Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Cabinet meeting on the 17/12/24. The webcast can be found here - https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/941307
The council 'Staff Well-being Plan 2024 - 2028' was presented to the Plaid Cymru members. It reports staff absences cost the public purse £5.7 million -
14,404 (22.13%) work days were lost due to sickness absence related to stress, depression and mental health problems; 7,718 (11.86%) work days were lost due to sickness absence related to musculoskeletal problems; 'Other sickness' was recorded as the main reason for the sickness of 22.79%; Long-term absences contributed to 51% of the Council's sickness absence days; On average, every officer in the Council has lost 10.29 work days a year; 2.72% more sickness absence days were lost in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23.
The report also shows - 665 staff members were referred to the Occupational Health Service 194 Council staff members were referred to the Counselling Service (Medra) 129 Council staff members were referred to the Physiotherapy Service
Are there waiting lists for these services for council employees, like there are for the services available to the general public?
The COMPLAINTS AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT QUARTER 1-2 2024/25 was also presented. It included -
The complaint from a 'customer', raised earlier this year, concerning safeguarding issues within Education is not believed to have come before any scrutiny committee. So has anything been learnt from the Neil Foden case? Openness and transparency...?
One would expect that the cabinet member for Education, Dewi Jones, would have asked for an explanation at the meeting. Jones did not attend the meeting...
There appears to be an ongoing issue with assessments too. Not one cabinet member asked for an explanation of senior officers. Perhaps they were updated behind closed doors?
Oddly, a children's SS complaint was included in the report -
As the Investigating Officer considered how officers dealt with the complaint serious enough to notify the council's monitoring officer, it is concerning that this complaint was not included in the SS annual complaints that was presented for scrutiny in September...
Menna Trenholme, the cabinet member for children, did not question this item and so another complaint involving the children's SS department appears to have avoided any scrutiny.
Whilst the MO, Iwan Evans, has asked the SS department(s) to consider the PSOW's guidance on responding to complaints, it is concerning that that Ian Jones, the head of democratic services recently commented in relation to the Ombudsman investigations -
It should be noted that it is not the role of the Committee to consider whether individual complaints have been dealt with appropriately, but rather to assess the effectiveness of the complaints process. As a result, there is no reference in this report to any individual complaint or departmental performance within the Council.
Annual Complaints and Service Improvement Report 2023/24 - by Ian Jones. https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/s42709/ANNUAL%20COMPLAINTS%20AND%20SERVICE%20IMPROVEMENT%20REPORT%20202324.pdf
So who does consider whether individual complaints have been dealt with appropriately..?
Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...
All officers and councillors of cyngor Gwynedd council have a responsibility to safeguard children. So it is disappointing to discover that many councillors have not been attending the safeguarding workshops arranged by the council.
The person with ultimate responsibility for safeguarding is the Director of Social Services. In 2019, when the teacher from Ysgol Friars raised concerns with Garem Jackson, the former head of education, regarding Neil Foden, the director was then Morwena Edwards.
Edwards background was finance and her appointment was not universally supported. There was a belief that someone experienced in the social work field was needed to take charge of a service still recovering from the previous child abuse scandal.
The toxic culture under the former director, Lucille Hughes, did not disappear with her quitting the council. The social worker, Alison Taylor, who whistleblew on the abuse -
Speaking later she said that Gwynedd County Council would not admit to
having a problem. A wide-ranging report later described a “cult of
silence” that had covered up the scandal...
The final straw came when a young boy in her care died, after a colleague sent him to a B&B to fend for himself. Speaking
sometime later, she described a chaotically run service, adding what
she had seen and heard was only the tip of an iceberg. https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/gordon-anglesea-files-4-cult-12112990
In 2014, a new CEO was appointed. Dilwyn O Williams background was also finance and had worked for the council for many years even before the name change in 1996.
Also in 2014, arrests were made at Canolfan Brynffynnon after allegations of child cruelty. The case was dropped in 2016 after new evidence came to light and the CPS performed a deep dive of the evidence.
Despite claims of a malicious allegation, Gwynedd council remain silent on the affair and has even refused to answer a FOI request concerning the length of staff suspensions. An internal review was granted by the council's information office but the monitoring officer has failed (to date) to respond despite reminders from officers.
Then there were the multiple investigations by the Ombudsman for Wales finding against Gwynedd council and the SS departments in particular. One concluded that a care assessment for a child was predetermined to fail. A fake assessment undertaken simply to tick a box in an attempt to negate their duties. There are allegations that other 'assessments' undertaken by social workers were also predetermined to fail...
There was the case of the autistic adult stripped of support in a council care home. His treatment by the SS department was so bad it even made the Ombudsman's hall of shame casebook on human rights - https://www.ombudsman.wales/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/104483-Equality-and-Human-Rights-Casebook_Eng_v03.pdf
For the Ombudsman to be approached, all of these families must first endure the SS complaints procedures. A Stage 1 complaint will usually mean meeting customer care officers with perhaps a senior manager present at the council offices. Such meetings are usually formal and can be intimidating. The senior complaints officer for the childrens department recently reported that more people asked for their complaint to be raised to a Stage 2 straight away. Past complainants can understand why...
The senior complaints officer used a recent report - that he would have helped to create - to defend the complaints officers. In typical Ffordd Gwynedd fashion, others are blamed. He mentions threats of violence against staff which are to be condemned - if true...
But the Ombudsman for Wales investigations tell a different story. They show disabled children denied their rights under law and families simply trying their best for their kids. One investigation shows senior officers interfered in a Stage 2 investigation and bullied the investigator. Three to four pages were deleted before the director finally accepted her report.
A professor of Law at Leeds University wrote about the case - https://www.lukeclements.co.uk/omg-will-it-never-end-2/
A reminder that the former chief executive was made to personally apologise to one family after their treatment by the childrens department and its complaints team. Not forgetting the failure of senior officers to comply with recommendations agreed to during investigations. An opportunity to hold the council to account was lost when the PSOW failed to impose a Section 22 special report notice.
The PSOW had issued such a report to Wrexham council after their CEO failed to comply and renaged on an agreement made. The penalty for Wrexham was imposed after a council tax demand was sent to a resident in english only. The PSOW acted after errors in communication were repeated. https://www.ombudsman.wales/wrexham-county-borough-council-201708129/
Williams reported that the Ombudsman was outraged with Gwynedd council - (that would be the SS departments and their complaint officers in particular). Williams also claimed that all recommendations of the Ombudsman had been complied with 'bar a nuance'. This was not correct...
Even more evidence of misdirection by senior officers was revealed via an FOI request to the PSOW. All this resulted in the PSOW summoning Williams to Cardiff for a meeting that was described by the Ombudsman's office as 'not usual'.
A reminder that the PSOW changed its policies after its dealings with Gwynedd council and now require all councils to provide robust evidence of compliance with its recommendations.
All this at the same time the teacher from Ysgol Friars raised concerns about Neil Foden... Then the pandemic hit...
Still under William's leadership, Gwynedd council received £55 million from Welsh Government to distribute to businesses in the county under the Covid-19 fund.
Then there was the council's partygate affair where an entire department had to self isolate after a staff night out.
Followed by GwE and the inflated expenses scandal. As CEO, Williams should have called for an official investigation into the matter. He did not...
Willams then retired from the council in 2021 - https://www.northwaleschronicle.co.uk/news/19011692.gwynedd-council-chief-executive-announces-will-step-spring/
The Head of Finance also left the council.
A few months later, the council received a final report concerning Canolfan Brynffynnon.
Morwena Edwards, director of SS, then quit the council.
During this time, the person with a legal responsibility for social services complaint handling was the Monitoring Officer. Gwynedd council recently changed the Constitution and that legal responsibility now lies with Ian Jones, the head of democratic services...
It is believed Gwynedd council have now employed a barrister to look into events of 2019 when Garem Jackson was first contacted by the whistleblower regarding Neil Foden. The council has yet to release the name of the safeguarding officer whose advice Jackson acted upon...
Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...
