Cyngor Gwynedd Council Fail.: Report Slams Gwynedd Social Services - From 2001 T...

Six years after the creation of the new unitary Cyngor Gwynedd council - formed to replace the local authority that failed children during the North Wales child abuse scandal - the adult SS department had concerns flagged in a 2001 review of its services.

This Daily Post article from 2008 reports on a 'damning' review of social services in Gwynedd, undertaken in 2007, showing much needed improvement had still not been implemented by the department seven years later.

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/report-slams-gwynedd-social-services-2809357 

15:35, 16 OCT 2008 Updated 05:01, 19 APR 2013 By Alex Hickey

GWYNEDD Council’s social services provision has been criticised in a damning report.

A joint review report conducted by Wales Audit Office and the care inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW) has uncovered a catalogue of concerns including a failure to develop modern social services to allow vulnerable people to live full and independent lives and "inconsistent" levels of care and support across the county as a whole

Reviewers were "particularly concerned" that in adult services, many improvements, planned since the last review in 2001, had not been implemented.

They also identified an "urgent need" to change the way services were delivered.

Efforts had been made since the last joint review to increase spending on social services but reviewers found that it had not been used to best effect and the council needed to focus more on making the best use of the resources available.

In one of the few plus points the report praised the hard work of social services staff, who were being let down by the system they were working under. In children’s services, the review found that more had been done to improve aspects of practice and service following concerns about performance.

The council said it was "determined" to meet the challenges laid out in the report.

CSSIW chief inspector Rob Pickford said: "The review team has judged that social services in Gwynedd are inconsistent and improvements need to be made urgently in order to bring them up to the required standard. The council has not moved in the right direction to address its shortfalls, and it now needs to clearly demonstrate that it can address an increasingly challenging agenda and develop an effective response to the concerns raised in this joint review".

Auditor General for Wales, Jeremy Colman added: "Gwynedd is failing to provide social services which consistently meet the needs of all service users and is unable to demonstrate that investment in services has been used to best effect. The council needs to focus on developing a broad range of modern services, which provide better all round value for the resources expended."

The council’s strategic director of social services, Dafydd P Lewis, said that since the joint review was completed in 2007, a great deal of time and effort had been invested in modernising the sector.

"As a council we recognise that there is an extremely challenging improvement journey ahead. The fact that the report confirms that Gwynedd provides safe services for vulnerable people, that council staff are hard-working and committed to their work, and that councillors and staff in key positions have expressed a determination to achieve the change now required means that we are confident that we can deliver the necessary changes quickly and efficiently," he added.

Council leader Dyfed Edwards said: "This report confirms that the ‘traditional’ Gwynedd way of delivering social services is no longer an acceptable option and that we must modernise these services as a matter of urgency."

 https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/report-slams-gwynedd-social-services-2809357

Serious concerns, indeed. But all this was way back in the 80's and 90's...and 2000 through to 2008....
Things can only get better.

  

Cyngor Gwynedd Council Fail.: Report Slams Gwynedd Social Services - From 2001 T...

Child Abuse Inquiry Announced - At Last.

At long last, the home secretary declares an inquiry into child abuse.

While welcoming the news, i have little confidence that it will be anything but a #whitewash.

There have been reports that civil servants and politicians have known of abuse and the abusers for decades.
They, like #normantebbit, #edwinacurrie and others kept their mouths shut to foster their own careers.
"It just wasn't talked about", says the chingford skinhead.

I suggest not only was it talked about it was used as leverage to control the abusers in government.

There is one thing nearly as bad as the trafficking of children for sexual pleasure.
That is allowing it to continue and saying nothing.

What Happens To The Victims Of North Wales Child Abuse ?

Suspicious deaths of child abuse victims include:-

Robert Chapman, a former resident of Bryn Alyn, fell to his death from a railway bridge.

Robert Arthur Smith, a former resident of Bryn Alyn, killed himself in May 1978, aged 16, by overdosing on painkillers.

Barry Williams, former resident of Little Acton Assessment centre, Clwyd, found dead in a flat where he lived in poverty, aged 21.Peter Davies died 1985.

Adrian Johns, former resident of Bryn Alyn, died in a 1992 fire aged 32 in Brighton, Sussex. Verdict - unlawful killing.

Heath Kelvin Jones, former resident of Bryn Alyn, found dead in 1992 in a bedsit, aged 18. Cause of death, acute respiratory failure due to solvent abuse.

Peter Wynn hanged himself in January 1994, aged 27.

Brendon Randalls, former Bryn Estyn resident, died aged 27 from alcohol abuse in April 1994.

Richard Williams was found dead in a car aged 18 in July 1994.

Craig Wilson hanged himself in November 1994 aged 16.

Lee Johns, also known as Lee Homberg, former resident of Bryn Alyn where it was alleged he had been sexually abused. Died in February 1995 aged 37.

Mark Humphries hanged himself in February 1995 aged 31.

Simon Birley, former resident of Bryn Estyn, was found hanging in May 1995 aged 27

Tony Wallis found dead 1996.

Journalist Nick Davies wrote in 1997 that: - On the fringe of the tribunal hearing, there are disturbing suggestions of a violent cover-up. The London Evening Standard has run a series of stories about two brothers, Adrian Johns and Lea Homburg, who were abused by a convicted paedophile named John Allen. Allen ran a complex of homes in North Wales and London and is said to have been supplying boys to wealthy outsiders. The Standard reported that the two brothers were trying to blackmail him when, in April 1992, Adrian was burned to death in a house fire in Brighton. Lea later died in mysterious circumstances.

A dozen others who complained of abuse by the alleged ring have also died. One is said to have slipped on ice on a railway bridge and fallen to his death. Another, who was found dead in his flat was said to have died of natural causes; he was aged 21. Several are said to have committed suicide although in the case of one of them, his mother said his supposed suicide note was written in someone else’s handwriting. Others died apparently through abusing heroin, alcohol and solvents’.