Friday, 25 May 2018

Stage 2 Complaint Against #Gwynedd Council Update.

Today, the 25th of May, 2018, is the anniversary of our raising a Stage 2 complaint against Cyngor Gwynedd Council, on the advice of the Ombudsman for Wales.

One year in a process that should take 28 days and it is still not completed.


Thursday, 24 May 2018

#Gwynedd Council Censoring Of Personal Information Update.

On the 23rd May, 2018, Cyngor Gwynedd Council finally released to us an unredacted copy of an email written by a Gwynedd Council manager containing our personal information.

They had no right to censor our personal information, this was done deliberately, to prevent us from reading unprofessional and disparaging comments made about us by a senior social work manager.

It should have been released to us in October, 2016 in accordance with our Subject Access Request.

An Information Manager dealing with the issue says there was no legitimate reason for it to be redacted or denied us, this was not the only email that was redacted in this same manner, for the same reasons, from the same manager.

19 months to obtain all the information allowed us by Law under the Data Protection Act.
A process that should take a maximum of 40 days.

We now wonder whether or not the Council provided us with all that we were entitled to at that time.....or not...who knows ?

Something is so badly wrong within Gwynedd Council.




Tuesday, 1 May 2018

Gwynedd Council Maladministration 2018.

On the 16th March, 2018, Gwynedd Council's Corporate Director and Head of Social Services, Morwena Edwards, finally responded to our Stage 2 Complaint, nearly 5 months after the completed Report was received by the Council.

The entire process has taken over 10 months to conclude - a process that according to Gwynedd's Statutory Policy should take 28 days.

Our complaint(s) were upheld by the 'Independent' Investigator and her Report - twice sanitised by the Council - still makes for some very interesting reading. But that is for another time.

The Data Breach and censoring of our personal information are currently being investigated as a separate complaint by Gwynedd's Information department. But we have now been told that the Manager is not able to deal with the issue of a senior manager, Melvin Panther, writing disparaging comments about the family to other agencies - so our complaint in this respect is still not concluded.

The official response from the Council is signed off by Morwena Edwards and she attempts to totally whitewash the highly critical Report into her department.

According to the Welsh Government Guidelines on Social Services Complaints, the Council were obliged to offer to meet with us to discuss the report and their response. They have not offered a meeting and as we have yet again been denied the opportunity to discuss the report and their response to it, we wrote in response to the Council.

We pointed out that the Children and Family department attempts to gloss over the systemic failings uncovered by the 'Independent' Investigator and still seek to blame anyone but themselves.

Social Workers and other Council Officers admit that the child's case was allowed 'to drift'.

Our reply to the Corporate Director(s) was that her response is nonsensical and farcical and disregards the failure of Social Workers and the appalling state of record keeping within the Children's department.

During this time, the Ombudsman for Wales has also been investigating Gwynedd Council.

Their Report upholds all our complaints and highlights maladministration and service failure by Gwynedd Social Services going as far back as 2010.

Yet this time Gwynedd Council have held up their hands to the Ombudman's Report and agreed to implement all the recommendations made - including certain officers being retrained in respect of the Council adhering to their Statutory Duties.

The Council would have received the Ombudsman's Report early last week. They have still not contacted us.

Something is so badly wrong within Gwynedd Council.



















Monday, 12 March 2018

The Similarities Between Telford And Gwynedd. Sshh...

Re the outcry over the child abuse scandal in #Telford and those calling for an Independent Inquiry into those who failed the children....

Gwynedd Council - who were closed down after they failed the county's children in their own sexual abuse scandal of the 90's - have twice sanitised a recent 'Independent Report' into their Social Services department.

The abuse of children in Gwynedd and Clywd was only allowed to continue by those in authority maintaining a 'wall of silence' for decades.
Gwynedd Council, for whatever reason, chose to turn a blind eye and the whistleblower, Alison Davies - was actually sacked by the council for raising concerns.

It has become apparent that a 'wall of silence' still remains in Gwynedd with no-one willing or able to confront unprofessional and bad behaviour by senior managers within the council.
Sshh no criticism allowed.

The abuse of children in Telford began just after the creation of the New Town in the early 70's.

Just as in North Wales, the authorities at the then Wrekin Council and the local Police turned a blind eye. In fact, the local CID used to hunt down and return those 'children in care' who had fled from the abuse they were no doubt suffering in the council run homes in Wellington.
Sshh.

The authorities in North Wales sat on the Jillings Report into the abuse of children for 20 years - on the orders of the council's insurers - now Zurich International.
Sshh.

There was an Asian gang operating in Telford in the 70's as were White Gangs. There were also huge problems with #Unemployment #Racism and #Heroin. Too many unexplained deaths and mysterious 'suicides'.

The old Wrekin Council have questions to answer along with the now defunct Telford Youth Council, local Churches and the Police.

An Independent Inquiry into the abuse of children in Telford will fail just as in North Wales, Rotherham, Islington etc etc. No-one will be held to account.

An Independent Inquiry is too easily sanitised and the truth covered up - a Public Inquiry would stand a better chance at getting to the truth and the abusers and those who profited from the abuse punished.

But be in no doubt....the abuse of children and vulnerable people continues.
Sshh.....

More -  https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/









Friday, 16 February 2018

Cyngor #Gwynedd Council And The Half Term Holiday.

An update to the post of the 9th February - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/cyngor-gwynedd-council-and-delayed.html  - in relation to the Stage 2 complaint first raised on the 25th May, 2017, on the advice of the Ombudsman for Wales.

Morwena Edwards, Director of Social Services, sent an email at 17.03 possibly to prove that she was not taking her half term holiday early, this year, as I suggested ?

Reading through Gwynedd Council's Statutory Policy it is clear that the Investigation is completed and the Report finalised and with the Ombudsman for Wales even making reference to the Council's 'delayed response' we can only assume that the Director of SS is either misinformed by her complaints officer(s) or she is deliberately misinforming us ?

"I apologise that you have not yet been updated in relation to the progress on your complaint.  As you rightly note, there was a meeting as part of the investigation with the Council officers on the 30th of January.  Unfortunately, I understand that the Customer Care Officer who made contact with the investigator in relation to timescales for producing the final report and submitting this to the Council, has been away from work with an illness.  Because of this, I have not been provided with the update as expected. 
Following your email, I have asked someone else to contact the Independent investigator to make enquiries and ascertain when the final report is expected by the Council.  Once this reply is received, I will of course provide you with an update.
In your email, you suggest that the Council has had the report for 14 weeks.  I am informed that the Investigator is yet to issue a final report to the Council.  Once this is received, the Council will prepare a formal response to you about your complaint and you will be provided with a copy of the Investigator’s final report."
                                                 *********************

It is now the end of another week - 15 weeks now - since the Council have had the Independent Investigators Report and nearly 9 months since the complaint was raised.

Another week in which Mrs Edwards refuses to answer our questions and, like other council officers involved in this case, blames someone else for the delay.

It is the half term holiday and there will be public employees taking a well earned holiday.
Does that include the Director and ALL the customer care and complaints department dealing with our complaint ?

Forget the update, Morwena and just release the Report. 

Something is so wrong within Gwynedd Council's Social Services.

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

Re-Post From Last Year - Groundhog Day At Gwynedd Council.

A re-blog from 9 months ago - To be honest even I didn't think that the Council could/would act as badly as they have...but they have...

Where is the Independent Investigator's Report ?

"Last night, I listened to advice and raised a complaint against Gwynedd council.

I have no faith that the council will treat it fairly or even according to law after the debacle of last year..

Still - the official complaint has been lodged and I await a response from the customer care team at Gwynedd Council - (customer care lol such a misnomer in this area)

What have I learnt from my past experiences with Cyngor Gwynedd council ?

That I may be setting myself up for more false lighting, manipulation and bad behaviour by the public employees at a Plaid Cymru controlled council.

We shall see."
 
Gwynedd Council Fail.: Groundhog Day At Gwynedd Council.:

Friday, 9 February 2018

Cyngor #Gwynedd Council And It's Delayed Response.


Still no sign of the Independent Report into a Stage 2 complaint first raised with Cyngor Gwynedd council in May, last year, on the advice of the Ombudsman for Wales.

Out of frustration we emailed the Corporate Management team - see post from the 17th January - 
https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/so-we-emailed-cyngor-gwynedd-councils.html

Our questions were not answered to any satisfaction but we were told by an Executive Officer on behalf of the Director of Social Services, Morwena Edwards, that we would be receiving an update - 

"Thank you for your email and I apologise that I am unable at this point to answer your questions fully.

I understand that a meeting with the Independent Investigator has been arranged on the 30th of January. Following this meeting the Service will be in a better position to advise you on a timescale for sharing the report.

I understand your frustrations that this is taking longer than expected, however Lowri Williams will provide you with an update following the meeting on  the 30th."

As no update has been forthcoming we sent an email to the Director, Morwena Edwards, on the 6th February -

"Dear Mrs Edwards,

It has been a week since Senior Managers met with the Independent Investigator and we have not received any update as your Executive Officer promised.

So please now answer our very pertinent questions in relation to the stage 2 complaint first raised in May, last year, without delay and release the report immediately.

We remind you that the Council have had the report for 14 (fourteen) weeks now and it is coming up to 9 (nine) months since the complaint was first raised.

We are aware that two months were lost due to the accident befalling the first Investigator so 7 (seven) months in a process that by your own Statutory Policy should take 25 working days".
                                                         *****************

The Director and senior management remain silent.
Perhaps they are all taking the half term holiday early this year ?

Something is so badly wrong within Cyngor Gwynedd Council and its Social Services.





Thursday, 25 January 2018

Gwynedd Council Stage 2 Complaint - 8 Months Today.

Today marks 8 (eight) calendar months since a stage 2 complaint was raised against Cyngor Gwynedd council on the advice of the Ombudsman for Wales.

Two months were lost due to the original Independent Investigator meeting with an accident and so was unable to continue.

Six months then in a process that should, according to the council's own Statutory Policy, be completed in 25 working days.

#Gwynedd council were handed the Independent Investigator's Report at the end of October.

So where is the Report ?

Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Snoopers Tut....

The last two days have seen some very unusual activity on my Blogspot and Wordpress accounts so I have temporarily locked them.

The software I am using indicates that only two devices are responsible for the traffic and it also indicates that the signal is being routed through either a Tor browser, VPN or both.

The data log created is huge and will take ages to sift through but it does show that one of the exit node points is in North Wales.

Now who in North Wales is so interested in going through my accounts with a fine tooth comb at this present time?


Tuesday, 23 January 2018

Complaint Against Gwynedd Council - 6 Of 6.

The customer care and complaints department at Cyngor Gwynedd council continue to remain silent in regard to our complaint first raised in May, last year on the advice of the Ombudsman for Wales.

So this is the sixth and final point of our Stage 2 complaint  -

Despite repeated requests, (complainants) have never been offered a carers assessment by social services.

And our desired outcome -

The complainants seek a Carers Assessment to be undertaken and completed by Gwynedd County Council.

I am reminded that we had to ask Sian Gwenllian, #Plaid_Cymru AM for Arfon for help in getting the Children and Family department to respond to our request for a carer's assessment, last year.
It took Marian Parry Hughes, Department Head of Children and Family services three months to respond to the AM....

"...we had responded to the family's lawyer, by letter from Sharron Carter, Senior Operational Manager, dated March 27th setting out the reasons for not offering a carer's assessment to (Mother)"

The solicitor states this letter was never received.
More detail on this from an earlier post -  https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/gwynedd-department-head-finally.html

This child has a diagnosis of Autism, PDA and the council itself has made reference to the childs 'complex needs'.

Marian Parry Hughes goes on -

"This response was sent following consultation with our legal department. Consideration was given to the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and the Equality Act 2000 when considering our response...

 ...(childs) needs does not make him eligible to receive a care and support plan, and (...) did not reach the cirteria to be considered as a disabled child/young person under the Equality Act. Therefore, since the Act specifies that a carer's assessment is offered to carers of a disabled adult or child, we were not in a position to assess (mother) as a carer..."
                                               **************************
 Where is the Independent Report ?




 




                                   













 
















                                                   

Monday, 22 January 2018

Complaint Against Gwynedd Council - Three Become One.

It is now 12 weeks since Cyngor Gwynedd council received the 'Independent Report' into our Stage 2 complaint first raised in May, 2017, as advised by the Ombudsman for Wales.

The council continue to ignore our requests for a copy of the Report and refuse to say whether our 6 points of complaint have been upheld by the Investigator.

The previous posts have given details of two points - of six - of our complaint and may go someway to explain Gwynedd's Children and Family Support Department's seeming reluctance to share the report with ourselves.

Due to the limitations I have in publicising this case and the way the Independent Investigator has written the complaint it is easier to discuss the next three points as one.

All three points of complaint reference the input of Senior Social Worker, Delyth Davies, who was assigned to carry out a Core Assessment of Needs on a diagnosed Autistic child with PDA and other complex issues.
 
The complaint contends that the Core assessment does not reflect the needs of the child and totally ignores the fact the child has needs relating to independence, socialisation and self-care skills, the child also has S.E.N. It states that all the child's needs are met by parents and education, but with no regard for the future and what the needs and possible limitations may be as the child enters adulthood.

I have been involved in Assessments in the past - assessing the elderly for dementia and related care needs - and in my professional opinion the assessment undertaken by Delyth Davies was 'inadequate' to say the least.

Delyth Davies was questioned by the parents why the assessment considered the child to have no 'disability', she acted surprised and stated that it was a mistake. When asked if she would then put right her 'mistake', she said she could not answer at that time, due to having to speak with her managers first. Those managers are Sharron Carter Williams and Melvin Panther.

Delyth Davies had asked for additional information to be sent electronically to her as she stated she could only add information and amend things on the computer and she couldn't just 'dip in and out of it'.

My wife duly scanned and sent copies to Delyth Davies electronically for this purpose, as she was asked. No changes were made.

Information provided by parents and a Tutor were 'filed' instead of being included in the Core Assessment as promised, nor was a change made to the Core Assessment to state that the child was considered disabled.

The complaint also asks Delyth Davies, for an explanation of why she thought it appropriate to send an email regarding our complaint to someone not being part of or involved, in any way, with the complaint.

I have sighted the email and I read it as being written for one reason only - to maliciously cause trouble for my wife. Hopefully, the social worker's explanation when finally released will assure me this is not the case.










Friday, 19 January 2018

Censoring Of Personal Information By Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

It is the end of another week and Gwynedd Council continue to remain silent in regards to the Independent Investigator's Report into our Stage 2 complaint raised in May, last year, on the advice of the Ombudsman for Wales and so I am placing the second point of our complaint on to the blog.

It involves censoring of personal information obtained under a SAR (subject access request) and a Data breach. 

Data & Information:  The complainants have been provided with an email by Gwynedd County Council which had been partially censored. They believe that there was no legitimate reason to censor the information as there were no third party information within the email, and they believe that the censored narrative was an attempt to prevent them from reading disparaging comments about them by Mel Panther to a professional in the education department.

The complainants were also given emails which contained information shared between professionals relating to other children, which was their personal information and a clear breach of data protection and confidentiality.
                                              ***************************
The complaint says it all really and our desired outcome was -

The complainants seek an explanation for the censoring of their own information, and whether or not it is legal to do so. They seek an explanation from Melvin panther as to how he thought it in any way appropriate or professional to speak about them in such a derogatory manner to another professional working with the family.
In relation to the information containing other children’s details, they wish for this to be dealt with via the Council’s information/Data protection security policy & procedure.
                                                ****************************
There are at least four (4) emails that have been censored by a black marker pen.

All of the censored emails were sent by Melvin Panther, a senior manager in Gwynedd Children and Family Support department.

Now I am not suggesting that Mr Panther censored his own emails, which we were the subject of, because everyone who works in the Care sector has to sign the Data Protection Act and it will have been made very clear to them at the time that altering records or other peoples information, in any way, is a criminal offence.

But someone did indeed censor our personal information, we believe, in attempt to cover up the disparaging remarks made by Melvin Panther. So who ?
I have sighted the response by the Education department to Mr Panther and I read it as a polite slap down so my thanks to that Education officer.

Melvin Panther is a Manager of the social worker, Jamie Haydon, named in the point of complaint discussed in the previous post.

The Data breach involves sending us the name(s) of children receiving support from the council and also names the school the child attends.













Thursday, 18 January 2018

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Incompetent Or Malicious ?

So why is Gwynedd council delaying the release of the Independent Investigators Report into our Stage 2 complaint raised with the council as advised by the Ombudsman for Wales in May, 2017 ?

I understand that this will spoil the council's data figures and put an end to the boasting by the Head of the Children and Family Department regarding the lack of complaints being escalated to stage 2, but these are small matters when compared to helping a disabled child obtain the help that is due him.
Aren't they ?

I am also aware that using the web to publicise our story may have entrenched some within the council and social services to deny the child his rights and us the Independent Report.

But it was the council themselves who first took to the web to whitewash and diss our attempts at obtaining services for the child and this blog was started to tell the very different reality of our situation, as the report gave a very one sided view of things.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that  Gwynedd Council's Complaints Department and Procedure is not fit for purpose and that when or if we are finally allowed the 'Independent Report' will it be so censored or sanitised that it bears no resemblance to the original ?

Fearing this, I feel it would be useful to have some record of the complaint available on the web and so I am going to go through each point of our complaint - and our desired outcomes - here. There will obviously be redactions to protect not only the identity of the child but, also, those employees of the council who have acted professionally.
                                                    *****************************
One point of our complaint was -
 (Child) was on a Child in Need Plan, and as a result of Jamie Hayden (social worker) not attending the CIN Plan Review Meeting on 25th May 2016, no review was carried out. Complainants wish to know what has happened to (Child's) Child in Need Plan since the last CIN Meeting held in February 2016, and how are social services evidencing that (Child's) needs are being met? (Parents) have never received any correspondence or information informing them that the Child in Need Plan had ended or why.


Our desired outcome to this point of complaint was -

The complainants seek a full and comprehensive explanation from Gwynedd County Council as to why (Child's) Child in Need Plan was not properly reviewed, updated, and minuted, as Gwynedd Social Services department policy and procedure clearly stated..
                                                       ***************************** 
Oh dear - now this could be sticky for the council as all Children cases need careful review and updating and accurate records and minutes kept  - not just those on a CIN plan.

Gwynedd's Social Service's past mistakes and failings in this child's case are clearly documented in an Independent Investigators Report from 2010. Nothing appears to have changed.

Yet Gwynedd Council  literature, policies etc on complaints handling and outcomes assure the public that lessons are learnt and changes made.

Or are they..?
Answers on a postcard postage stamp, please.

More -  https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/

Wednesday, 17 January 2018

So We Emailed Cyngor #Gwynedd Council's Corporate Management Officers....

With Gwynedd council customer care (!) still refusing to respond to our questions regarding the Stage 2 complaint first raised with them on May 25th, last year, we emailed the Corporate Management Team, yesterday, with our concerns - Chief Executive, Dilwyn Williams, Corporate Directors, Iwan T Jones and Morwena Edwards.

FAO Gwynedd Council Corporate Management Team

As you will be aware we have a current Stage 2 complaint ongoing with Gwynedd Council Children and Families Department, first raised on the 25th of May 2017.

The Independent Investigator presented her completed report to the Council at the end of October.

We were then informed that the Council were seeking clarity from the Investigator and questioning the report.

The Council have been in possession of the completed Independent Investigators report for 11 weeks now.

The whole Stage 2 process is as you know to be completed within 25 days, do you find this acceptable ?

We have found the Counci's handling of this complaint and us as complainants to be obstructive, unhelpful and the Council to be utterly lacking in transparency and it is also obvious that Customer Care do not act independently of the Department as they should, which, we contend, leads to complainants being treated unfairly.

We have asked for information regarding the outcome of the Independent Investigation and also the Council's Complaints procedure.

No answers were given, or information provided.

We asked who within the Council we could contact to discuss our issues, we received no answer to this and worse were wrongly advised by Customer Care that we were free to discuss our complaint with the Ombudsman at any time.

We did indeed contact the Ombudsman to discuss the issues surrounding our complaint and were told -

"In relation to your dissatisfaction with the Council’s handling of your Stage 2 investigation, as I explained in my previous email, this matter does not fall within the scope of my investigation and therefore I am unable to consider it....
...If you wish for this matter to be considered by the Ombudsman, you would need to submit a complaint, by completing the online form on our website.  I am unable to speculate whether submitting a complaint to this office would affect the Council’s current Stage 2 investigation"

In light of the ongoing situation and the bad advice from Customer Care, perhaps you would be so kind as to furnish us with the information we require -

1. Were the six points of complaint upheld by the Independent Investigator or not ?

2. What were the questions presented, by the department, to the Independent Investigator regarding the report submitted to the Council in October ?

3. Who is the Adjudicating Officer in this matter?

4. On what date can we expect the Council to provide us with the report ?

5.Please provide us with a link to Gwynedd Council's Policy and Welsh Government guidelines that supports the Council in withholding the outcome of the Independent Investigator's Report and the Report itself.

6. Please advise us of our rights as complainants in relation to our being supplied with the above information, without delay.

7. We ask that if we were to raise a formal complaint into how the Council and the Customer Care department have been dealing with our formal complaint would this, in any way, interfere with or cause any further delay to our formal complaint first raised with the Council on the 25th May, 2017 ?

We also ask that you view the emails between ourselves and Customer Care, as that will give you further insight into our very pertinent concerns.
                                           ******************************************

Today, we received an email from a Senior Executive Officer on behalf of Morwena Edwards.
It was brief - 3 sentences - thanking me for our email and included the line -

"I can assure you that Gwynedd Council takes all complaints seriously and I will endeavour to respond to the specific questions detailed in your email within 5 working days."

Well.. we are not assured - who would be after being treated so badly for so long ? - and so emailed back with the question we have been asking ever since the Independent report was received by The Council in October, last year.

"Have our 6 points of complaint been upheld by the Independent Investigator ?"

The email was swiftly answered by the council -

"Whilst I understand your frustrations, without having had the opportunity to look into the matter, I am unable today, to answer your question. I will respond to you within 5 working days."

More delay in a process that has taken nearly 8 months now.

Something is so badly wrong within Gwynedd Council.

More -  https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/













Friday, 12 January 2018

Cyngor Gwynedd Council Stage 2 Complaint 2018.


Following on from the post, last year, in which the customer care (!) team at Cyngor Gwynedd council advised contacting the Ombudsman for Wales to discuss our concerns regarding our stage 2 complaint, we did indeed contact the Ombudsman.

Their initial response appeared to imply that we could raise a formal complaint into our formal complaint and so, seeking more clarity we sent the email below -

"We were somewhat confused by your response. We have no in depth knowledge of the statutory policy and procedure in such matters and have sought advice from the Council as to our and the Council's rights during the process. So far without success....

We do know however that the handling of our complaint and us as complainants by the Senior Management Team and Customer Care is just plain wrong.

Your office has repeatedly stated that the Ombudsman is independent of both complainants and public bodies and from your own email the other day - 'He is not an advocate for either party and his function is to investigate complaints put to him, reaching a view on the evidence presented, in an impartial manner'.

May we remind you that the Ombudsman has made decisions on our case purely on 'new information' - not evidence based - provided to them by the council in the past without allowing us sight of said information or allowing us to comment and rebuff such 'information'.

We also remind you that the Ombudsman's office has given us assurances in the past which have transpired to be false and we have challenged the Ombudsman's past decisions in this case as inadequate and nonsensical.

Indeed we feel that had the Ombudsman's original decision been adhered to, that the Council were to undertake the Original Stage 2 complaint, then some of the current situation may well have been avoided.

We contend that the Ombudsman's methods do not allow for fairness and transparency when only one side is allowed free and unfettered access to his office and can present information that the complainant is told nothing about and so cannot counter argue. How on earth is this fair or acting in 'an impartial manner' ?

This whole process of dealing with the Ombudsman and the Council is exhausting and is causing considerable upset and anguish. We are reasonably intelligent and due to the life we lead have learnt to be mentally resilient,yet we are suffering - we know that so many others in similar situations give up in despair, worse is the fact that both the Ombudsman and the Council appear to have forgotten completely the needs of the child in all this...."

...We are at present pondering on whether to make another complaint with the Ombudsman or put in a formal complaint with the Council in regard to their handling of our current Stage 2 complaint. But our experiences tells us that this whole process is flawed to the extent of not being fit for purpose.

Please inform us whether submitting another Stage 2 to the Council, or raising a complaint with the Ombudsman's office will in any way further delay or interfere with our current Stage 2 complaint."
                                             ***********************
They replied -

"...If you wish for this matter to be considered by the Ombudsman, you would need to submit a complaint, by completing the online form on our website.  I am unable to speculate whether submitting a complaint to this office would affect the Council’s current Stage 2 investigation. The decision whether or not to approach the Ombudsman at this stage is yours and I am unable to advise you in that regard.  However, please be aware that we normally expect you to exhaust the Council’s complaints procedure before approaching us."

Now the Ombudsman's use of the word 'speculate' caused my spider senses to tingle.

So we contacted the Gwynedd customer care (!) and asked the question -

"... if we were to raise a formal complaint into how the council and the customer care department have been dealing with our formal complaint would this, in any way, interfere with or cause any further delay to our formal complaint first raised with you on the 25th May, 2017 ?"

Such a convoluted and insane question to ask a county council, but eh.

The council has fallen silent.

More -  https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/

Tuesday, 19 December 2017

#Gwynedd Council - Independent Investigation - Stage 2 Complaint.


It is the week before Christmas and Cyngor Gwynedd customer care(!) send me an email in connection with the Independent report which they have had in their possession for over 7 weeks now.

They tell me the report has - finally - been sent back to the Investigator for questions to be asked and seeking the clarity they said was to be sought weeks ago -

"....I will arrange a meeting the first week in January for the Senior Managers to discuss the report.  
This is the situation as it currently stands, if something does change I will let you know."

We have repeatedly asked for a copy of the report, who the adjudicating officer is in this matter and whether or not the Independent Investigator has upheld our 6 points of complaint.

The council have refused to answer us and when asked who we may contact in order to discuss our concerns in the interest of fairness and transparency, we received the following -

"If you wish to discuss your concerns regarding the Stage 2 investigation, you are welcome to contact the Ombudsman at any point."

 We obviously wanted to discuss our concerns with council officers actually dealing with our complaint and not the Ombudsman - that may come later.

But as the council are aware it was the Ombudsman who first 'suggested' to me to raise the complaint way back in May.

The Ombudsman wrote -

" I have also informed the Council of your intention to submit a complaint and that I expect it to provide you with a full response to your concerns."
 
That was 7 MONTHS ago....

More -  https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/

#Google


































Wednesday, 15 November 2017

Gwynedd Council - Clarity Or Cover Up ?

So what has become of the complaint against Cyngor Gwynedd Council Children and Family  Department first raised on the 25th May ?

The report by an Independent Investigator was completed and handed to Gwynedd council on the 30th October.

Gwynedd council are refusing to say if our complaint was successful and are also refusing us sight of the completed report.

Gwynedd council have also informed me there will be a further delay while they attempt to sanitise revise redact clarify some aspects of the 'independent' report before we are allowed a copy.

If our complaint had failed the council would have informed us of this by now so I can only assume that the complaint was upheld - for the time being at least !

More - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/






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Monday, 18 September 2017

Shout Out In #Gwynedd


The stage 2 complaint first raised against Cyngor Gwynedd Council, in May, is nearly complete and to be published by October, 2017.

The Ombudsman for Wales has also started their separate investigation into Gwynedd Children and Family Support (!) team for issues arising from 2010.

I have encountered some truly unprofessional and appalling behaviour - from support services through social worker(s) to managers and even a head of department not to mention the misnamed customer care team.

And I wonder...this must have happened to other people in Gwynedd ?

For the next period of time many eyes will be on the Gwynedd Social Services Children and Family Support (!) department but the remit for scrutiny is only for this families case.

So I ask if you feel that you have been let down by Gwynedd council social services in the past, come forward and tell your story now.

To those good service workers in the department and elsewhere in the council - who know of poor management, unprofessional behaviour , bullying, bad practice etc - now is the time to speak out and help change Gwynedd's failing council.


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Thursday, 31 August 2017

Do Gwynedd Council Play The Blame Game Too ?

I include this article on the blog to highlight the problems SEND parents face in other areas of England and Wales.
It mirrors some of the problems I have experienced with my dealings with Cyngor Gwynedd Council and the Children and Family Support (?) department.


Recently on SNJ's Facebook page, someone accused us of being too hard on local authorities who were 'trying their best'. Actually, I know first hand that many, many people working in LAs really are working diligently and with very large caseloads. I would encourage parents who have had a good experience to tell us about it, so we can herald good practice.

However - there's always a however, unfortunately - too often parents are still being told the wrong information or LAs are not playing by the rules (i.e, the law). Too many in SEND and in social care departments are still behaving as if the Children and Families Act was just a bad dream, best ignored. This is very perplexing to me as the law is clear to read and to follow, so what's happening to make compliance a bonus rather than the minimum expected?

Recently, I heard about something happening to a number of families regarding attempts to get social care help, that needs to be highlighted. Hopefully those who ARE doing good work in LAs can make sure it doesn't happen in their departments.

Nathan Davies of solicitors HCB, has written to explain what, in his experience, has been happening.


Threatened with care proceedings after asking for support...

It is common, in my experience, for parents of children with autism to feel that concerns expressed to local authority professionals are often discarded, or that there is a distinct lack of understanding of the condition itself. This leads to disputes and disagreements between the parties. These issues tend to arise once parents have realised that they cannot continue without extra support or an alternative placement be sourced for their son or daughter. The request being made is often the trigger point for intervention in some form by the authority; usually via its social services department.
The prevalence of social services intervention has steadily risen in recent times. In practice, the possibility of it being initiated by the authority remains on the increase, despite this being a highly controversial, and often inappropriate, tactic.

Your word against theirs

The problem parents in this position face is that it is often their word against that of school staff or local authority professionals and  that is never a good starting position. The root issue however, is the aforementioned lack of understanding of the condition itself.  Those on the high-functioning end of spectrum often present very differently across a variety of settings. The fact that a child presents as very shy and reserved in school and then explodes into one exhibiting challenging behaviour at home, is very hard for some professionals to fathom and can lead to them questioning parenting ability.
Parents struggling to cope and requiring additional support in the family home, are often deterred by the threat of intense scrutiny and criticism by social services. The possibility of raising child protection issues or launching even care proceedings (in extreme cases) are tools local authorities are increasingly using, especially during these times of austerity and public sector cuts. But cuts can in no way be an excuse for such unnecessarily heavy-handed approaches being employed.



Nathan Davies
Nathan Davies

Professional guidelines

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) has guidelines relating to standards of conduct, performance and ethics each registrant must uphold (this includes social workers). One of the pillars of practice is for the professional to ‘work within the limits of their knowledge and skills’. Given this, it is fundamental to ensure that each professional is appropriately trained and/or knowledgeable to a reasonable degree in autism to discharge their duties to the child and family appropriately.
If this is not done, one cannot expect a proper assessment of their social care needs to be undertaken; thereby polluting the entire process. Without such understanding of the condition, the HCPC guidelines specify that the matter should be referred to another practitioner if what the chid needs would be beyond the scope of their practice but this is rarely, if ever, done. It cannot be emphasised enough how important this is, especially when it is a requirement for each HCPC registrant to ‘promote and protect the interests of service users and carers’.
Below are some anonymised case examples which show how these strategies are being used by local authorities throughout the UK:

Case Study 1:

This concerned parents in England of a child with high-functioning ASD. Given her high-achievements at school, the child had attended mainstream school well into her teenage life (without an EHCP). Even when concerns were raised over challenging behaviour in the home as a result of her inability to cope at school, these were immediately treated as the parents over-exaggerating the child’s difficulties, even after they had secured a diagnosis for her from a multi-disciplinary team in the private sector.
The local authority, when requested to assess her additional learning needs, took action; they proceeded with social services intervention, a flawed and malicious assessment and subsequently placed the child on the Child Protection Register.  After seeking legal advice, the family challenged the authority, ultimately leading to a retraction. The child has now been issued with an EHCP with the SEN Tribunal agreeing that a specialist ASD placement be named.

Case Study 2:

This related to a family in South Wales, who again experienced great difficulties with their local authority.  The child had a diagnosis of Pathological Demand Avoidance but the parents had been unsuccessful in securing a specialist placement for their son via the Tribunal process, with the assistance of an advocate.
Given the extreme levels of aggressive behaviour in the home environment (and his inability access a school at all), it was imperative for the authority to accommodate the child, pursuant to section 20 of the Children Act 1989. The authority did so, but thereafter sought to target the family with a variety of unfounded allegations, unlawful s.47 investigations and blame for the child’s behaviour was attributed to perceived ‘bad parenting’, a manifestly unreasonable position to hold.
These issues were appropriately resolved in the parents' favour, who were issued with a comprehensive and unreserved apology from the director of social services. The child now attends a suitable local provision and is thriving.

We need to be aware...

Unfortunately, scenarios such as the above are becoming more common and intimidation of parents who are simply trying to get help for their child is often difficult for many to comprehend. Parents being penalised or vilified for seeking support for their disabled child is not right in any society, yet it appears that in 21st century Britain this is perfectly acceptable in some LAs. Awareness of this issue being made known to the public can only help parents in similar situations.

Nathan Davies, Education Law Solicitor

 https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/social-care-tactics-send-problem-parents/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork