Cyngor Gwynedd Council Fail.: Autism Plan Is Simply A Cut And Paste Exercise.

The Ombudsman for Wales finally had his meeting with the present CEO of Cyngor Gwynedd council, Dafydd Gibbard, to discuss continuing non compliance with recommendations made in 2019 - that the past CEO had informed was complete 'bar a nuance'.

The nuance happens to be the Autism plan now heralded on the council's website as 'innovative'. It is anything but....

The 'plan' presented by the contact officer, Aled Gibbard, is simply a cut and paste of the review report summary and recommendations agreed to after the Hugh Morgan, OBE review of services in Gwynedd undertaken last year -
The plan can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=32127

Aled Gibbard is also responsible for the 'equality impact assessment report' - tacked on to the already published council agenda. It, too, is a copy and paste - this time, of the Code of Practice for Autism -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=32135

A plan is meant to inform and clarify - this does neither. Ditto the equality impact assessment report....

Senior officers gave evidence to Hugh Morgan and presumably assurances during his review of the evidence presented -
https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/2021/04/finally-gwynedd-councils-autism-report.html  

Hugh Morgan's thoughts on the council 'plan' would be interesting. The urgent recommendations from his review have still not been complied with.... 

Has Dafydd Gibbard been dodging the Ombudsman until the Derwen manager, Aled Gibbard, presented a 'plan' that they consider meets with compliance ?  By now we are guessing that Nick Bennett may have become so frustrated with the council that any piece of work masquerading as a plan will be accepted as compliance. Interesting times...

Senior officers may claim there are no financial resources but as Mr Morgan points out the money is already there. He makes mention of the ring fenced monies from 2008 until 2016 at £60,000 a year and then £40,000 (not ring fenced) from then on. By my calculations, Gwynedd council have received £680,000 of government money for support services that do not exist. Where has that money gone ?

And talking of money, Gwynedd council have once again increased the amount in 'reserves'.
This money can only have come from the council not spending on services and support.
Why is Wales Audit not raising concerns ?

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

Cyngor Gwynedd Council Fail.: Cyngor Gwynedd Council's Autism Plan Is Simply A C...:

Cyngor Gwynedd Council Fail.: Handling Of FOI Requests By Information Officers.

Browsing through Freedom of Information requests made to Cyngor Gwynedd council makes for some interesting reading...

In 2018/19, an FOI request with regard to the Education department titled 'Additional Learning Needs and Inclusion Service' brought about an interesting interchange which included -
Perhaps you would like to explain why it is that you have told me that 1507 children are currently on the register yet in response to the same question being asked less than a month later by another interested party they claim not only to have received the information before I did but that the information given to them was that there are in fact 2621 children on the ALN register.
The request for an Internal review appears to have been ignored.

More recent requests include - 'Council Expenditure or Payment to Suppliers from January to June 2021' with regard to Health and Social Care. Now this was first asked for in August but was not responded to correctly and the information officer has now stated the information will be made available on the 25th of November. We shall see....

Other requests include - 'FOI Request For Vacant Crofts In Gwynedd Council Area'. The Information officer replied that the council did not hold this information. The requester replied - 'I find it difficult to understand that the council down(sic) not have information on the small holdings or crofts it owns in its own council area. If the council does not know what it owns then who would know?'
The requester then asked for an Internal Review but the account is now suspended so presumably the review will not now be undertaken.

How many more FOI requests are not being treated according to law - and more importantly why ?

WhatDoTheyKnow helps you make a Freedom of Information request. It also publishes all requests online. The link to the website where you can browse all requests made through the website can be found here -
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

Cyngor Gwynedd Council Fail.: Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Handling Of FOI Requests ...