An extraordinary meeting of cyngor Gwynedd's full council was held on the 5th February, 2026.
Gwynedd councillors were shut down even before the meeting began when the monitoring officer, Iwan Evans, messaged them to 'advise' what could and could not be asked.
Was Evans protecting the legal officer who advised senior officers in 2019? From the Jan Pickles review -
LA1 Head C&FS requested a meeting on a ‘Mater Diogelu Brys- Cyfrinachol’ (Urgent Safeguarding matter - Confidential) via email to LA1 C&FS Senior Manager LADO.
On
15 April 2019 a meeting of four senior LA1 officers from LA1 Ed, LA1
C&FS and LA1 Legal departments was held to consider the information
reported by Core SMT 1 to LA1 Head of Education 1.
Any complaint against the monitoring officer is to be dealt with by Dafydd Gibbard.
This was not a meeting that the chair of the council, Ioan Thomas, would have enjoyed. Some of his decision making was poor and even a simple question such as who appointed Neil Foden as superhead to run Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle as well as Ysgol Friars was not answered...
It is understood that the appointment of a headmaster is the decision of the school's governors - https://www.ysgoldyffrynnantlle.cymru/en/governors/whos-who
The webcast of the meeting can be found here - https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/1063308 As is often the case, the translated feed is not yet working...
Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...
Stephen Wood, manager of the Gwynedd and Ynys Mon Youth Justice Service presented his report to the care scrutiny committee on the 29th, January, 2026.
The webcast of the meeting can be found here - https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/1060285
There appears to be a change of culture within the service that coincides with a big drop in the numbers of young people being criminalised through the courts.
Wood informed that the short, sharp shock tactics do not work. On youth offender's... Asked what the big problems were, he stated, violence and adults taking drugs. He mentioned that middle class children also commit crime - but they don't get caught. Hotspots include Caernarfon, Bangor, Holyhead, Blaenau Ffestiniog and Llangefni. Cocaine was also raised as a problem locally.
It takes a village to raise a child... Over the years, local schools have closed and super schools built instead. Many village's then lost their local shop, their bakery closed and then the pub. Families moved and communities were lost.
Then the council shut the youth clubs and sacked the youth workers. Audit Wales warned against this but the messenger was derided by councillors at a full council meeting on the 3rd October, 2019.
Schools have failed the children, too. Pre-pandemic the policy was to include children - now figures show more children are excluded. Idle hands and all that...
Does the ''Keeping Families Together' strategy co-authored by the interim head of the children's department, Sharron Williams Carter, show a change of culture? One can hope...
Predetermined to fail..? The work of the 16+ team was discussed. This service has had its issues, too. From social workers poor note taking and a team leader that has been accused of faking assessments and setting up children and families to fail.
Estyn have just completed a joint inspection with a focus on safeguarding in Gwynedd Council - The purpose of this inspection was to
evaluate developments in Gwynedd Local Authority’s safeguarding
arrangements since September 2023. Joint inspection with a focus on safeguarding in Gwynedd Council by Estyn, His Majesty’s Inspectorate for Education, and Training in Wales, and Care Inspectorate Wales. Date of inspection: November 2025
The inspection team considered one key question:- How well are children protected from individuals who may pose a risk to them and when concerns are raised about those who care for them or work with them, either in a paid or voluntary role?
This question is not answered... Estyn and the CIW do mention this -
Did Estyn and Care Inspectorate Wales actually read this piece of work? https://www.effectivechildprotection.wales/en/ Was this presented to Estyn and CIW as new and innovative? The 'effective child protection' model was created by Dafydd Paul - many years ago. It does not answer the investigation teams key question nor deal with abuse by those in a position of trust...
Cyngor Gwynedd's care scrutiny committee meet on Thursday, 29th
January, 2026. The agenda pack for the meeting can be found here - https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=394&MId=5671
The meeting will discuss the 'Keeping Families Together Strategy' co-authored by Sharron Williams Carter, the interim head of children's SS and Gwenan Medi Hughes, Sue Layton and Caren Brown.
A report from the Youth Justice Service, authored by Stephen Wood, will be presented.
Eighteen
months ago, senior officers of the YJS were criticised by HM
Inspectorate of Probation. The link to their report shows 'Page not
found' but an archived version can be found here -
An excerpt from the HMIP report – Assessment work to identify and
analyse risks to the child’s safety and wellbeing was much weaker.
Practitioners, while generally accessing information well, did not use
the information from other agencies regularly. We identified failures to
appropriately consider or respond to exploitation concerns and suggest
this is an area that requires additional training, understanding and
focus by the service. Inspectors did not agree with almost half of the
risk classifications made by case managers.
In June, 2024,
the same time as the HMIP report, cyngor Gwynedd's cabinet met to
discuss the 'Performance Report for Children and Supporting Families'
presented by the former cabinet member for children, Elin Walker-Jones. Main discussion points were the Small Group Homes scheme and the Autism
Plan. The agenda pack can be found here - https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g5221/Public%20reports%20pack%2011th-Jun-2024%2013.00%20The%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10
Aled Gibbard answered questions of the cabinet members. Councillors asked what happens when these
children reach the age of 18. Gibbard replied that the council no longer
have a responsibilty for these children.
In his latest report ,16+ Team (Leaving Care), the interim head of SS now states - While the young person is under 18, they are treated as children in care. When they turn eighteen they become Care Leavers and are the responsibility of the local authority until they are 25 years old.
If true, this change of policy and alignment with lawis to be welcomedbut exactly what support will be given to care leavers?
In
recent meetings, the council has scrutinised safeguarding practices and
repeatedly emphasised the importance of listening to the child’s voice.
There have been assurances that this will be the number one priority
through not only the SS departments, but all council departments
Is it not of concern then that the 16+ service report states - 5. Consultation 5.1 We have not consulted with service users for the purposes of this report.
It is not just the' voice of the child' that is missing... But the child... They can not all be refugees and even if they were - where are they?
Gibbard also relies on the Population Needs Assessment. Some people remember the meeting of the care scrutiny committee on the 3rd February, 2022, which accepted the document. Gwynedd's contribution to the North Wales Population Needs Assessment was ...incomplete.
Dafydd Meurig presented the document and concerns
were raised that few people were responding with requests for
information – surveys etc and that not all data was positive to the services... The document along with the agenda pack for 2022 can be found here - https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/g4539/Public%20reports%20pack%2003rd-Feb-2022%2010.30%20Care%20Scrutiny%20Committee.pdf?T=10
If officers were not blaming residents they were blaming covid. The data is worthless but councillors thanked the officers for their honesty and voted to accept the document anyway. Of the councillors present -
Councillor Eryl Jones-Williams (Chair) Councillor Angela Russell (Vice-chair) Councillors: Menna Baines, Beca Brown, Anwen J. Davies, Alan Jones Evans, Richard Medwyn Hughes, Gareth Tudor Morris Jones, Linda Ann Jones, Olaf Cai Larsen, Linda Morgan, Beth Lawton and Dafydd Owen.
Only one voted against with another abstaining. The rest voted it through.
Dafydd Gibbard, CEO of cyngor Gwynedd has authored the council's 'Response Plan to the Our Bravery Brought Justice Report'. He writes - The Committee is asked to scrutinise the revamped Response Plan before it is submitted to Cabinet for formal adoption.
This January, his report has gone before the Care scrutiny committee, the Education/Economy scrutiny committee and the Governance and Audit committee. His report can be found here - https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g5668/Public%20reports%20pack%2013th-Jan-2026%2010.30%20Care%20Scrutiny%20Committee.pdf?T=10
The 'extended' Child Practice Review, by Jan Pickles, looked at events from 2017. From a BBC article dated April, 2025 – She looked at 2019 because, during Foden’s
trial, the council’s former head of education Garem Jackson said that
was when he made a senior safeguarding officer aware of concerns about
Foden’s “close relationship” with some teen girls. He said he was advised there was no need for a formal investigation as no official complaint had been made. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly2njvjwzko
So who advised Jackson? In this respect, Jan Pickles is vague... From page 13 of her review -
LA1 Head C&FS requested a meeting on a ‘Mater Diogelu Brys- Cyfrinachol’ (Urgent Safeguarding matter - Confidential) via email to LA1 C&FS Senior Manager LADO.
On 15 April 2019 a meeting of four senior LA1 officers from LA1 Ed, LA1 C&FS and LA1 Legal departments was held to consider the information reported by Core SMT 1 to LA1 Head of Education 1.
No formal minutes were made of this meeting however the Reviewers have seen transcripts of handwritten notes taken contemporaneously by two attendees. Core SMT 1 was not invited to the meeting to give further nformation. The meeting was deemed not to be a child protection meeting and was instead regarded as being for the consideration of a ‘professional issue’.
So a senior officer from the legal department was present... Was this the monitoring officer?
Did any senior officer apart from Jackson give evidence at Neil Foden's trial? Did the chair and vice chair of the school governors, both serving police officers, give evidence? If not - why not..?
The Woods report will give more detail of the safeguarding failures. After HR completes it's investigations will the report be published? There were calls from councillors for the report to be released, even as an exempted document, this was flatly refused by the monitoring officer. Gibbard informed that the HR investigations had already cost £30,000...
The Jan Pickles review can be found here - https://www.northwalessafeguardingboard.wales/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/30.10.25-FINAL-ENGLISH-CPR-REPORT-_.pdf
A reminder that the children abused by Foden were receiving 'care' from the council... Did Social workers of the 16+ team and the Youth Justice Service also fail the children? Both departments are to have their recent work scrutinised at a care scrutiny committee on the 29th, January.
In other news, Nia Jeffreys, the leader of the council, challenged the minutes of the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee. She explained that she was against excluding the public and press from a previous meeting and had asked that her vote against be recorded. The council leader's vote was not recorded...
Last September, a cyngor Gwynedd enforcement officer allowed a private landlord to personally undertake the task of installing an electrical consumer unit into his rented property.
The landlord is not a qualified electrician but the enforcement officer, Alwyn Trenholme, assured the tenant that the work would be checked and certified by a
registered electrician within a week...
More on this here - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/2025/09/unqualified-installation-of-consumer.html
On January 13th, four months later, a qualified electrician inspected the landlord's work. The property failed yet again...
The MCB and MCP were both faulty and needed replacing -
Also, the immersion heater for hot water was found not to be earthed...
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