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/

#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/

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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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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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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

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 21^st 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

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Smoke and Mirrors.

I have just come across this report authored by Marian Parry Hughes and dated the 18th July, 2017.

It is the annual report on the handling of complaints by the Children and Family Support Department of Gwynedd Council for 2016/17.

https://democracy.cyngor.gwynedd.gov.uk/documents/s13016/Item%206%20-%20Appendix%203%20-%20Report%20on%20the%20Councils%20Complaints%20and%20Service.pdf

Unlike the report last year authored by Margaret Kenealy Jones, this report has not been used to revise history nor used as a vehicle to whitewash unprofessional behaviour and systemic failings within the children's department of Cyngor Gwynedd and this is to be welcomed.

Saying that the report does appear to have some glaring ommissions and anoma-lies -

"Over the years, the Customer Care Officer have successfully managed to establish close working links with the teams, managers and the legal section as a means of discussing and resolving issues. This is reflected in the low number of complaints reaching Stage 2 of the Complaints Procedure.

It is fair to say that there has been a clear trend over the past 3 years, that theChildren and Family Support Department have not had a complaint escalate toStage 2. This is down to the professionalism the Team Managers and SeniorManagers show when dealing with complainants; they understand theimportance of a local resolution and by discussing directly with the complainant they are able to address matters as soon as possible..."


Er...but Mrs Hughes there is a stage 2 complaint ongoing against Children and Family Support Department raised on the 25th May and due for completion any day now. Why has the complaint not been included in your report figures ?
I notice the Adult services acknowledge there is an ongoing stage 2 investigation and though not completed is included in their figures.

Marian Parry Hughes also crows that the department have had no complaint escalate to stage 2 over the past three years.

But that is down to one senior manager, Aled Gibbard, closing a complaint - without informing the complainant and your department refusing to escalate another complaint to the second stage, hence the intervention of the Ombudsman.

And knowing that to then go on and write -

"In comparison with other Local Authorities in North Wales, it is understood that Gwynedd have been successful in managing complaints at Stage 1 whereas other Local Authorities have a higher proportion of complaints progress to Stage 2".

and diss the conduct of other LA's in Wales is...distasteful to say the least.

From Bad To Worse - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

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I notice Cyngor Gwynedd appear not to have updated their website and still make no mention that one of the cases that they reference has been ongoing for years.

Earlier post here - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/gwynedd-council-services-scrutiny-needs.html

First contact with the Gwynedd Children and Supporting Families Team was in 2007/8 and was appalling.

The family had to endure missed appointments, staff that were untrained and abusive comments from those involved in the child's care.

MSBP and poor parenting were all thrown at the family.

One so called professional, Dawn Wimpory, failed to diagnose the child and so many years have been wasted because of it.

Perhaps you should have tried engaging him with music therapy, Dawn.

That would have taken longer than the 20 minute consultation you gave the child.

A comment from one of the service managers in a review meeting "If he was my child....." led to the manager going off sick when the Independent Investigators tried to interview him for an explanation.

An illness that lasted for months and so the report was published without him being interviewed.

The report does mention Llyr Ap Rhisiart's absence and the fact that when he does finally return from illness he would not be in the same job.

But the question remains, Mr Ap Rhisiart.

What would you have done with the child who has Autism, PDA and other complex issues if he was yours ?

Someone even suggested clearing the child's bedroom and locking them in.
The child was 7 years old.

The Investigators found 16 points of complaint and bad practise - including lost correspondence and files - all upheld.

That was in 2010 and nothing has changed. In fact, the situation is far worse.

So I say again to Cyngor Gwynedd raising a complaint does not make people unreasonable - it simply means that unprofessional standards and bad behaviour should always be challenged.