Agenda item

Cabinet Member – Councillor Dilwyn Morgan

To consider a report on the above.

Submitted - the report of the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, providing an overview of the complaints, information requests and statements of appreciation received during 2018/19.

The Cabinet Member and officers expanded on the content of the report, and also responded to questions / observations from the members.

The committee's appreciation of the staff's hard work was expressed, and it was noted that it was positive to see that so few complaints had been received, and that so few of those complaints had progressed to Step 2.

It was noted that although the historic information was included in the report, that it would be beneficial to see the figures in the form of a table, so as to clearly see whether a pattern had developed.

Referring to complaint GC/3257-15 in Appendix 3 to the report, and specifically to the Ombudsman's strong view that autism training should be available to everyone within the Department, and not limited to Derwen staff, an enquiry was made as to whether there had been any further development on this matter.  In response, the Senior Safeguarding and Quality Manager noted:-

·         In addition to the question of training, that there was a question regarding social workers' ability to cope with situations where extremely specialist elements were present within assessments.

·         That a new service was now in place at a North Wales level, and a procedure in place so that teams within children's services could gain clarity in terms of what could be offered in addition to what previously existed.

·         That this interlinked with matters such as guidance for access to Derwen services, and whether someone who had autism and had ability and was able to act independently was considered disabled, etc.

·         Therefore, there was much complexity in this case between the legal advice given, the wording of the legislation, and the Ombudsman's decision in terms of how that should be interpreted.

·         Following the Ombudsman's latest challenge, that a specialist in the autism field had been commissioned to further support the Council in ensuring that the arrangements were stronger for the future. 

·         As there was a strong lobby for this type of specialist services, the Council faced considerable pressure to be able to assess in accordance with its duties; but it was believed that the new interlinking with the service for North Wales was beneficial in reinforcing this.

·         That a response had been sent to the Ombudsman on this matter, and that there had been further discussions between the Council and the Ombudsman regarding to what extent the Ombudsman was satisfied with the steps the Council had now put in place.

The Cabinet Member noted that he did not wish for the committee to go into overly detailed discussion on this matter as the case was a live one and referred to an individual.  He explained that the Council did not have much experience of dealing with the Ombudsman, as only one case had arisen in several years, and he suggested that the Chief Executive could perhaps expand on the Council's progress in terms of responding and developing the relationship with the Ombudsman.

The Chief Executive noted:-

·         That this had been an extremely difficult case, and as the Department had not experienced many cases in which the Ombudsman had decided against it, it was possible that we had not been successful in changing our operating principles to what the Ombudsman would have liked to have seen.

·         That a letter had been received from the Ombudsman following his second report, expressing concern regarding aspects of what had been done.

·         That he would be paying a visit to the Ombudsman the following week, and that he was of the opinion that it was mainly communication issues which were at the root of this matter.  

·         That he was reasonably confident that the Council had attempted to do the right thing, but in so doing, had forgotten that it was necessary to adhere to the letter of what had been agreed with the Ombudsman.

·         That the Ombudsman had noted in his first report that he expected the Council to provide training on the complaints procedure to all its social workers within 12 months, so that they were aware of their duties should they identify an individual who wished to make a complaint.  Despite the fact that the report to this committee and the report submitted to the Cabinet in July noted that training sessions 'would' be held, the Ombudsman was outraged, as the July Cabinet meeting was held two months after the time by which the training should have been completed.

·         As there had also been confusion regarding the wording of one of the Ombudsman’s recommendations relating to the parents' assessment, we also did not comply with another clause which we had agreed to implement.

·         That the recommendations of the report had now been acted upon, and that the assessment for the parent was also happening. He would report this in his meeting with the Ombudsman.

In response to an enquiry regarding play facilities for children at Hafan y Sêr, the Senior Safeguarding and Quality Manager noted that there was now an agreement between the services for moving the matter forward.  The Member was thanked for his intervention, which had been helpful in breaking down the barriers. 

It was noted that there was a great appreciation of the provision at Hafan y Sêr, and that staff should be contacted to thank them for all their work.

On behalf of the Service, the Senior Safeguarding and Quality Manager thanked the Customer Care Officer for all her work. Members also expressed their gratitude to the officer, to all the officers named in Appendix 4 to the report (list of examples of appreciation 2018/19), and those who may not have been named; and asked for a message to be sent back to the Department conveying the committee's appreciation of their valuable work.

RESOLVED to accept the report.