So what was in the 'Independent' Report that Cyngor Gwynedd Children's
Department felt the need to 'overwhelm' and 'bully' the Investigator to
change ?
Four possibly five pages are missing from the original Investigation
Report and where the original upheld all parts of our complaint - as did
the second - the third version did not.
This part related to the inadequate assessment of an autistic child's
needs undertaken and questioned the ability and professionalism of the
social worker involved.
Our complaint also involved one officer responsible for mishandling and censoring our personal data
but that customer care officer left the Council before being interviewed by the Investigators.
That officer then rejoined the Council after the Interviews had been completed.
The social worker on the other hand simply misled lied to the Independent Inverstigator and the Independent Person.
A Subject Access Request (SAR) reveals that senior managers were aware
of the social worker's deception and covered for her, presumably to
cover for their own failings. This social worker is now a 'team leader'
The Ombudsman for Wales was given this evidence but commented that they
had not included it in their second (2019) Report as more serious issues
were concentrated on, though this (we were assured) was not meant to
trivialise the issues lied about.
To be fair the PSO Wales did comment that one officer's evidence was 'disingenous'.
There is a Care Scrutiny Committee meeting on Thursday the 14th, 2019,
at which, the Social Services Annual Complaints Handling Report should
be scrutinised.
It could be an interesting meeting as it is now known that there are, in
fact, two Ombudsman for Wales Reports highly critical of the Children's
Department and its failings, including causing injustices and possibly
impacting on a family's Human Rights.
It should be of concern that the Children's Annual Complaint Report,
authored by Marian Parry Hughes and presented to Cabinet in July makes
no reference to the failings found by the Ombudsman, nor the behaviour
of the department heads and their treatment of an independent
investigator.
The Complaints Report for Cyngor Gwynedd Adult SS is also on the agenda.
This, too is of interest as we await the Adult department's explanation
of their treatment of an autistic young man and which the Ombudsman
reported on, last year.
It makes for grim reading relating to assessors within the Adult Care field using the man's disability against him. Appalling.
The Ombudsman for Wales Report into that investigation can be found here -
http://www.lukeclements.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Ombudsman-Gwynedd-Council-report-201700388.pdf
Copy and paste the address into your browser.
The Mother of an autistic man with mental health issues raised a
complaint on behalf of her son, on 6th of November 2015 and was unhappy
with the Council's response on 19th of November 2015, so raised further
concerns with the Council on 23rd of November 2015.
After the mother receiving a copy of her son's Care and Treatement Plan
the mother submitted another complaint on 13th of December 2015.
A meeting was held with the mother and husband in January 2016 to
discuss the complaint, but all concerns were not addressed properly at
this meeting.
Following further reassessments and failure to implement her son's care
plan and provide him with adequate support, the mother raised her
complaint to Stage 2 on 15th of September 2016.
The stage 2 complaint was investigated by an Independent Investigator
and concluded in November of 2016, but most parts of the complaint were
not upheld.
Two recommendations were made, one of these was that the Council agreed
to 'improve the information on ASD on their website' - we note that
they have done no such thing.
Documentation of this particular complaint and the details of it are
absent in the Annual complaints Reports for the relevant periods, except
for one mention in the 2016/17 report that mentions a stage 2 that will
be available in the next quarter, even though the complaint had
concluded months before, the Stage 2 was not included in the next Annual
Report either for 2017/18.
The Mother then complained to the Ombudsman in April of 2017, yet the
Annual Report covering that period states that no Stage 2 complaints had
gone to the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman's Report was completed on the 4th of July 2018, yet there
is no mention of this Ombudsman's Report in the 2018/19 Annual
Complaints Report, but it is stated that there were no Ombudsman's
investigations undertaken during 2018/19, although this one was
obviously still ongoing in 2018, this is not mentioned anywhere.
The case in question relates to failings of a man with 'high functioning
autism' and the Ombudsman's Report is indicative of how Gwynedd treat
such individuals. It makes for shocking reading, yet who is to know
about such failings and maladministration if the details are omitted
from the Annual Complaints Reports by Officers
The idea of the Annual Complaints Report is supposed to inform members,
scrutiny commitees and the public what is going on within the Department
and of any failings and lessons to be learnt. Sadly this case is yet
another example of Gwynedd Council's lack of transparency and wish to be
open and honest and as a result, no scrutiny of such horrendous
failings will never take place (as is usually the case)
The following is a small excerpt of the Ombudsman's Report, it speaks for itself.....
"69, In my view, these failings not only caused Mr A a significant
injustice but also impacted upon Article 8 of his Human Rights.11
However, I have decided that the finding I have made of
maladministration is so clear and so serious that to consider the human
rights issues further would add little value to my analysis or to the
outcome, I have therefore decided to say no more about that."
One of the Ombudsman's Recommendations that the Council agreed to was
that Gwynedd Council, within 6 months of the final report (4th July 2018
) -
"Undertakes a review of its ASD procedures, specifically those for
adults and children with high functioning ASD, and ensure that the
requirements of the SSWA 2014, MHM 2010 and ASD SAP have been met."
So, Gwynedd Council....did you undertake that review within 6 months?
(Part of Gwynedd Council's Compliance correspondence with the Ombudsman for Wales)
Monday 11th March 2019
"Ymhellach i’r cais isod am wybodaeth, dyma’r gwybodaeth diweddaraf
gennym am y sefyllfa o ran gwasanaeth ASD. Nid oes adolygiad penodol
wedi bod ond mae hyfforddiant dwys wedi ei gynnal (ac yn y cynlluniau)
yn y pwnc. Wedi paratoi ateb isod. Croeso i ti basio hwn ymlaen gan
hefyd esbonio fod ddim adolygiad penodol wedi digwydd eto."
(Translation)
Further to the request below for information, here’s the latest
information we have about the situation in terms of the ASD service.
There has been no specific review, but intense training has been
undertaken in the subject (and in the plans).I have prepared an answer
below. You are welcome to pass this forward, by also explaining that no
specific review has yet taken place.
"The staff delivering Learning Disability services are acutely aware of
the increasing need for timely and effective provision of high quality
services for people living with ASD. We have implemented an extensive
training and awareness programme as evidenced by the Training Unit. In
addition, we are proactive members of the North Wales Integrated Autism
Service (details attached). We have also begun work to establish a new
team within the Learning Disability service which will be taking a
preventative approach to service delivery, with effective ASD provision
being an integral part."
No....thought not. Have you since? Who knows? and what are your
'procedures' for dealing with high functioning autistic adults and
children now? Do you even have such procedures?
This recommendation specifically asks for the Council to address their
procedures for dealing with 'high functioning autistics' but yet again
the Council refer to what the Learning Disability Service is doing -
this is not a service that is open to 'high functioning' autistics, so
is irrelevent.....
The 'intensive training' mentioned is mainly PBS (7 sessions) and
'Indirect Support' ( 26 sessions) again this is the domain of the
Learning Disability Service, though there are 'Autism Awareness' days. (
3 sessions) Hardly Intensive Training for those Social Workers and
Officers dealing with high functioning autistic people.
In relation to the Ombudsman's 2019 investigation into our own case The
Head of Children and Families Department states in her Annual Complaint
Handling report of 2019, under 'lessons learnt', that -
"It is not a requirement for Social Workers to have any expertise in
autism. Neither are they required to undertake autism training. Autism
training is currently available to Derwen Service staff, but it is not
open to the rest of the Department's officers. There was a strong view
in the Ombudsman's final report that there was a need to raise awareness
amongst all of the Department’s remaining officers, and therefore
another lesson would be to ensure that autism training is available to
all within the Children and Supporting Families Department."
Yet again the training given is for those that work with autistic
individuals with a learning disability, not for the officers that will
be the ones working with 'high functioning'autistic individuals. So
Marian Parry hughes have you any plans to provide autism training to all
of the Department's Social Workers? More smoke and mirrors.....
The Reports of both department's are NOT an accurate record bearing in
mind that there are now at least THREE highly critical Ombudsman's
Reports, that Council Officer's would rather not explain or discuss and
certainly do not want scrutinized.
One Councillor has already referred to one Ombudsman's Report into the Children's Department as 'Damning'.
What would he make of the Ombudsman's Report into Gwynedd Council of July, 2018.
A young autistic man with other issues that was left to rot in bed after having support withdrawn.
Something is very wrong with Gwynedd Council Social Services.....
More - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/
