Cyngor Gwynedd Council - When Is Compliance Compliance ?

On the 23rd, December, 2021 the Ombudsman for Wales wrote regarding Cyngor Gwynedd council's compliance - or rather non compliance - with recommendations from a 2019 investigation into the children's SS department.

"In relation to compliance I had also chased the Council in the interim for confirmation as to the outcome of the Cabinet meeting on 30 November (having not had any update). I received its response yesterday morning. I have also today been able to see the minutes of that Cabinet meeting on its website and confirmation that the plan was approved. Having considered the question of compliance, we are content that the Council has met this as a varied implementation from the strict wording of the recommendation as set out.

Think on that - the Ombudsman had to chase the council for confirmation and then checked the minutes of the meeting to confirm the council's confirmation..Lessons learnt?

But what is this 'varied implementation from the strict wording'?

 

On October 22, 2020, the Ombudsman shared his thoughts on what was expected of the council to meet compliance...- 

 

Mr Bennett went on -

 

The Transitional Social Worker has still not been employed.

 

Re the Derwen eligibilty criteria - Why does Hugh Morgan, OBE,  recommend a 'further (and immediate)' review? An Ombudsman's investigation from 2019 recommends - 

 

70. The Council should review its Derwen policy to ensure its criteria aligns with the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 and the Equality Act 2010’s definition of ‘disability’, and ensure staff are informed about any changes (within three months).

 

The Ombudsman has signed this off as completed. So why is the consultant calling for a further review only one year later? By this time, there should be two reviews into Derwen - where are they?

Just before Christmas, the Derwen manager, Aled Gibbard, was asked to share the autism data collected with Councillors of the Care Scrutiny Committee. Apart from a vague 1 in 100 figure he produced no local data. Why not? Why not simply collate all the data from the agencies that have been working together since 2008.

 

Hugh Morgan's review makes mention of 'ring fenced' (and non ring fenced) monies for these services over the same period. By my estimation, there is £680,000 worth of data - where is it?

 

The 'plan to be launched by April, 2021' has still not been launched.

Anyway it is not a plan - it is simply a copy and paste presented by the contact officer, Aled Gibbard,  of Hugh Morgan's review and recommendations . The Equality Impact Assessment also undertaken by Mr Gibbard is mostly a copy and paste of Welsh Government's Code of Practice Equalty Impact Assessment. 

 

Regardless - the Ombudsman has signed it off...

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...has it infected the Ombudsman's office?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"No Matter What The Wish Of The Individual May Be" - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

With regard to the previous post, the Corporate Director of Cyngor Gwynedd council SS departments, Morwena Edwards, has given her explanation of the statements made to the Care Scrutiny Committee by the CEO, Dilwyn Williams and the senior complaints manager, Dafydd Paul, in particular - bearing in mind the Ombudsman for Wales has denied instructing the council.

"The Ombudsman is correct in his replies to your queries that he did not explicitly request that Gwynedd Council contact you by telephone to offer and/or arrange these assessments."

Interesting wording - and they were anything but queries...
Morwena continues - 
"However, the Ombudsman’s office was clear that they expected us to be pro–active in response to their findings that we provide these assessments.After obtaining legal advice, our interpretation of the Ombudsman’s recommendation led us to conclude that contacting you directly to offer you and your family the comprehensive assessment of your needs referred to above was the most appropriate course of action. This action was taken in good faith as part of our sincere effort to meet the terms of the Ombudsman’s recommendation.I wish to sincerely apologise for the confusion and distress that the subsequent telephone call to you on 14/11/19 caused, and I accept that we should have taken into account that you had previously requested that communication between your family and the Council should only be conducted via email.In response to your second point above,  

I acknowledge that the quote from the transcript you provided of Mr Paul’s statement to the Care Scrutiny Committeeon 14/11/19 is what was conveyed to the Committee."

So did the senior complaints manager mislead Councillors of the Committee?

"However, I must disagree with your assertion that his statement was made deliberately to mislead the Committee in some way about how Gwynedd Council were intending to meet the Ombudsman’s recommendations contained in his report." 

But, if the Ombudsman had given the council no such instruction why did the officer spend so much time telling Councillors that he had ?
"...the Ombudsman has judged this and wants us to go no matter what the wish of the individual may be..."

"Mr Paul’s statement to the Committee is consistent with the prevailing interpretation of this specific recommendation from the Ombudsman by Gwynedd Council at that time. In order to meet the recommendation, we decided that all methods be explored in order to comprehensively assess your family’s needs."

'...consistent with the prevailing interpretation...' What. does. that. even. mean ?
Regardless - the Ombudsman has denied the words of Dafydd Paul -

"given them a further challenge, to make sure that someone goes to see the family, meet the family, ensure that they receive that assessement 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." (translated)

Morwena Edwards continues -
"The action of being proactive in offering you and your family these assessments was seen as vital to meeting the Ombudsman’s directions, and was interpreted as being a requirement implicitly arising from that recommendation." 

There is that word 'interpretation' again. Anyway the recommendation referred to has been ignored since 2010, and again in 2017. Two social worker's were assigned to carry out that task in 2018, alongside another Ombudsman's recommendation. After completing one piece of work - badly - they did not return as they had said they would.

The Ombudsman has called the Director's thinking as 'illogical' in a past investigation. What could be said now ?

Something is seriously wrong within Gwynedd council.

 

Did Cyngor Gwynedd Council Senior Officer's Mislead A Care Scrutiny Committee ?

At a Cyngor Gwynedd council Care Scrutiny Committee meeting of November 14th, 2019, the senior Complaints manager, Dafydd Paul, told Councillors that the Ombudsman for Wales -

"given them a further challenge, to make sure that someone goes to see the family, meet the family, ensure that they receive that assessement 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." (translated)

The assessment mentioned would have been the third assessment undertaken by the council in three years - the previous two were called out by the family as 'fake' and predetermined ie set up to fail.

Confirmation was asked from Mr Dafydd Paul, or failing that the CEO, Dilwyn Williams, himself, that what was stated to the Care Scrutiny Committee was in fact true. The officer's did not reply.

 

So the Ombudsman for Wales office was contacted. 

 

After viewing the council's webcast, one senior Investigator confirmed the words spoken by the officer's were not correct but could not speak for the Ombudsman himself.

Nick Bennett was then approached for comment - he too denied the words of the senior officer's....

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council. 

                             

One Year Of Non-Compliance - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

It is now October - one full year of Cyngor Gwynedd council being in non compliance of the Ombudsman for Wales recommendations -

"71. The Council should (within three months) seek specialist input to develop a plan for dealing with future assessment and support requests from/for those suffering with Autism."

Nick Bennett has given the council chance after chance and even expressed to the family, his frustrations over the situation with the council - all to no avail it seems.

The council's CEO, Dilwyn Williams, appears to blame the SS departments for the 'slippage' whilst doing nothing to take control of the situation, himself. Whilst the Director of SS, who has no social work background blames the recent pandemic (that doesn't explain what happened to compliance before that time)

What to do now ? Putting in yet another complaint to the council means placing 'independent investigators' in the firing line to be bullied amd overwhelmed by senior officers and I am not prepared to do that.

Raise yet another complaint with the Ombudsman ? What is the point ? Mr Bennett is not respected by anyone in this corner of North Wales and appears powerless to hold councils to account and so it would be a waste of public resources to do so.

The complaints system in Wales is not fit for purpose and Judicial Review appears to be the only way to hold any public organisation to account. But there is no legal aid and what family can afford the £25K+ - minimum - that is required to bring such a case ? Local authorities as we know have an unlimited amount of money at their disposal from public funds. 

The Ombudsman wrote to say that the autism specialist commissioned by the council promised to present their draft report to the council by the end of September 2020.

Not quite what the the recommendation called for, but, as Mr Bennett says, it is up to him to accept any variation on recommendations - as he sees fit.

No mention is made of the Ombudsman even receiving a copy of the draft report himself and even so draft reports can be changed.......

What next ? An email from the ombudsman later on today ?

Something is very, very wrong within Gwynedd council.

 

 

Autism Pathway ? - Cyngor Gwynedd Director Of SS Annual Report.

The Director of Cyngor Gwynedd Social Services, Morwena Edwards, has published her Annual report to be presented to the council on the 1st October.

Unlike the Welsh Government's generic report she presented last year, this report gives more detail of the performance of both the Adult and Children departments she is responsible for but like so many reports emenating from this council it doesn't seem to tell the whole story.

On page 31, under the title of Learning and Development, the Director makes mention that -

"The Department has been in contact with the Ombudsman's Office for some years now regarding one specific case....
The Department has received many recommendations from the Ombudsman, and one remains as outstanding; however, slippage has been seen in the work as a result of the Covid-19 crisis."

The Covid-19 crisis is only the latest 'reason' for 'slippage', so somewhat misleading....

 (There have been 5 Ombudsman investigation reports into both the Adult and Children departments - in 4 years.)

 

In June, 2019, the Chief Executive Officer, Dilwyn O Williams, sent a letter to the family apologising for all the failings upheld by the Ombudsman's investigation and informed that the Children's department had agreed to implement the recomendations by September, 2019.

 

 The Ombudsman's recommendation regarding autism is as follows -

"71. The Council should (within three months) seek specialist input to develop a plan for dealing with future assessment and support requests from/for those suffering with Autism."

 

The Council's action to meet this recommendation was to provide the Ombudsman's investigator with a copy of the "Integrated Autism Service (IAS) North Wales Update- February 2018" and a copy of the "supporting guidance" document.

No specialist input sought.  Just yet another attempt to avoid creating any 'pathway' for autistic individuals seeking social services care assessments or support. 

 

This 'evidence' was obviously not sufficient to meet the Ombudsman's recommendation and in October 2019, an officer of the Ombudsman for Wales contacted the council for an explanation of why the recommendations had not been completed as agreed and a phone call was arranged with the director Mrs Edwards to discuss compliance matters. Even though this call was arranged two weeks previous, - the council cancelled the call an hour before it was due.

 

The IAS do not carry out 'care assessments', that is the domain of health and social services, although autism advice can be sought from the IAS during the process.

 

As robust evidence of compliance was yet to be provided to the Ombudsman, in November 2019, the CEO was summoned to Cardiff to explain the 'slippage' to the Ombudsman, himself, we were also informed that the Ombudsman had other matters to discuss with the CEO..... 

(I wonder how much this cost Gwynedd taxpayers claimed as expenses but at least there was an opportunity for the CEO to do some Christmas shopping in the capital.)

 

Earlier this year, the CEO admitted that the Ombudsman for Wales is 'outraged' with Gwynedd council.

Not that outraged, as Nick Bennett could have published a 'Special Report' as he did with the Wrexham council when they failed to comply with recommendations agreed after an investigation.

 

All this was many months before the #Covid19 crisis and for the Director of Gwynedd SS to now use the pandemic as an excuse to cover for her departments failings is disingenuous.

 

When the pandemic took hold, the Ombudsman for Wales did indeed grant Cyngor Gwynedd extra time to comply with the recommendations for improvement. On the 11th June 2020, the Ombudsman wrote to the family - 

Fair enough - the pandemic has affected everything, though the Gwynedd council staff outing where one officer contracted the virus on a night out forcing an entire council group to self isolate for two weeks was not appreciated by anyone.

 

The Ombudsman wrote again to the family on the 24th August 2020 - 

 

        

So why is none of this mentioned in the Director's Annual report ? Sshh....Is it a secret ?

 

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council.