very wrong within cyngor Gwynedd...

 

 

Cyngor Gwynedd Monitoring Officer Calls For Consistency Re Planning Decisions.

Cyngor Gwynedd Planning Committee met on Monday, 27th February 2023 at 1:00pm
The webcast cab be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/751721

Councillors threw out a planning application against the advice of planning officers...

The application is for Tyn Lon Afonwen Pwllheli Gwynedd LL53 6TX to establish a touring caravan site (19 unit) with toilet block and associated works.
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/s37238/Tyn%20Ln%20Afonwen%20Pwllheli%20Gwynedd%20LL53%206TX.pdf

Objections included over development of sites in the area and that it would be detrimental to the Welsh language. The question of over development was batted away by officers reiterating that it was not a site for static caravans and no evidence was presented of damage to the language. Still, seven councillors voted to refuse...

Both the monitoring officer and the planning officer compared a similar application from last year (in an area of outstanding beauty) that committee passed against the direction of the planning department and consistency was asked for. The monitoring officer stated the application was fully in line with council policy and warned the decision to refuse could incur costs to the council if the applicant appealed....

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...?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PSOW 'Variances' To Recommendations Made And Remits For Investigations...

Accepting the Ombudsman for Wales offer of a third investigation into cyngor Gwynedd was a mistake.

Yet again, the 'remit' for investigation was a bone of contention.
So much evidence of continued bad behaviour by officers was not to be investigated, nor action taken over non compliance as the Ombudsman had signed this off as completed - when it was not. Farcical.

A reminder that the child's diagnosis of autism was repeatedly ignored by Gwynedd's Derwen manager and was not allowed to be taken into account by social workers in either care assessment. Social workers said that they had not accessed and read the the child's files and were not interested in the family history, preferring they said to 'take it from here'. The second care assessment carried out on the orders of the Ombudsman appeared to morph into a safeguarding issue of a neurotypical child and an exercise in parent bashing...

The Ombudsman appeared not to take full regard of the child's diagnosis of autism either and when challenged by the family who cited another case for comparison, the Ombudsman warned that cases should not be compared. Of course not, but the fact remains one child's diagnosis appeared to be treated differently from another.

Reading through past investigation reports and FOI's to both organisations reveal council officers who apologise, sometimes even sincerely, and then ignore agreements made. The Ombudsman's acceptance of variances to its recommendations without complainants knowledge is also insulting after such lengthy and costly investigations. 

The Ombudsman then submitted its preferred 'remit' to cyngor Gwynedd without the complainant's approval or knowledge. The complainants were not happy and a 'pause' to the complaint was asked of the Ombudsman while a Subject Access Request was submitted to its information office seeking its correspondence with the council. The Ombudsman agreed to the delay...

A SAR had also been submitted to cyngor Gwynedd and whilst the council's Information office had dealt fairly with previous requests, it now produced pages of censored content...

Part of an email thread does show officers discussing waylaying the child at their place of education - without parents knowledge. Would this be an attempt to get the child to agree to something so the third investigation could be halted? The same council officers who have a history of fake assessments, interference in investigations, bullying staff and writing reports in spite of the evidence and an autistic child with complex issues. How desperate were senior officers to even contemplate this...?

A reminder that Gwynedd SS department had been investigated previously by the Ombudsman and hauled over the coals for similar tactics in the case of an autistic man in residential care who had their services removed. The case involved officers speaking with the man alone without family members or support. Using a person's disability against them...?

As usual, the SS department apologised for their behaviour but recommendations from this case were also not complied with though the Ombudsman has signed this off as completed albeit with another variance. Extra training in ASD for staff was accepted by the Ombudsman instead of the required review of services. There is no public record of this training or how many attended...

The Ombudsman's Information office did comply with part of the SAR but did not release documentation between themselves and the council adding further doubt to the impartiality of the Ombudsman.

Cyngor Gwynedd. who had released dialogue between the Ombudsman in a previous case now refused. An internal review was requested where the reviewing officer claimed that the Ombudsman had discussion with the council to not disclose information in this case. For obvious reasons, the officer was not believed and challenged to provide the evidence. The letter from the Ombudsman to the council was released to the family...

The Ombudsman is independent, impartial and fair - it says that on its website, nor does it advise either party. 

When challenged, the Ombudsman explained that the correspondence was not 'advice' but merely their response to a council's query. The response was very detailed and information passed between the two organisations in how the council deal with the SAR, for 'transparency' and 'consistency' as the Ombudsman advised. A reminder that the Ombudsman was not the data controller in this instance...

During this time, the Ombudsman had become impatient and demanded a decision be made to accept the 'remit' or the complaint would be closed. The 'remit' was not accepted by the complainants and the Ombudsman closed the case.

Something is very wrong with the complaints process in Wales...

 

 

A Home Visit From The Ombudsman For Wales...

The aborted Stage 2 complaint emails between the 'independent investigator' and Cyngor Gwynedd's safeguarding and quality officer were passed to the Ombudsman for his information. They included input from the Monitoring Officer and also showed this 'investigator' sending correspondence to someone not involved in the complaints process...

Because of the unreasonable demands imposed by the council officer, the complaint did not proceed and was timed out by the council. After reading the emails, the Ombudsman returned with an offer of a complaint without enduring further officer bad behaviour. But trust in the Ombudsman was now on the wane.

Evidence of wrongdoing by senior officers - from an officer leaving the council during one investigation then rejoining once interviews were completed through behaviour by officers that many have thought abusive. There was the council's Information manager's data breach report - written in spite of the evidence, the creation of documents that should not exist and legal documents written not to inform but mislead. All not investigated...

Not forgetting, the Ombudsman was warned that the council's SS officers may treat the second assessment - and the family - with the same disingenuity as the first - and they did...

It was pointed out to the Ombudsman that Gwynedd council have not complied with other recommendations from past investigations and that if they had been called to account previously then further investigations would not have been needed. The Ombudsman did not respond to this point.

A FOI request was put in asking for the compliance correspondence between the Ombudsman and Gwynedd council regarding Case 201700388 and later in the family's own case. Whilst the Ombudsman's Information office released the correspondence for someone else's investigation showing the council admitting non compliance, the FOI for emails from the family's own case was refused. Even more evidence of non compliance...?

By now, the family's perception was that the Ombudsman appeared unwilling or unable to deal with the serious issues the evidence had revealed. Regardless, the offer of a third Ombudsman's investigation into the SS department's second assessment which should have already been investigated by the Ombudsman was accepted.

A home visit was arranged to discuss and take further evidence against Gwynedd council. Home visits from the Ombudsman are not usual...

Shortly after, the senior safeguarding officer used a Care Scrutiny Committee on the 14/11/19 to declare the Ombudsman had - 
"given them a further challenge, to make sure that someone goes to see the family, meet the family, ensure that they receive that assessment and that is something that we have now arranged with the adult services, to go into that situation on the Ombudsman's behalf, despite the fact that they have not expressed a wish to receive the service, our usual ethos involves intervention but only if the person invites us in and wishes for us to intervene in this way, the Ombudsman has judged this and wants us to go no matter what the wish of the individual may be, so that is now our response to that challenge provided by the Ombudsman."

The Ombudsman was contacted and denied the words of the officer...
But what of the language used to Councillors and the public - 'challenge' and 'intervention' and 'ethos' are such strong words to use when all that was required was a simple carer's assessment...

Gwynedd council had used the excuse that they did not understand the wording in one Ombudsman report. The recommendation that Executive officers and presumably the council's legal team had already agreed to but now clearly misunderstood was  -
“Provides Mr Y and his family with a comprehensive assessment of their needs and ensures that adequate measures are put in place to meet any identified needs."

Hardly a complex sentence. Bizarrely, the Ombudsman accepted this excuse and presumably another box was ticked instead of following policy and procedures which could have resulted in an Ombudsman's Special Report into continued non compliance.

The Ombudsman also introduced the word 'variance' into the dialogue and it appears that recommendations for improvement can be downgraded once an investigation has been completed in a deal done between the Ombudsman and the CEO behind closed doors - without the complainants knowledge...

All this while attempting to come to agreement with the 'remit' for the third investigation.

Having investigated several complaints into Gwynedd council during his incumbancy, the Ombudsman was well aware of the disingenuous nature of the senior officers and their treatment of the disabled. Gwynedd council even featured in the Ombudsman's hall of shame casebook which can be found here -
https://www.ombudsman.wales/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/104483-Equality-and-Human-Rights-Casebook_Eng_v03.pdf

The full Ombudsman's report for case 201700388 can be found here -
http://www.lukeclements.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Ombudsman-Gwynedd-Council-report-201700388.pdf 

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...

 

 

Enduring Gwynedd Council's SS Complaint Procedures...

For the Ombudsman to consider a complaint against 'the council' - a member of the public must first endure a council's formal complaints procedure beginning with a Stage 1 complaint. If dissatisfied with the outcome of the Stage 1, it is your right under law to ask for a Stage 2. If granted, a senior officer from a different department will investigate the complaint. Only then can the Ombudsman be approached.

Under SS procedures, the council will employ an Independent Officer and in the case of the children's department an Independent Person also - there to oversee proceedings in the interest of the child.

Independent Investigators are often senior officer's working for, or who have worked for local authorities. Many are excellent and will follow the evidence - some will not...

Once the investigator is chosen by the council - they then meet with the complainant to fully understand the grievance and work on the 'remit' (main points of complaint). This remit is then presented to the council's Senior Complaints Officer who will then decide if the remit is acceptable before the investigation can begin. 

One Gwynedd parent asked their 'independent investigator' to interview a witness involved with their complaint of an 'inadequate' assessment undertaken by two social workers. The investigator declined. Think on that - an 'independent investigator' not wishing to collect evidence and speak to witnesses in an investigation...

The investigator then presented her remit to the council for their permission to proceed - without the complainant's approval or knowledge...

Note - The person making the complaint is not necessarily informed of the remit at this point.

Emails show that this complainant was far from happy with the 'remit' and claimed that their evidence had been misrepresented by the investigating officer and contained factual errors.

Further emails show the Senior Safeguarding and Quality officer intervened and insisted that all correspondence with the investigator go through him....

The witness then asked to join the complaint. This was not welcomed by the council and the email thread shows considerable pushback. It concludes with the Senior Safeguarding and Quality officer implying that the only way he would allow the complaint to continue was if a child with complex issues and a diagnosis of autism be interviewed by council officer's - alone..

But the child had no desire to meet with even more officers of the department whose previous bad behaviour led to the former CEO, Dilwyn Williams, having to personally apologise for.
More on that here -
https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/2019/09/an-apology-from-cyngor-gwynedd-council.html

Obviously, the complaint did not proceed and was eventually timed out by the council.
The council were well aware that past policies and procedures have meant the Ombudsman can not intervene without a complaint to take forward. (Policies and procedures have now changed)

Work undertaken on one recommendation from the Ombudsman of Wales but called out as fake was not investigated by the council. Questions remain to the integrity of the work undertaken by two social workers and the senior manager responsible for the 'assessment'. The email thread also raises questions with the actions of the 'independent' investigators.

The culture within the council has become increasingly more toxic since a joint investigation with North Wales Police, in 2014. The CPS dropped the charges after new information from NWP in 2016...

Yet another investigation report into this farce has been with the council for nearly two years now. Since then both the CEO and the Director of SS have left their posts. Is this another report that will find failings within the council? This time with Education and SS officer's and perhaps the council's legal team? What of the other agencies involved?

If there are no failings, one would assume that it would have been released immediately - along with the champagne corks...

What no report will detail is the emotional damage such underhand tactics cause to children and their families - nor the financial costs... 

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...

 

 

Are Staff Suspended For 8 years? - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recently 'advised' Cyngor Gwynedd council to release information relating to a subject access request (SAR) from 2020. On the 14th July, 2022, the Information manager emailed in response to the ICO 'advice' - the original information asked for has not been provided...

The ICO has explained that if the council refuse their advice then the next step would be a judicial review - costs of such a review start at £25,000. The council's legal team have access to unlimited public funds to fight the public in such cases - joe public does not...

The original SAR was delayed in part due to the council having to purchase specialist data redaction software... When the information was finally provided it had been so heavily redacted in places that it was unreadable. A complaint was raised and a review was undertaken by the Information manager's line manager, Emyr Edwards, who also informed that the software had destroyed some data on retrieval. Hope the council got a refund. Mr Edward's review did not release the information hence the ICO's involvement...

One such example of heavy redaction is an email thread between the Senior Safeguarding And Quality Officer and a Cabinet Member discussing a possible corporate complaint. Concerns had been raised that the Annual Complaints Handling report presented to the Care Scrutiny Committee was not accurate. The report that year was authored by the Senior Safeguarding officer, himself. A meeting was requested so the evidence could be presented. The Member ignored the request. Both the officer and Cabinet Member have refused to answer questions from Councillors of the Scrutiny Committee in the past...

In 2020, a complaint was raised with the council that the same officer had misled another Care Scrutiny Committee. The officer had given a statement regarding the Ombudsman for Wales. The Ombudsman was contacted and denied the words of the officer...

Correspondence from the former Director of SS raises more concerns. In it, she admits that she with the aid of the legal team could not understand the Ombudsman's wording in one report.The former CEO had claimed the same during his incumbency. The present Head of Children's SS has stated in 'lessons learnt' a need to 'read and understand' reports....

The Ombudsman has already raised concerns with the council's lack of knowledge of procedures and law and dismissed one social worker's evidence to his investigation as disingenuous...

In other news, the council's information department has failed to comply with law regarding the FOI Act. A question involving the number of officers suspended from work and for how long has been awaiting an internal review by the Monitoring Officer for over a year.

From a 2018 Wales Online article - 'Welsh councils have paid £9m to staff they have suspended'

Second was Gwynedd, totalling £1,327,117. They said £800,000 of that referred to "police matters". The longest time a member of staff has been on paid suspension at the authority is four years – the longest in Wales...
“The other case involves the suspension of members of staff for the duration of a statutory investigation by the police and social services which lasted for approximately three years.
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.”

The full article can be found here -
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-councils-paid-9m-staff-14876849

So the CPS dropped the case - issues with evidence? The council then began its own internal investigation but since then radio silence... Has this investigation been completed?

Or are the officer's still suspended from the council - after 8 years?

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

GwE Travel Claims And Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

A meeting of the GwE Joint Committee was held on Wednesday, 13th July, 2022 1.30 pm. The agenda for the meeting can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=243&MId=4718

GwE made the news during the early stages of the pandemic when the Daily Post drew attention to an audit report highlighting concerns with GwE's expenses -

Auditors say they can't rule out that a school improvement service allowed its staff to change which offices they worked from so they could boost their mileage expenses claims.
GwE changed its policies at the same time that rules were tightened up for council workers. The new rules meant staff would only be able to claim for distances beyond that which they would normally travel to get from home to work....
The report concluded: "Whilst reviewing officers' travel claims, it appears that those who have changed their official work location have benefited financially, whether by claiming for the journeys they make to their usual place of work, or by reducing the loss associated with the distance from home to their official work location - or a combination of both.

The full article, by Gareth Wyn Williams, can be found here -
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/eyebrows-raised-what-schools-agency-18716183

Eyebrows raised indeed. What was the response of the former CEO to the concerns raised by the auditors - was an investigation undertaken? Could the new CEO update...?

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

One Councillor Walked Out Of The Meeting - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

Cyngor Gwynedd council held a hybrid Planning Committee on Monday, 4th July, 2022. The webcast can be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/681487

The meeting has already attracted media attention -
'Gwynedd planners went against officers' recommendations to allow the development on Ffordd Capel Coch after hearing it was the "only way" a local woman could afford to continue living in the village'

That article can be found here -
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/llanberis-bungalow-build-granted-amid-pleas-to-help-keep-welsh-speaking-family-in-area/ar-AAZjAjK

The committee dealt with other applications.Those watching the live webcast in english were not able to hear the english speaking participants due to a sound failure. The failure does not occur in the Welsh version. One participant mentioned vested interests and a possible judicial review - but you have to listen to the Welsh version to hear her. 

Just under four minutes of the wecast in english are missing. It is not down to the sound failure(s)...

In a previous meeting, the long suffering Planning officer mentioned possible Government intervention due to decisions overturned by council members. Government can only investigate if a complaint is received. Anyone can make a complaint....

On Thursday, 7th July, the Care Scrutiny Committee held a meeting -
The agenda and link to the recorded meeting can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=394&MId=4704

One agenda item was to appoint members to attend performance challenge monitoring meetings with senior heads of departments. Six were required - two each for Housing/Planning, Children and the Adults departments. Councillors were slow to put their names forward even with prompting from the new Chair - who is also a former Chair.
Five Councillors eventually came forward - all from the Plaid group....

The meeting was expected to pass the North Wales Market Stability Report that links with the Population Needs Assessment - has that been completed yet?. Officer's admitted the report was not perfect - yet a vote was asked for...
Just as happened with the Care Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 3rd February, 2022...
More here -
https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/2022/02/cyngor-gwynedd-council-scrutiny.html

One Councillor said it took her three days to read cover to cover because it was all 'jumbled up'.
Another walked out of the meeting after complaining about the state of the paperwork presented...

In last weeks other meetings, one Councillor stated there was no interest from the public regarding the Employment Appeals meetings. Of course there is public interest but these meetings usually take place with the public and press removed. Why would the Councillor say this - at such a time?

One Councillor appeared to nod off during another meeting - this meeting was not webcast but held over Zoom where the public have to ask for the link to join 'live'. What happens to these Zoom meetings afterwards? The meetings are not available on the council's website - are they simply deleted?

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...