#Gwynedd Council #Cuts Challenged By Care Scrutiny...
What a difference a year makes in the life of a Cyngor Gwynedd Care Scrutiny Committee. The english feed is now working for the meeting of the 14th November and can be found here - https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/454056 Last year, concerns had been raised with the Committee before the meeting and one councillor was contacted by phone to ask if he wished to see evidence of our claims. "Er..No" was the reply. As both Cabinet Member, Dilwyn Morgan and the author of that years report, Dafydd Paul, told the Committee they were not willing to discuss individual cases no scrutiny was permitted of the maladministration found within the department they both have responsibility for. Mr Paul proceeded to ignore the elephant in the room and began a diatribe how he had been working on the Council's Complaints Procedure for years - even referring to it as 'his baby'. For why ? Welsh Government have done all the hard work by publishing the Complaints Procedure and Guidelines that all Council's are expected to uphold and adhere to. How very different this year. The Scrutiny committee, with a new Chair, Dewi Wyn Roberts, challenged the Services proposed social services savings - including 2 #MentalHealth posts, #CarersSupport and #WomensAid, to name a few. Then came the questioning of the Complaints Manager, Dafydd Paul. This years Annual Complaints Report, I believe, was authored by the Head of the Service, Marian Parry Hughes and presented to Cabinet in the summer. Mrs Hughes was present at the meeting but left shortly before her Report was scrutinised. Surely she should have been answering questions as it was her Report ? Maybe too embarrassing ? The Ombudsman upheld the complaint that the Children's Department had interfered with an Independent Investigator and that the IO reported feeling 'overwhelmed' and 'bullied' at a meeting that Marian, herself, chaired, in order, the managers said, to 'correct inaccuracies'. The Ombudsman commented the council provided NO evidence of these 'inaccuracies' when asked. There is a post from June covering that meeting in more detail here - https://gwyneddsfailingcouncil.blogspot.com/2019/06/bullying-cyngor-gwynedd-council.html Copy and paste the address into your browser. It was a meeting that we asked to attend but Dafydd Paul refused us. The Independent Person - appointed to oversee the interests of the child - was not in attendance at this meeting either. Now the Investigator had contacted the Ombudsman with her concerns and asked for advice. The Ombudsman did not advise. Luke Clements, Professor of Law and Social Justice at the School of Law, Leeds University who has had conduct of many cases before the European Commission and Court of Human Rights highlighted this particular case and his thoughts can be found here - http://www.lukeclements.co.uk/omg-will-it-never-end-2/ The Adults Social Services Complaints Handling Report was finally presented to a meeting that had, according to the agenda, overrun by two hours. No mention of the appalling 2018 Ombudsman's Report into the mistreatment of an autistic adult and his family by Gwynedd Adults Social Services - case number - 201700388.
Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd Council.
