Where Are The Children? - Cyngor Gwynedd Council...

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 The link to their report shows 'Page not found' but an archived version can be found here -
 
https://web.archive.org/web/20240312162338/https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/08/An-inspection-of-youth-justice-services-in-Gwynedd-Ynys-Mon.pdf

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 law is to be welcomed but 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. 

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council... 

HR Investigation Of Senior Officers Has Already Cost 30K - Cyngor Gwynedd.

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...

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council... 

Shocking - Cyngor Gwynedd Council And Private Landlords...

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...

Just Another Annus Horribilis - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

2025 was yet another Annus Horribilis for cyngor Gwynedd...

Jan Pickles had began her extended CPR whilst the children's SS was avoiding proper scrutiny of this complaint - 

  

Sshh...
Two complaints about the education department were also not properly scrutinised. The cabinet member did not offer an explanation to the complaint about the assessment and skipped the meeting where the lack of response to a safeguarding concern was presented. 

 

School absences remained high with 1 in 10 children often not in attendance. Many of these children will have ALN and should be receiving support from ADYaCh. There is little support from the organisation and few schools cope so the number of expulsions rose across the county.

Supporting adults - or not...
Cyngor Gwynedd closed the day care services in Y Ganolfan, in Blaenau Ffestiniog and Encil y Coed, in Cricieth. These closures come on top of the day centres that have already closed in Bala, Porthmadog and Caernarfon. 

Whilst some residents were already having to travel out of area for services that Aled Davies, the former head of adults could not guarantee in future, Dilwyn Morgan and members voted for the closures. Meanwhile -  

'I had no help after my husband got dementia'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgyz3ez7ddo

There is no support and not for a lack of funding but a lack of carers.
Unpaid carers are not supported by the council either...

No english, no poor, no dogs..?
This year, Gwynedd's planning committee should have received more attention than it has.
Social housing is not welcomed by many members and applications are being refused contrary to their own planning policies. Warnings that schools may close due to a lack of numbers have been ignored...

Whistleblowing...
Then there was Gwynedd's audit on whistleblowing, undertaken by Luned Fon Jones. It does not make for good reading with 81 staff (who responded) saying they would NOT blow the whistle on something that is –
‘unlawful, fraudulent or corrupt‘
nor the –
‘sexual, physical or emotional abuse of clients‘

 

It is obvious that these staff have little faith in the management within the council...

Aled Davies, head of the adults SS then left his post.
Mari Wynne Jones, is the new post holder...

Cyngor Gwynedd then sacked an officer who they had suspended on full pay for 9 years.
The officer then took his case to an Employment Tribunal - 



Before the case could be heard in court, the council re-employed the officer...

Canolfan Brynffynnon
Two other officers also suspended for 9 years received redundacy packages.
Was a gagging order imposed?

The Genevieve Woods report was completed...
This led to to Marian Parry Hughes, the head of children's SS and Assistant Head safeguarding and quality officer, Dafydd Paul, being 'absent from work' since last spring. 

Have then these two registered social workers broken the Code of professional practice for social care ? 
And if so, has the council themselves referred these two officers to Social Care Wales? 

Code of Practice for Social Care Employers 
Section 5
Promote the Code of Professional Practice for Social Care and co-operate with Social Care
Wales’ proceedings

5.5 Take account of the Code of Professional Practice for Social Care when making any decision that relates to a worker’s fitness to practise.

5.6 Follow guidance on how to make a referral to us about a worker whose fitness to practise may be
impaired and, if appropriate, tell the worker a referral has been made.
https://socialcare.wales/cms-assets/documents/Employers-code.pdf

Gwynedd's CEO, Dafydd Gibbard, has not yet published the Woods report and is in possession of other reports that may be critical of the same officers and their role in the farce of Canolfan Brynffynnon. 
What was the 'new information' that stopped the criminal trial in 2016?

A full and independent review of the children's SS department and how it has operated over the years is needed...

Geraint Owen, retired as corporate director - Catrin Thomas has replaced him.

Morfa Bychan...
Last year, the council opened a children's home in Morfa Bychan. The home has still not been registered and should be considered unlawful. One councillor recently asked why registration was taking so long? 
Menna Trenholme, the cabinet member for children, appeared to blame Care Inspectorate Wales.

The CIW may not be comfortable endorsing any 'responsible individual' from Gwynedd council and who could blame them?  

Cyngor Gwynedd are now buying homes for foster carers to live in.
One of the final acts of Iwan Huws, former councillor for Bethel and Y Felinheli, was to sign off on the purchase of a house in the local area. 

Smallholdings...
Cyngor Gwynedd have released £2.1 million to pay for improvements to their smallholdings.
This money has come from the council tax premium which was meant to help the housing crisis. 

Are schools safe...?
One recent meeting heard reports of local school in Tywyn having to lockdown because of a pupil with a knife. In a separate incident, a taxi driver, who worked on the school run has been arrested. 

The chair of the committee tried to shut down the councillor who raised these concerns...

The year ended with councillors calling for the the council to be put in special measures and calls for a public inquiry... 

One councillor has asked for an extraordinary meeting of the full council to be held in the new year.
The director of SS spoke in support of this action.
It is not clear if the council will grant the request...

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...

 

Nepotism, Cronyism And Bullying? - Cyngor Gwynedd Council...

Councillor Beca Brown presented a notice of motion re Neil Foden to a full council meeting of cyngor Gwynedd on the 4th December, 2025. The motion can be found in the agenda pack for the meeting - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//mgChooseDocPack.aspx?ID=5505

There were also 6 questions put to the council by elected members. 
One raised by Councillor John Pughe Roberts asked - 

 
The rest of the leader's response along with the other question and answers can be found here - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/b15108/ITEM%206%20-%20QUESTIONS%2004th-Dec-2025%2013.30%20The%20Council.pdf?T=9 

John Nicholson, an ex governor at Ysgol Friars between 2013 and 2017, reports that he tried to raise concerns about Neil Foden but was not supported by other members of the board -
“If the maladministration was blatantly evident to me after just a few months of becoming a school governor, it must have been overwhelmingly clear to those members of staff who comprised the senior management team.
https://www.northwaleschronicle.co.uk/news/25655748.bangor-former-school-governor-reacts-neil-foden-report/

In the same article, Jan Pickles, appears to reply to Nicholson directly - 
“I understand that Foden was a controlling bully to children, staff and governors, and I don’t doubt he behaved that way with staff within the council’s education department.
“However, we are the adults in this situation. If he’s behaving like that with you as a governor, how is behaving with children?  

School governors did fail...
The chair and vice chair during the time of Foden's offending were Essi Ahari and Keith Horton - both serving police officers with North Wales Police. 
Is Pickles saying that experienced, senior police officers were bullied?
Did the officers give evidence to Pickles?

Councillor Richard Medwyn Hughes was also a governor during this time.
Hughes resigned after Foden's arrest but cyngor Gwynedd reinstated him last year.
For why...?

There can be repercussions for those who do raise concerns...
An example from a BBC article dated 2020 -

Gwynedd head teacher Neil Foden 'victimised staff'
"I felt victimised by Neil Foden due to the way he operated. You were either in his gang or you were not," person D told the panel.
He claimed he was never interviewed by school governors and that Mr Foden's daughter had investigated the allegations against him.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51710557 
 
Neil Foden was an abusive bully and used the system to protect himself.
It is part of a culture that appears rife in Gwynedd that includes not just schools and the education department but many departments within the council.

Raising concerns in Gwynedd...
To raise a complaint about a senior officer in Gwynedd can be fraught with danger.
The culture means that complainants have on occasion been gaslit and smeared to others.
Foden used the 'vexatious complainants' approach to shut down complaints.
The children's SS use the term 'tiresome complainants'.

                                                                  ***********
Safeguarding children or safeguarding themselves? 
A reminder that the Pickles review was an 'extended' child practice review.
This means that some of the children were in the care of the local council or recently had been...

A whole team of social workers and their managers were meant to be protecting each child from predators such as Foden. 
All failed the children...
Were any of the kids in foster care?
Were Youth Justice involved?

The head of children's services is still 'absent from work' and Dafydd Paul, their senior safeguarding officer appears to have been replaced by Elliw Haf Hughes.

Leader of the council, Nia Jeffreys, could have explained what is happening within the department. 
She did not...nor did the cabinet member for children, or any of the senior officers present.

One Gwynedd councillor, Richard Glyn Roberts, saw through the mea culpa's -
Given the slowness in dealing with this issue and the lack of clinical focus on the procedural and organisational failures. one asks how we can have confidence in the leadership of the council.

Organisational failures of Gwynedd's senior officers will be detailed in the Woods report.
Councillors could ask Dafydd Gibbard to release this report which he has had in his possession since the Spring.

There was a question from Councillor Gruffydd Williams - 
Following the fact that article 4 has been quashed by Judge Justice Eyre and as a result of what he said, "that there has been significant misleading by the Officers of this Council", will the Council apologise to campaigners who have fought so hard to enforce article 4

Williams was answered by Craig ab Iago, cabinet member for the Enviroment.
The reference to officers misleading councillors was not properly answered...

The webcast of the full council meeting can be found here -
The translated feed is not working...
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/1044728

In other news, the job of Gwynedd's workforce development manager under social care is being advertised. Those interested should contact the current workforce development manager, Gillian Paul.

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...