l8in
Cyngor Gwynedd's Failing Council.
#Gwynedd #NorthWales
3579 posts
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
Last Seen Blogs
orientalreview
ORIENTAL REVIEW
minecraft-illagers
Ask the Illagers
aubreyprozac
Sem título
imaginationmint
𝒫𝒰𝑅𝐸 𝐼𝑀𝒜𝒢𝐼𝒩𝒜𝒯𝐼𝒪𝒩
ajotavia
Untitled
Text
Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting on the 18th April, 2024. First up on the agenda was the 'Gwynedd and Anglesey Public Services Board delivery arrangements' report authored by the council leader, Dyfrig Siencyn.
The committee will remember last years annual report being presented. It was ridiculed for its lack of detail and concerns were also raised that documents were missing from the Board's website. Councillors asked how there could be proper scrutiny without them. One councillor compared the plans to a ‘slow motion car crash whilst laughing along the way.' A proposal to defer the report was voted down and bizarrely the committee passed the report in spite of their concerns.
Just as last year, Cllr Siencyn did not turn up for this meeting either and his report had to be presented by Geraint Owen, the council's executive officer. Councillors again criticised this report for its lack of detail and no 'meat on the bones'. Geraint Owen, who explained that he now sits on the Board agreed with some of the criticism. For councillors who were present at the July meeing it must have been a case of deja vu.
Just as last year, a councillor proposed that the report be deferred until more detail was provided. The chair, who had herself been very vocal in her criticism of the report asked that the conversation be completed first.
But Elin Hywel did not deal with the request for deferral and went straight on to make her own recommendations one being to accept the report. Once again, a Gwynedd scrutiny committee passed a report in spite of their serious concerns and what many consider to be wholly inadequate.
A mere tick box exercise to cover for officers badly produced homework..?
This is NOT scrutiny.
For far too long, it would appear that Gwynedd councillors have followed the party line and supported senior officers to avoid reputational damage. The leader and executive officers have warned that the culture within the council must change - not fully grasping that they themselves are responsible for the culture that exists.
This culture exists because of the failure of scrutiny members to hold officers to account also.
The report, for what its worth, can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=40660
Cllr Siencyn's report is notable more for what the Board is NOT doing...
The webcast of the meeting can be found here - press the english tab for the translated feed.
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/875173
Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council...
youtube
0 notes
Text
Historic complaints were reported...
As the report was written last year, but only just released, it can be presumed that these complaints stem from 2013. The scant detail given of the historic complaints against the Arfon children's team is concerning. Were the young people in care at the time? Was the safeguarding team informed?
Not one councillor of Gwynedd's Care Scrutiny Committee asked a question in relation to the two historic complaints mentioned in the SS departments report...
People will remember the north Wales abuse scandal of the 70's through to the 1990's.
Gwynedd council sacked Alison Taylor, the social worker who blew the whistle on the abuse.,,
0 notes
Text
The Director of Cyngor Gwynedd council SS departments has finally released the Annual Complaints Handling report for 2022/23. The report was written last year but only now has it been presented for scrutiny by the Care Scrutiny Committee that meet on the 11th April, 2024…
The report is co-authored by Marian Parry Hughes (childrens dept) and Aled Davies (adults dept). It is long and gives much detail that is not usually included in these reports....
#cyngorgwynedd#gwyneddcouncil#gwynedd#northwales#historic complaints#arfon#arfon childrens team#derwen childrens services
1 note
·
View note
Text
Cyngor Gwynedd council - After the intervention of a Cabinet member, the translated feeds of the council's meetings are now working - the webcast library can be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/home
At the Governance and Audit Committee held on the 8th February, 2024, Clare Hitchcock, a lay member of the Committee raises concerns with how Gwynedd council deal with the recommendations for improvement they have agreed to undertake.
The meeting can be found here - https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/852366
Clare's comments begin at timestamp 14.30.
At the committee's meeting in May, 2023, a Task and Finish Group was set up to look into the long standing issue with rent arrears and the low rents of council owned smallholdings. It was also meant to be dealing with -
DOLS (Deprivation of Liberty)
Exit Interviews/Staff Retention now called Planning - Communication Arrangements.
Last week, Gwynedd council reported that the group did not meet in 2023 due to 'a long term illness in the Internal Audit Service'. Have they met in 2024...?
The Cabinet member for Corporate Support/Democratic Services also passed on concerns that Carys Edwards, a lay member of the group lived in a smallholding rented from the council.
Conflict of interest...?
Gwynedd council responded with -
...We agree that any member of the Governance and Audit Committee who has declared an interest cannot the be on the working group that considers the same matter in further detail. In the matter that you have specifically raised, Carys Edwards will not be able to be at the working group when smallholdings are discussed. The Head of Finance has informed me that this matter was subsequently discussed between the Chair of the Committee, the Internal Audit Manager and the Head of Finance.
Last year, the Chair and members of the committee allowed this without comment.
At least one officer from Audit Wales was also in attendence at the meeting...
More recently, the monitoring officer, Iwan G D Evans, had ruled that two Councillors put forward to a Task and Finish group to oversee the review of Gwynedd's Autism Plan were ineligible due to a conflict of interest.
Many Councillors questioned the MO's decision and believed the Councillors experiences would be invaluable to the working group and so a special meeting was called so that the Councillors could apply for 'special dispentation' and join the group.
At the special meeting, the monitoring officer actually supported the councillors and 'dispensation' was granted. The financial cost to the public purse of this special meeting was £793...
Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...
1 note
·
View note
Text
The 51 year-old former senior manager at Natwest Gibraltar is accused of fraud and false accounting during her time at the bank dating back to between 2011 and 2017.
Gillian Balban has spent hours upon hours in the witness box responding to many of the accusations heard from other witnesses during the last eight weeks.
1 note
·
View note
Text
Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Governance and Audit Committee on Thursday, 8th February 2024. Unlike most other meetings of this committee, this one was webcast and can be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/852366
Yet again, the translated feed is not working. This happens too often to be an error...
It was notable that the minutes of the previous meeting could not be presented...
Geraint Owen, the former Head of Democratic Services and now an executive director of the council, began by asking the committee not to scrutinise the reports...
The first report up is authored by Dewi Morgan, Head of Finance. His report is based on the Intenal Audit Section published last year by Luned Fon Jones which can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/s38031/OUTPUT%20OF%20THE%20INTERNAL%20AUDIT%20SECTION.pdf
At last years meeting, a service improvement group was elected to look into three main areas of concern -
Staff retention (exit interviews)
The Liberty Protection Safeguards formerly Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards DOLS
Smallholdings.
Last years meeting discussed a possible rent increase for smallholdings. The committee, along with the Audit Wales officers in attendance will remember that Carys Edwards, a lay member, had to leave the meeting during the discussion on the rent increases as she herself lives in a smallholding rented from the council.
After the discussion ended and the lay member returned, the committee then elected her to the service improvement group totally ignoring the obvious conflict of interest...
Staff retention was a major concern for last years meeting and the exit interviews were deemed crucial to discover why staff were leaving the council and the SS departments in particular.
Why Gwynedd council's Head of Finance has altered the wording is unclear as is the reason for disbanding the improvement group in the first place. More importantly, are the committee no longer interested in staff retention? - have they all just given up?
It would be interesting to discover how many of the 275 children looked after by Gwynedd council regularly miss school. Also how many of those with ALN/SEN are marked as absent?
Perhaps the exclusion officer could be asked for the information...?
Perhaps not...
The agenda pack for this meeting along with the reports sans minutes can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g4963/Public%20reports%20pack%2008th-Feb-2024%2010.30%20Governance%20and%20Audit%20Committee.pdf?T=10
Something is so very, very wrong within Gwynedd council...
youtube
#cyngorgwynedd#gwyneddcouncil#head of finance gwynedd council#head of democratic services gwynedd#gwynedd send#gwynedd aln#smallholdings in gwynedd#staff retention gwynedd council#Youtube
1 note
·
View note
Text
cyngor gwynedd council...
The behaviour of the chair is odd considering the care scrutiny committee have failed to hold cabinet members to account for the bad behaviour towards the county’s disabled and autistics in particular – culminating in several PSOW rulings against Gwynedd SS departments.
Cabinet members Beca Brown, Nia Jeffreys and now Craig ab Iago have all missed recent scrutiny committee meetings…
#gwyneddcouncil#cyngorgwynedd#becabrown#bethlawton#craigabiago#niajeffreys#gwynedd#northwales#psow#ombudsmanforwales
1 note
·
View note
Text
Below is the link to Cyngor Gwynedd council's Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee held on Thursday, 25th January 2024 -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/846470
Non Welsh speaking Councillors and the public will not be able to view the webcast as the english version is not available...
The agenda pack (and minutes of the last meeting) can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g4895/Public%20reports%20pack%2025th-Jan-2024%2010.30%20Education%20and%20Economy%20Scrutiny%20Committee.pdf?T=10
The Gwynedd Economic Development Project was first on the agenda and was to be presented by the Cabinet Member for Economy, Nia Jeffreys. The cabinet member did not attend the meeting...
From her report -
...it was intended to produce a plan for the development of the economy in the period 2023-28. An independent company was commissioned to facilitate the work and on the 1st of April 2022 a joint workshop with our main partners in the field to initiate a discussion of the needs and priorities for the period ahead.
This work has not yet been completed...
One councillor did mention that a family member was a beneficiary of available grants.
The Equality Objectives Consultation Document was presented. The report authored by Delyth Williams, contains a lot of evidence of consultation with different groups and received many responses. Yet the meeting complained that not enough was done to involve the Welsh language. It was pointed out to councillors that the language has nothing to do with the Equality Act.
Next up was the Education Annual Report 2022-23, written by the newly appointed Head of Education, Gwern ap Rhisiart. Beca Brown, the Cabinet member for Education was to present the report but she too was absent from the meeting...
This report was also detailed and informative but again the scrutiny committee wished to focus on the Welsh language used in schools and some councillors were quite scathing. On a positive, pupil absences have improved slightly...
It was left to Councillor Cai Larsen to ask the important questions regarding the safety of children in Gwynedd schools. Gwern ap Rhisiart informed that police checks (DBS) were being carried out on teachers and school staff. He reminded councillors that he had only been in post for one month...
The GwE Annual Report for 2022/23 was presented. The annual report for this year is not specific to Gwynedd and covers every Local Authority and its schools. It is difficult to take GwE seriously after the 'hotdesking' scandal and the vastly inflated fuel expenses submitted by its officers before the pandemic. Their report begins on page 184 of the agenda pack...
Finally, the Post 16 Education Project report was presented. This came at the end of a long meeting and was passed without much ado.
The meeting was most notable for the attitude of certain councillors towards the presenting officers. One wonders if they are driven by conscious bias...?
It will take time for the new Head of Education to get to grips with the failings of the past. Failings that committee members should be taking some responsibility for. They did not appear to act on media reports, nor presumably parents concerns.
How many councillors were - or are still - governors at the schools where teachers have been arrested...?
Scrutiny committees are there to hold Cabinet Members to account for the work of the departments they have responsibility for, but it falls down when the Cabinet members do not attend...
Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...
1 note
·
View note
Text
Cyngor Gwynedd council held their Governance and Audit Committee on the 14 December 2023.These committee meetings are not webcast so not available to the public nor Councillors to view on the website.
Gwynedd's Digital Strategy Review was discussed. Geraint Owen, the senior officer with responsibility for the strategy bemoaned the fact that the timing for the review was tight and that the council did not at the time of the audit have a plan whilst acknowledging the previous Digital Strategy had come to an end in 2018...
The corporate director rejected Audit Wales's observation on the Council’s decision to not consult with the pubic to develop a Digital Strategy – he noted that there had been a consultation period on the Council Plan and that establishing a Strategy was part of that Plan. He also highlighted his opinion that the report created a misunderstanding of the developments in the field and that they need to avoid this in the future.
Wales Audit responded to the director by asserting that theconsultation did not have sufficent focus on the digital field and reiterated the fact that Gwynedd council produced no evidence of reporting on progress or value for money and that the new strategy should adopt these monitoring elements.
Geraint Owen wished it noted that he did not agree with Wales Audit and on the point of ensuring value for money - it was recognised that the Strategy had not been refreshed since 2018, so in that respect it was difficult to understand how it would have been possible to monitor the achievement of a document that did not exist.
Dewi Morgan, the Head of Finance, attempted to support the director by adding - that a further discussion was needed on the definition of 'value for money', that is, discuss how value for money and productivity can be measured within the Local Authority.
Regardless of the protestations of the Executive officer, the Digital Strategy Reviewis scathing -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/s39725/Appendix%201%20Digital%20strategy%20review.%20Gwynedd.pdf
A call for the Committee to support permanent revenue bids for realising the Digital Strategy was voted down.
Senior officers informed the meeting that the audit of the council's final accounts was not yet completed. The Chair expressed her disappointment...
The full minutes of the December meeting can be found in the agenda pack for the Governance and Audit Committee held on the 18th January, 2024 and can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g4962/Public%20reports%20pack%2018th-Jan-2024%2010.00%20Governance%20and%20Audit%20Committee.pdf?T=10
At the January 18th meeting, Gwynedd council's accounts were finally released alongside warnings that the financial situation is dire. Members of the Committee pointed out the disconnect between the public reports of the senior officers and the reality of the situation facing the council which was shared to members behind closed doors by the CEO, Dafydd Gibbard.
The accounts show the usuable reserves are just over £133.5 million pounds down from the previous years £142.5 million.
Councillor Ioan Thomas, Cabinet Member for Finance presented the Savings Review report, the Revenue Budget and the end of November 2023 Capital Programme review which calls for an increase in borrowing and an increase in the use of grants and contributions to balance the departments overspends.
The review of Gwynedd council's scrutiny arrangements authored by Ian Jones, Head of Democracy Services and Vera Jones, Democracy and Language Services Manager was also presented. Tensions between members became high for this discussion with some Councillors complaining that scrutiny does not work. Mention was made that there can not be real democracy without proper scrutiny and that the Plaid Cymru group were in effect shutting down democracy.
Councillor Edgar Wyn Owen tried to rubbish the claims until it was pointed out that he himself was elected unopposed in his constituency of Waunfawr. In all 28 councillors were elected without a vote being cast - 19 of them Plaid Cymru members.
The Governance and Audit Committee is an important meeting and should be webcast by the council or at the very least the recorded Zoom meeting should be made available on Gwynedd's website for Councillors and the public to view...
Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...
1 note
·
View note
Text
Cyngor Gwynedd council have now appointed Huw Dylan Owen as Director of Social Services. The former Director had no experience of social service matters so someone with the correct background for the position hopefully meant that the past maladministration and failings within the services would not be repeated...
Bearing in mind, that Gwynedd council have admitted that the culture within the council needs to change, it is disappointing that the present director appears to be behaving in the same manner as his predecessor. In his annual report, presented to the council earlier this year, he states - .
...no young person from Gwynedd has been remanded since 2020.
This is not true and while the council may argue this was correct at the time of writing - it was most certainly not at the time of publication. Mr Owen's generic report also states -
Another example is that we refused to welcome Youth Justice inspectors as they were unable to guarantee bilingual inspectors, and they agreed to delay their inspection until this was possible.How long ago was the last inspection?
It is unacceptable that the youth justice inspectors are not bilingual, but this does mean that the service avoids inspection by an outside agency and should be of concern to all...
Moving on, Mr Owen mentions feedback and recommendations from government regulators, perhaps not realising Gwynedd council has a history of agreeing to recommendations and then ignoring them...
The director goes on -
Unfortunately, cases have arisen where things go wrong and where we have not provided a service of the expected high standard. There is a statutory complaints procedure in place to ensure that we receive feedback, and respond to any concerns so that we do not repeat mistakes. Reference has already been made to the main trends of the complaints for this year, and an official summary will appear before the Care Scrutiny Committee in September 2023. We intend to place our complaints report and comments on the Council’s website in the future so that they are available to the public.
Gwynedd council's democratic services were recently asked for a copy of the report that the director informed at a previous meeting was available for members on request. It took a second email asking for an update to which an officer replied with -
The annual Social Services complaints handling reports have been presented to Cabinet and Scrutiny in the past but the reports for 2022/23 are yet to be scheduled to be presented to a committee meeting.
This word salad from the democracy service ignores the fact that the statutory documents have not been presented for proper scrutiny for nearly five years and confirms yet another statement from the director's report that is incorrect.
The children and adults complaints handling reports are important documents. Alongside the Director's Annual report they are the first documents to be read by government agencies as a snapshot of how the departments are performing. They may also be read by investigators when more serious concerns are raised.
A reminder that these reports have been called out for their disingenuity and data manipulation since 2016 and no complaints handling report has been presented to the care scrutiny committee since 2019...
For what its worth, the report from the director can be found here -
https://www.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/en/Council/Documents---Council/Performance-and-spending/Adroddiad-y-Cyfarwyddwr-Gwasanaethau-Cymdeithasol-22-23-SAES-2.pdf
Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...
1 note
·
View note
Text
Inquiry into treatment of women and girls in GMP custody could be published within months
Deputy mayor Kate Green provided an update on the Baird Review
0 notes
Text
youtube
The Interview: Baroness Mone and the PPE Scandal
0 notes
Text
The behind the scenes details of Neuralink's grisly monkey experiments just keep getting worse.
Now, a followup investigation by Wired reveals that a Neuralink implant "deformed and ruptured" the brain of one female macaque, after an experiment caused severe cerebral swelling.
The trials, conducted at the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) at UC Davis by Neuralink scientists, had left the seven-year-old monkey with "severe neurological defects."
After noting the severity of its brain swelling, the researchers realized that the primate was terminal. But instead of easing its suffering, the scientist overseeing the experiment insisted the monkey be kept alive another day.
Its final 24 hours were torturous. Per documents obtained by Wired, the monkey seized and vomited, lost control of her right leg, and shook uncontrollably. It also appeared to have trouble breathing, scratching at its throat and gasping for air.
A postmortem revealed the extent of the damage. Leaked adhesive from the implant had inflamed the part of the brain that secretes cerebrospinal fluid. The effects were so severe that the rear of the monkey's brain protruded from its skull, though how the cavity was created is unclear.
But as bad as all this sounds, we may still not even know the half of it, as the photos that document the trials are being kept secret, Wired adds.
Ethics groups like the Physicians Committee, which sued UC Davis, have been pressing for the release of hundreds of photos documenting Neuralink's grisly brain implant experiments. As a public institution, the committee argues, UC Davis has an obligation to transparency. So far, this has been to no avail.
Questions about whether animals should be made to suffer for research that could one day benefit humans often haunt biomedical research.
It's a thorny issue, but it does sound as though UC Davis and Neuralink — like many of Musk's ventures — has pushed norms to the brink and leveraged aggressive tactics to keep the research quiet. For example, even though the brain rupturing incident with the macaque was acknowledged as a violation of the US Animal Welfare Act by federal regulators, Wired says the CNPRC preempted being legally implicated by self-reporting the violation.
"If you want to split hairs," an anonymous former Neuralink employee told Wired, "the implant itself did not cause death. We sacrificed her to end her suffering."
This only scratches the surface of the legal tricks being used to withhold the potentially damning photos. We won't wade too far into the weeds here, but the most important argument used by UC Davis is that the public is simply unequipped to properly interpret the photographs.
By extension, the institution claims that backlash caused by the content of the photos would not only endanger the scientists, but discourage them from taking such photos in the first place.
But this issue is bigger than Elon Musk's Neuralink, UC Davis, or the CNPRC. They're undoubtedly not the only bodies out there conducting questionable tests on animals, and the Physicians Committee has vehemently argued that the public has a right to know the nature of any animal testing funded by taxpayers.
That certainly doesn't exonerate Neuralink from wrongdoing, however, and its publicity — and that of its eccentric owner — quite rightly invites further scrutiny, its opponents argue.
"Disclosure of the footage is particularly important because Neuralink actively misleads the public about, and downplays the gruesome nature of, the experiments," an attorney representing the Physicians Committee in the lawsuit told Wired.
Nevertheless, the negative press hasn't deterred Neuralink going ahead with human trials — though the outcome of the Physician Committee's lawsuit may cast a long shadow over those experiments.
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
The former inclusion officer tried to ensure an education for all - including those with complex needs, autism, behavioural issues et al. What is the problem with the Arfon schools? Has policy changed?
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Wathelet, who to this day is a Belgian politician, a member of the Humanist Democratic Centre and former Minister-President of Wallonia (one of Belgium's three regions) - went on to be criticised by famed psychologist David Canter for having 'encouraged the early release of many sex offenders', including Dutroux.
0 notes
Text
According to ALQST yesterday, a rights group which documents human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Specialised Criminal Court issued the sentence for 18-year-old Manal al-Gafiri in August. She was reportedly 17 at the time of her arrest for tweeting in support of political prisoners in the kingdom.
0 notes
Text
In other news, there is a bin strike in Gwynedd. This is another crisis of the council's own making. Relationships between the staff and senior officers have not recovered since the pandemic when a bonus was denied the essential workers
1 note
·
View note