Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Blaming Everyone But Themselves.
Paragraph 40 of the Ombudsman for Wales 2019 Report into Cyngor Gwynedd Children's Services - "...However, the Council was of the view that it was not required to share any draft with Mr & Mrs A. It said that the Regulations did not specify this. In support of its view, it said that it had sought information from other councils in North Wales about their practice, which accorded with the Council’s position. The Council said that it was the IIO that had requested a meeting to discuss the Second draft. The Council had referred the IIO to documents already provided to review those inaccuracies it had pointed out. It said that ‘extra copies’ of those documents were provided to her. Only one additional (new) item was produced, which the Council had initially felt to be irrelevant to the IIO’s investigation, as it related to an earlier complaint made in 2010. The Council said that the sole purpose of the meeting was to ensure the report’s accuracy. It was not an attempt to influence the IIO. The Council added that it had to chase the IIO to obtain the Final report. It was not sent until 11.13pm on 2 January 2018 (despite assurance it would reach Officer 1 by 29 December 2017). This was ‘...unfortunate and highly disappointing that the IIO’s reluctance to respond to [Officer 1’s] requests for a corrected draft...during December further added to the delay’. ************************ So Gwynedd Council told the Ombudsman that other County Council's in North Wales do not share Independent Investigation 'draft' Reports. I wonder if proof of this was provided to the Ombudsman? In any case, the usual procedure is that the Council accept the IO's Independent report and write a response letter and if they do not agree with findings and recommendations to say so in that response letter, not seek to change or remove things from the IO's report before they accept it. The IO and IP stated that this course of action is NOT usual. How can complainants challenge any inaccuracies in a Report if they are not allowed sight before publication ? I am astonished that the Ombudsman permitted this 'excuse' without challenge - especially as we pointed out that the Report does contain one inaccuracy that we would like correcting and asked what was to be done to correct this. The question was ignored. Gwynedd Council like to blame anyone but themselves, but to claim to the Ombudsman that the Council had to chase the IO to obtain the Final Report is disingenuous in light of the fact that this was the third report that she had submitted. Bearing in mind, the Ombudsman was kept informed of the Council's behaviour during this time it is confusing the Ombudsman has not made more of this point. The Ombudsman even attempted to speed up the process by writing to the council to ask what had happened to their 'delayed response'. A process that should take 25 working DAYS took 7 MONTHS. And who is Officer 1 requesting a 'corrected draft' ? Highly disappointing ? For whom ?
Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council.
