Gwynedd Council - Deprivation Of Liberty.

The Care Scrutiny Committee at Cyngor Gwynedd council held a meeting on the 13th June, 2024.

Dewi Jones, the mayor of Caernarfon and councillor for the Peblig ward, was elected as deputy chair of the committee and began his tenure by making a political statement. He was quickly rebuked by more experienced councillors and made to withdraw his comments. 

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.The meeting on the 11/4/24 heard from one councillor who described his experience of the social services complaints process and felt the process merely defended the service. The minutes state –It was not believed that the Children’s Services behaved defensively and that everyone was always ready to learn from the lessons and improve services.

A reminder that the Ombudsman for Wales has called out the service for its ignorance of law, policy and procedures and that the head of department has herself commented on the need to read and understand reports…

The first report of the meeting was the Council’s Ability To Implement The Deprivation Of Liberty Safeguards, authored by Mannon Emyr Trappe and can be found on page 17 of the agenda pack – https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g5187/Public%20reports%20pack%2013th-Jun-2024%2010.30%20Care%20Scrutiny%20Committee.pdf?T=10

Gwynedd council do not have the ability… This is a high risk to the public purse as some local authorities are having to pay compensation of between £3000-4000 for every month in which the individuals have been deprived of their liberty without authorisation. There is a waiting list in Gwynedd of 340 individuals who have been deprived of their liberty without authority and 20 individuals have been waiting over 3 years for an assessment.

On average, 67 DoLS applications are received monthly by the council. Gwynedd council state they have one best interest assessor (BIA) who works two days a week and one co-ordinator who works four days. But there are in fact 18 trained BIA’s working within the Adult’s department…

The meeting was notable not just for the slapdown of councillor Jones but also concerns were raised that recruitment of much needed staff may be hindered by the requirments for the Welsh language being spoken. Also, this was yet another meeting where the Chair ignored requests of councillors.Following on from Elin Hywel ignoring proposals from councillors of a different committee, Beth Lawton now did the same at this meeting. Non Plaid councillors may be wondering what is the point of the care scrutiny committee?

One can only imagine what these councillors will think when they realise that the reports they were meant to be scrutinising had already been accepted and passed by members of the cabinet two days earlier. How can something be scrutinised after it has already been accepted by the policy makers…?

Usually, webcasts are uploaded to the council’s website one day after the meeting. In this instance, neither the Cabinet nor the Care Scrutiny meetings are yet available for the public and other councillors to view.

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council…