Gwynedd Cabinet Member Ignores Yet Another Arrest Of School Staff - And Canolfan Brynffynnon.
Cyngor Gwynedd held a full council meeting on Thursday, 24th September 2026.
Questions were asked by councillors, that included concerns of drones at Llanbedr airfield.
The questions are asked in advance, vetted by the monitoring officer, then a written reply by the relevant member of the Plaid controlled cabinet is included in the agenda for the meeting.
Is it all scripted..?
The questions are then asked at the meeting and cabinet members recite the prepared answers.A supplementary question is allowed. Not all councillors bother with a supplementary – for some that do, it is noticed that cabinet members know what the question is before it is even asked…
The Scrutiny Annual Report 25/26 was presented by councillor, Cai Larsen, chair of the Scrutiny Forum, with Ian Jones, Head of Democracy Services (Head of Corporate Services) named as the contact officer…
To ensure that scrutiny arrangements are effective, members across the political groups work as a team to investigate concerns about the quality of services; acting as a Critical Friend ensuring that proper attention is given to the citizen’s voice; identifying good practice and weaknesses and holding the Cabinet and its members to account.
Smoke and mirrors..?
For many years now, complaints regarding abuse in Gwynedd have been nodded through by councillors instead of proper scrutiny or investigation.
Larsen himself sat on a committee that did nothing to hold Neil Foden to account, when a video of the head teacher physically assaulting a pupil at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle, was reported in the media and discussed at the committee.
Ian Jones, the head of corporate services, has included a social services complaint in one of his past documents. This, some believe, was to avoid the care scrutiny committee – and a serious matter was simply passed through by cabinet members without proper discussion.
Dewi Jones, the cabinet member for Education, presented the –Strategic Safeguarding Panel’s Annual Report 2025/26 which can be found in the agenda pack for the meeting –
His presentation to the full council was weak and he made no mention of yet another arrest of a school staff member just before the summer holidays. How many arrests of school staff (past and present) have there now been since Neil Foden?
Seven? More..?
Jones instead mainly focussed on pupils absent from school.There are those parents who home educate due to a failure to adequately support their children in school, some electively, some not. Not long ago there were issues with children being suspended, excluded and even off rolled by some schools – is this still the case?
Many of these children have ALN….In some cases children are not popular with staff and this can become a problem for the child, this is not something that ever comes up for discussion though. Instead of acknowledging the pressures these children face with bullying and lack of understanding by some teachers, Jones wishes for more powers to punish the parents.
Where is the voice of the child?
Has Jones spoken to the children and parents/carers of these particular cohorts?
If not – why not..?
The curriculum is also a concern for some parents.
Dewi Jones. made no mention of the abuse of children at Canolfan Brynffynnon in Y Felinheli.The children who attended this unit had ALN.A recent documentary of the PRU by Y Byd ar Bedwar can be found here –
One councillor did raise concerns and in response, Jones did promise to include Brynffynnon in next year’s report…
A reminder that three staff members were suspended for 9 years, two have been given redundancy packages and one has recently been reinstated by cyngor Gwynedd.
The webcast of the full council meeting can be found here – https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/1129335
The Governance And Audit Committee of 29th September, 2026 10.00 am
The Governance and Audit committee is one of the most important of all meetings, yet is not webcast so not available for later viewing by councillors or the public.
Members of the committee had been given a Briefing Note by Iwan Evans, the monitoring officer. He directed lay members and councillors not to raise employment issues. This likely relates to Marian Parry Hughes and Dafydd Paul, who have been ‘absent from work’ on full pay since the spring of 2025…
Evans was challenged over this note and he floundered in his response but technical difficulties meant he could not be properly heard and the meeting was suspended whilst officer’s tried to sort out the problem, This was not possible and the meeting was eventually deferred.
Some reports that should have been discussed at the G&A meeting can be found in the agenda pack for the Education and Economy meeting to be held on the 8th, October –
Councillors could be asking Dafydd Gibbard, CEO and the legal team to –
* Commission an independent investigation into Canolfan Brynffynnon.
* Publish the Woods report that looked at the failings of council officers re Neil Foden.
* Ask how many Section 5 meetings there have been in regard to staff that are in a position of trust since Foden’s arrest?
* Ask if the senior legal officer who sat in on the meeting in 2019, when the concerns of the whistleblower re Foden were discussed and downgraded from a safeguarding concern to a professional issue only, is still in post?
Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...
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