Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Scrutiny Fit For Purpose...?

Cyngor Gwynedd council held their Governance and Audit Committee on the 14 December 2023.These committee meetings are not webcast so not available to the public nor Councillors to view on the website.

Gwynedd's Digital Strategy Review was discussed. Geraint Owen, the senior officer with responsibility for the strategy bemoaned the fact that the timing for the review was tight and that the council did not at the time of the audit have a plan whilst acknowledging the previous Digital Strategy had come to an end in 2018...

The corporate director rejected Audit Wales's observation on the Council’s decision to not consult with the pubic to develop a Digital Strategy – he noted that there had been a consultation period on the Council Plan and that establishing a Strategy was part of that Plan. He also highlighted his opinion that the report created a misunderstanding of the developments in the field and that they need to avoid this in the future.

Wales Audit responded to the director by asserting that the consultation did not have sufficent focus on the digital field and reiterated the fact that Gwynedd council produced no evidence of reporting on progress or value for money and that the new strategy should adopt these monitoring elements.

Geraint Owen wished it noted that he did not agree with Wales Audit and on the point of ensuring value for money - it was recognised that the Strategy had not been refreshed since 2018, so in that respect it was difficult to understand how it would have been possible to monitor the achievement of a document that did not exist.

Dewi Morgan, the Head of Finance, attempted to support the director by adding - that a further discussion was needed on the definition of 'value for money', that is, discuss how value for money and productivity can be measured within the Local Authority.

Regardless of the protestations of the Executive officer, the Digital Strategy Review is scathing -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/s39725/Appendix%201%20Digital%20strategy%20review.%20Gwynedd.pdf

A call for the Committee to support permanent revenue bids for realising the Digital Strategy was voted down.
Senior officers informed the meeting that the audit of the council's final accounts was not yet completed. The Chair expressed her disappointment...

The full minutes of the December meeting can be found in the agenda pack for the Governance and Audit Committee held on the 18th January, 2024 and can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g4962/Public%20reports%20pack%2018th-Jan-2024%2010.00%20Governance%20and%20Audit%20Committee.pdf?T=10

At the January 18th meeting, Gwynedd council's accounts were finally released alongside warnings that the financial situation is dire. Members of the Committee pointed out the disconnect between the public reports of the senior officers and the reality of the situation facing the council which was shared to members behind closed doors by the CEO, Dafydd Gibbard.

The accounts show the usuable reserves are just over £133.5 million pounds down from the previous years £142.5 million.

Councillor Ioan Thomas, Cabinet Member for Finance presented the Savings Review report, the Revenue Budget and the end of November 2023 Capital Programme review which calls for an increase in borrowing and an increase in the use of grants and contributions to balance the departments overspends.

The review of Gwynedd council's scrutiny arrangements authored by Ian Jones, Head of Democracy Services and Vera Jones, Democracy and Language Services Manager was also presented. Tensions between members became high for this discussion with some Councillors complaining that scrutiny does not work. Mention was made that there can not be real democracy without proper scrutiny and that the Plaid Cymru group were in effect shutting down democracy.

Councillor Edgar Wyn Owen tried to rubbish the claims until it was pointed out that he himself was elected unopposed in his constituency of Waunfawr. In all 28 councillors were elected without a vote being cast - 19 of them Plaid Cymru members.

The Governance and Audit Committee is an important meeting and should be webcast by the council or at the very least the recorded Zoom meeting should be made available on Gwynedd's website for Councillors and the public to view...

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Monitoring Officer 'Advice' Overturned.

 Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Special Meeting of its Standards Committee on Wednesday, 10th January, 2024.  

The agenda pack can be found here - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=157&MId=5122

It involved two Councillors, Gwynfor Owen and Dawn Jones asking for special dispensation to be allowed to join the Task and Finish group that is to be set up to look into Gwynedd's Autism Plan. 

The two Councillors have worked with and have experience of those with autism and other Councillors supported their inclusion to the group. But the monitoring officer, Iwan G D Evans, 'advised' them that there was a prejudicial interest to their inclusion.

Task and Finish panels have no vote, nor do they allocate any funding so why the monitoring officer initially advised against the councillors makes no sense...

The committee granted both Councillors dispensation to join the task and finish group.

This special meeting will have incurred costs to the council and Councillor Owen had to give his evidence whilst on holiday in Spain. 

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

 

 

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Falsus In Uno, Falsus In Omnibus

Cyngor Gwynedd council have now appointed Huw Dylan Owen as Director of Social Services. The former Director had no experience of social service matters so someone with the correct background for the position hopefully meant that the past maladministration and failings within the services would not be repeated...

Bearing in mind, that Gwynedd council have admitted that the culture within the council needs to change, it is disappointing that the present director appears to be behaving in the same manner as his predecessor. In his annual report, presented to the council earlier this year, he states - .
...no young person from Gwynedd has been remanded since 2020.

This is not true and while the council may argue this was correct at the time of writing - it was most certainly not at the time of publication. Mr Owen's generic report also states -
Another example is that we refused to welcome Youth Justice inspectors as they were unable to guarantee bilingual inspectors, and they agreed to delay their inspection until this was possible.

How long ago was the last inspection?
It is unacceptable that the youth justice inspectors are not bilingual, but this does mean that the service avoids inspection by an outside agency and should be of concern to all...

Moving on, Mr Owen mentions feedback and recommendations from government regulators, perhaps not realising Gwynedd council has a history of agreeing to recommendations and then ignoring them...

The director goes on -
Unfortunately, cases have arisen where things go wrong and where we have not provided a service of the expected high standard. There is a statutory complaints procedure in place to ensure that we receive feedback, and respond to any concerns so that we do not repeat mistakes. Reference has already been made to the main trends of the complaints for this year, and an official summary will appear before the Care Scrutiny Committee in September 2023. We intend to place our complaints report and comments on the Council’s website in the future so that they are available to the public.

Gwynedd council's democratic services were recently asked for a copy of the report that the director informed at a previous meeting was available for members on request. It took a second email asking for an update to which an officer replied with -

The annual Social Services complaints handling reports have been presented to Cabinet and Scrutiny in the past but the reports for 2022/23 are yet to be scheduled to be presented to a committee meeting.

This word salad from the democracy service ignores the fact that the statutory documents have not been presented for proper scrutiny for nearly five years and confirms yet another statement from the director's report that is incorrect.

The children and adults complaints handling reports are important documents. Alongside the Director's Annual report they are the first documents to be read by government agencies as a snapshot of how the departments are performing. They may also be read by investigators when more serious concerns are raised.

A reminder that these reports have been called out for their disingenuity and data manipulation since 2016 and no complaints handling report has been presented to the care scrutiny committee since 2019...

For what its worth, the report from the director can be found here -
https://www.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/en/Council/Documents---Council/Performance-and-spending/Adroddiad-y-Cyfarwyddwr-Gwasanaethau-Cymdeithasol-22-23-SAES-2.pdf

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council... 

 

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Education Performance Fact Check...

Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Cabinet meeting on the 10th October, 2023. Once again, there are problems wth the translated feed and only the Welsh version is working -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/814616

One item of note was the Performance Report of the Cabinet Member for Education, presented by Beca Brown. It begins -
The purpose of this report is to update you on what has been achieved in the field for which I, as Cabinet Member for Education, have responsibility. This includes addressing the summer results, the Estyn inspection of the Authority's Education services, as well as outlining the latest with the pledges made in the Council Plan; the Department's day-to-day work; as well as the latest in terms of savings and cuts schemes.

Mention is made of the recent Estyn report and the member states -
The report is very positive and I am very proud of that, since it is testament to the hard work and contribution of everyone within the system.

The Estyn report raises concerns with pupils in need of social, emotional and behavioural support -
However, neither the status of, nor the steps for accessing the behaviour support hubs, are wholly clear. Senior leaders also do not have a strategic overview of the outcomes or nature and quality of this provision.
https://www.estyn.gov.wales/system/files?file=2023-09/Inspection%20report%20Cyngor%20Gwynedd%202023_0.pdf

The high number of absences and exclusions from school are concerning.
How many of these pupils have additional learning needs?
The reality is that even after specialist intervention some schools in Gwynedd do not implement the support recommended...

Then there is the sudden resignation of the Head of Education. The former Head was ultimately responsible for special needs provision - who has that responsibility now?

Estyn also mentions safeguarding -
Safeguarding arrangements within the education service are generally sound. Officers understand their roles and responsibilities in this area and work effectively with children’s services officers.

The recent arrest of a high paygrade employee shows the absurdity of this statement.
Did this employee ever support Estyn in their inspections?

Concerns of sexual harassment, bullying and drug taking have been raised for some time.
What of the school governors? Also the children's services officers?
How have they dealt with these concerns?

For what it's worth, the cabinet member's report can be found in the agnda pack here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/g5055/Public%20reports%20pack%2010th-Oct-2023%2013.00%20The%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - 'Where Are Your Principles?'

Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Planning Committee meeting on the 2nd October, 2023.

It began with an announcement from the chair, Edgar Wyn Owen, that the monitoring officer, Iwan G D Evans, has resigned his position as solicitor for the planning committee. Miriam Evans is now responsible  for any legal matters arising...

Councillors voted to approve one application contrary to the recommendation of the officers.
The application by a former councillor was allowed. His son who sits on the committee had to leave the meeting during discussion and was not allowed to vote.

"Where are your principles", asked councillor Elwyn Edwards.
The chair quickly moved the meeting on...

The webcast can be found here - press english for the translated video -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/812297

The committee has a history of voting contrary to its own planning policies...

Nine days later on the 11th October, Andrew Forgrave, wrote in the Daily Post -
Cyngor Gwynedd Council was adjudged to have 'behaved unreasonably' over the issue
The decision, by Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW), overturned previous rulings made Cyngor Gwynedd Council’s planning committee which went against officers’ recommendations. Welsh Government inspector Janine Townsley considered the local authority to have “behaved unreasonably”.
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/century-old-footpath-row-ends-27881162?int_source=nba

Perhaps the Cabinet Member could give an explanation?
With a breakdown of the costs incurred by the appeal...
How many more appeals against planning decisions are there?

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...