A Home Visit From The Ombudsman For Wales...

The aborted Stage 2 complaint emails between the 'independent investigator' and Cyngor Gwynedd's safeguarding and quality officer were passed to the Ombudsman for his information. They included input from the Monitoring Officer and also ahowed this 'investigator' sending correspondence to someone not involved in the complaints process...

Because of the unreasonable demands imposed by the council officer, the complaint did not proceed and was timed out by the council. After reading the emails, the Ombudsman returned with an offer of a complaint without enduring further officer bad behaviour. But trust in the Ombudsman was now on the wane.

Evidence of wrongdoing by senior officers - from an officer leaving the council during one investigation then rejoining once interviews were completed through behaviour by officers that many have thought abusive. There was the council's Information manager's data breach report - written in spite of the evidence, the creation of documents that should not exist and legal documents written not to inform but mislead. All not investigated...

Not forgetting, the Ombudsman was warned that the council's SS officers may treat the second assessment - and the family - with the same disingenuity as the first - and they did...

It was pointed out to the Ombudsman that Gwynedd council have not complied with other recommendations from past investigations and that if they had been called to account previously then further investigations would not have been needed. The Ombudsman did not respond to this point.

A FOI request was put in asking for the compliance correspondence between the Ombudsman and Gwynedd council regarding Case 201700388 and later in the family's own case. Whilst the Ombudsman's Information office released the correspondence for someone else's investigation showing the council admitting non compliance, the FOI for emails from the family's own case was refused. Even more evidence of non compliance...?

By now, the family's perception was that the Ombudsman appeared unwilling or unable to deal with the serious issues the evidence had revealed. Regardless, the offer of a third Ombudsman's investigation into the SS department's second assessment which should have already been investigated by the Ombudsman was accepted.

A home visit was arranged to discuss and take further evidence against Gwynedd council. Home visits from the Ombudsman are not usual...

Shortly after, the senior safeguarding officer used a Care Scrutiny Committee on the 14/11/19 to declare the Ombudsman had - 
"given them a further challenge, to make sure that someone goes to see the family, meet the family, ensure that they receive that assessment and that is something that we have now arranged with the adult services, to go into that situation on the Ombudsman's behalf, despite the fact that they have not expressed a wish to receive the service, our usual ethos involves intervention but only if the person invites us in and wishes for us to intervene in this way, the Ombudsman has judged this and wants us to go no matter what the wish of the individual may be, so that is now our response to that challenge provided by the Ombudsman."

The Ombudsman was contacted and denied the words of the officer...
But what of the language used to Councillors and the public - 'challenge' and 'intervention' and 'ethos' are such strong words to use when all that was required was a simple carer's assessment...

Gwynedd council had used the excuse that they did not understand the wording in one Ombudsman report. The recommendation that Executive officers and presumably the council's legal team had already agreed to but now clearly misunderstood was  -
“Provides Mr Y and his family with a comprehensive assessment of their needs and ensures that adequate measures are put in place to meet any identified needs."

Hardly a complex sentence. Bizarrely, the Ombudsman accepted this excuse and presumably another box was ticked instead of following policy and procedures which could have resulted in an Ombudsman's Special Report into continued non compliance.

The Ombudsman also introduced the word 'variance' into the dialogue and it appears that recommendations for improvement can be downgraded once an investigation has been completed in a deal done between the Ombudsman and the CEO behind closed doors - without the complainants knowledge...

All this while attempting to come to agreement with the 'remit' for the third investigation.

Having investigated several complaints into Gwynedd council during his incumbancy, the Ombudsman was well aware of the disingenuous nature of the senior officers and their treatment of the disabled. Gwynedd council even featured in the Ombudsman's hall of shame casebook which can be found here -
https://www.ombudsman.wales/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/104483-Equality-and-Human-Rights-Casebook_Eng_v03.pdf

The full Ombudsman's report for case 201700388 can be found here -
http://www.lukeclements.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Ombudsman-Gwynedd-Council-report-201700388.pdf 

Did Ombudsman For Wales Ignore Whistleblowing By An Independent Investigator?

Having survived Cyngor Gwynedd council's SS complaints process, you then have the option of approaching the Ombudsman for Wales. If the Ombudsman accepts your complaint, they will investigate the council for how it dealt with your complaint...

A 2019 Ombudsman for Wales report into Cyngor Gwynedd council's senior SS officers and the children's customer care/complaints team focussed on senior officer's interference with the Stage 2 complaints process and their treatment of an Independent Investigator...

The Stage 2 complaint - an investigation of an assessment undertaken by the children's department - was running alongside a previous Ombudsman's investigation of failings and non compliance with recommendations from a 2010 report. The Independent Investigator and the Ombudsman even had discussions to work out the remit and who would be focussing on what...

The council received the completed Stage 2 report in November, 2018. All points of complaint were upheld. The SS department refused to accept the report...

Emails show the investigator had contacted the Ombudsman with 'concerns' that the council were not following the process. A phone conversation took place where presumably the Investigator raised issues with officer's 'pushback' and refusal to accept the report. Whistleblowing?

The Ombudsman did not act nor advise the Investigator leaving her with little choice but to continue with the 'process' and 'work' with the senior officer's. If a report is not accepted by the council do the Investigator and Independent Person still get paid...?

(The Ombudsman has refused requests for the detail of this conversation to be released)

The Ombudsman commented in his report -

But 'hard evidence' was provided to the Ombudsman...!!!
Copies of the original report and the amended report and the 'final' report were sent to the Ombudsman for comparison. The senior officers had managed to downgrade the complaint against the social worker from 'upheld' to not requiring to be upheld and a recommendation removed. In all, four to five pages critical of the department are missing...

This was pointed out to the Ombudsman - the report was not changed...

The Ombudsman chose to single out the social worker for her disingenuity but bad behaviour by her line manager and other senior officer's involved were not properly addressed. Whilst the report was indeed 'damning' the Ombudsman had failed to address the main thrust of the complaint - that the second assessment was as fake and 'predetermined' as the first.

Concerns were raised with the Ombudsman that he had investigated the wrong complaint and a review of his investigation was asked for. The Ombudsman's office did indeed review the work of the Ombudsman and found no fault with the Ombudsman. The review was dismissed...

The Ombudsman for Wales also failed to investigate Gwynedd council for non compliance with recommendations from a previous investigation. A complaint to the Ombudsman was not acted upon and so the 'work' undertaken by Gwynedd council was ticked off as complete - when it was not...

The Ombudsman wrote personally to apologise for the failing of the officer and a policy of verifying evidence from Welsh councils before ticking the box has now been implemented. The Ombudsman felt unable to return to the council on this matter due to the box already ticked so non compliance and false assurances from the senior officers was not investigated...

 

 

Enduring Gwynedd Council's SS Complaint Procedures...

For the Ombudsman to consider a complaint against 'the council' - a member of the public must first endure a council's formal complaints procedure beginning with a Stage 1 complaint. If dissatisfied with the outcome of the Stage 1, it is your right under law to ask for a Stage 2. If granted, a senior officer from a different department will investigate the complaint. Only then can the Ombudsman be approached.

Under SS procedures, the council will employ an Independent Officer and in the case of the children's department an Independent Person also - there to oversee proceedings in the interest of the child.

Independent Investigators are often senior officer's working for, or who have worked for local authorities. Many are excellent and will follow the evidence - some will not...

Once the investigator is chosen by the council - they then meet with the complainant to fully understand the grievance and work on the 'remit' (main points of complaint). This remit is then presented to the council's Senior Complaints Officer who will then decide if the remit is acceptable before the investigation can begin. 

One Gwynedd parent asked their 'independent investigator' to interview a witness involved with their complaint of an 'inadequate' assessment undertaken by two social workers. The investigator declined. Think on that - an 'independent investigator' not wishing to collect evidence and speak to witnesses in an investigation...

The investigator then presented her remit to the council for their permission to proceed - without the complainant's approval or knowledge...

Note - The person making the complaint is not necessarily informed of the remit at this point.

Emails show that this complainant was far from happy with the 'remit' and claimed that their evidence had been misrepresented by the investigating officer and contained factual errors.

Further emails show the Senior Safeguarding and Quality officer intervened and insisted that all correspondence with the investigator go through him....

The witness then asked to join the complaint. This was not welcomed by the council and the email thread shows considerable pushback. It concludes with the Senior Safeguarding and Quality officer implying that the only way he would allow the complaint to continue was if a child with complex issues and a diagnosis of autism be interviewed by council officer's - alone..

But the child had no desire to meet with even more officers of the department whose previous bad behaviour led to the former CEO, Dilwyn Williams, having to personally apologise for.
More on that here -
https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/2019/09/an-apology-from-cyngor-gwynedd-council.html

Obviously, the complaint did not proceed and was eventually timed out by the council.
The council were well aware that past policies and procedures have meant the Ombudsman can not intervene without a complaint to take forward. (Policies and procedures have now changed)

Work undertaken on one recommendation from the Ombudsman of Wales but called out as fake was not investigated by the council. Questions remain to the integrity of the work undertaken by two social workers and the senior manager responsible for the 'assessment'. The email thread also raises questions with the actions of the 'independent' investigators.

The culture within the council has become increasingly more toxic since a joint investigation with North Wales Police, in 2014. The CPS dropped the charges after new information from NWP in 2016...

Yet another investigation report into this farce has been with the council for nearly two years now. Since then both the CEO and the Director of SS have left their posts. Is this another report that will find failings within the council? This time with Education and SS officer's and perhaps the council's legal team? What of the other agencies involved?

If there are no failings, one would assume that it would have been released immediately - along with the champagne corks...

What no report will detail is the emotional damage such underhand tactics cause to children and their families - nor the financial costs... 

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...

 

 

Are Staff Suspended For 8 years? - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recently 'advised' Cyngor Gwynedd council to release information relating to a subject access request (SAR) from 2020. On the 14th July, 2022, the Information manager emailed in response to the ICO 'advice' - the original information asked for has not been provided...

The ICO has explained that if the council refuse their advice then the next step would be a judicial review - costs of such a review start at £25,000. The council's legal team have access to unlimited public funds to fight the public in such cases - joe public does not...

The original SAR was delayed in part due to the council having to purchase specialist data redaction software... When the information was finally provided it had been so heavily redacted in places that it was unreadable. A complaint was raised and a review was undertaken by the Information manager's line manager, Emyr Edwards, who also informed that the software had destroyed some data on retrieval. Hope the council got a refund. Mr Edward's review did not release the information hence the ICO's involvement...

One such example of heavy redaction is an email thread between the Senior Safeguarding And Quality Officer and a Cabinet Member discussing a possible corporate complaint. Concerns had been raised that the Annual Complaints Handling report presented to the Care Scrutiny Committee was not accurate. The report that year was authored by the Senior Safeguarding officer, himself. A meeting was requested so the evidence could be presented. The Member ignored the request. Both the officer and Cabinet Member have refused to answer questions from Councillors of the Scrutiny Committee in the past...

In 2020, a complaint was raised with the council that the same officer had misled another Care Scrutiny Committee. The officer had given a statement regarding the Ombudsman for Wales. The Ombudsman was contacted and denied the words of the officer...

Correspondence from the former Director of SS raises more concerns. In it, she admits that she with the aid of the legal team could not understand the Ombudsman's wording in one report.The former CEO had claimed the same during his incumbency. The present Head of Children's SS has stated in 'lessons learnt' a need to 'read and understand' reports....

The Ombudsman has already raised concerns with the council's lack of knowledge of procedures and law and dismissed one social worker's evidence to his investigation as disingenuous...

In other news, the council's information department has failed to comply with law regarding the FOI Act. A question involving the number of officers suspended from work and for how long has been awaiting an internal review by the Monitoring Officer for over a year.

From a 2018 Wales Online article - 'Welsh councils have paid £9m to staff they have suspended'

Second was Gwynedd, totalling £1,327,117. They said £800,000 of that referred to "police matters". The longest time a member of staff has been on paid suspension at the authority is four years – the longest in Wales...
“The other case involves the suspension of members of staff for the duration of a statutory investigation by the police and social services which lasted for approximately three years.
This process concluded with the CPS deciding not to proceed with any prosecutions. The council is currently carrying out its own subsequent internal investigation into the matter and as a result the individuals remain suspended from their posts.”

The full article can be found here -
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-councils-paid-9m-staff-14876849

So the CPS dropped the case - issues with evidence? The council then began its own internal investigation but since then radio silence... Has this investigation been completed?

Or are the officer's still suspended from the council - after 8 years?

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...