With regard to the article, dated
20th October, in which a councillor asked Cyngor Gwynedd council for
indemnity under the council's policy.
The Standards Committee published a decision notice on the 26th October declining the request -
Having looked very carefully at the application, and considering Gwynedd Council's Indemnity Policy attached as Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the committee, the Chair should write to inform the member that the Standards Committee is not in a position to offer him indemnity in relation to legal representation at a hearing of the Standards Committee. The case the councillor is defending deals entirely with his role as a Town Council Councillor. Any decision would impact on that role only, and would not have any affect onthe councillor's role as a member of Gwynedd Council.
Does
this relate to the discarded file of various documents ? One of the
councillors named has previously made a complaint against a fellow
councillor which was upheld.
That case involved a councillor who wrote in his blog that a local person “intended to retire soon...and stand for election to the council in a seat held by another councillor”.
The
Appeals Tribunal, found these allegations to be “factually untrue and
unfounded” and the councillor was then suspended from Gwynedd council
for three months.
The local person then stood for council and was elected.... So what on earth is going on now....?
It was a surprise to many when the CEO of Cyngor Gwynedd council
retired earlier this year during the Covid19 pandemic. Now the council
are advertising for a Head of Finance...
The council are also looking to employ a solicitor or barrister to head their legal team...
In other news a person has reported finding a discarded file of various documents - a data breach ? One
relates to a recent 'code of conduct' complaint made to the Ombudsman
by one Gwynedd Council member about another. It appears to show that
the Ombudsman has passed the matter on to the Adjudication Panel of
Wales - so that will be an interesting report...
Today, the 25th of May, 2018, is the anniversary of our raising a Stage 2
complaint against Cyngor Gwynedd Council, on the advice of the
Ombudsman for Wales.
One year in a process that should take 28 days - and it is still not completed.
More - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/
Re the outcry over the child abuse scandal in #Telford and those calling
for an Independent Inquiry into those who failed the children....
Gwynedd Council - who were closed down after they failed the county's
children in their own sexual abuse scandal of the 90's - have twice
sanitised a recent 'Independent Report' into their Social Services
department.
The abuse of children in Gwynedd and Clywd was only allowed to continue
by those in authority maintaining a 'wall of silence' for decades.
Gwynedd Council, for whatever reason, chose to turn a blind eye and the
whistleblower, Alison Davies - was actually sacked by the council for
raising concerns.
It has become apparent that a 'wall of silence' still remains in Gwynedd
with no-one willing or able to confront unprofessional and bad
behaviour by senior managers within the council.
Sshh no criticism allowed.
The abuse of children in Telford began just after the creation of the New Town in the early 70's.
Just as in North Wales, the authorities at the then Wrekin Council and
the local Police turned a blind eye. In fact, the local CID used to hunt
down and return those 'children in care' who had fled from the abuse
they were no doubt suffering in the council run homes in Wellington.
Sshh.
The authorities in North Wales sat on the Jillings Report into the abuse
of children for 20 years - on the orders of the council's insurers -
now Zurich International.
There was an Asian gang operating in Telford in the 70's as were White
Gangs. There were also huge problems with #Unemployment #Racism and
#Heroin. Too many unexplained deaths and mysterious 'suicides'.
The old Wrekin Council have questions to answer along with the now defunct Telford Youth Council, local Churches and the Police.
An Independent Inquiry into the abuse of children in Telford will fail
just as in North Wales, Rotherham, Islington etc etc. No-one will be
held to account.
An Independent Inquiry is too easily sanitised and the truth covered up -
a Public Inquiry would stand a better chance at getting to the truth
and the abusers and those who profited from the abuse punished.
But be in no doubt....the abuse of children and vulnerable people continues.
Sshh.....
More on Gwynedd council - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/
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 here - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/
So what has become of the stage 2 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 sanitiserevise 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 !
Yahoo.
More - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/
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 21st 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.
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.
More info on Gwynedd Council here - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.co.uk/
