Whistle-blower blasts Children’s Services
By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter
The two suggestions have been made by a former worker within the department who has spoken to the Local Democracy Service about the problems there.
Last week Care Inspectorate Wales issued another report following an inspection and said that some things are improving, but there are still serious issues for the department to address.
Part of the problem, which has seen millions of pounds poured into Children’s Services, is the department’s reliance on agency workers.
The whistle-blower said: “The problem now is that the agency workers will be difficult to replace as trained social workers are very wary about coming to PCC to work.
“I saw poor practice and when I flagged this up I ended up being ostracised and eventually becoming ill and I wasn’t the only one. I did bring this up with councillors and nothing happened.
“I note that there is a new director (Ali Bulman) and head of service (Jan Coles) there now. My advice would be to strip the department bare and start again. That or bring the Welsh Government in properly to run the department.”
The councillors concerned were contacted by the Local Democracy Service on the issue, however they chose to have a PCC spokesman issue a statement on their behalf.
It reads: “The county council has a zero tolerance approach towards bullying regardless of the service and encourages staff to take immediate action through the ‘Grievance Policy’ to allow investigation.
“Where allegations relate to areas such as possible financial irregularities or professional misconduct, the council has a clear whistle-blowing procedure which allows issues to be fully and professionally investigated without fear of repercussion to individuals.”
Last week the Care Inspectorate Wales published a report following another inspection of the service in October 2018.
While noting improvements since their damning inspection report of October 2017, they still had serious concerns. Part of these concerns are to do with the workforce turnover in the department.
The CIW said: “The continued turnover in the workforce and temporary middle management arrangements have been significant factors impeding the pace of change.
“A restructure of children’s services is about to go to the workforce for consultation. The director believes the restructure will significantly aid recruitment.
“The restructure will also allow the director to introduce permanent management arrangements and this should provide further assurance to staff.”
At a scrutiny meeting in December 2018, newly appointed head of children’s services Jan Coles told councillors that the department would be restructured as the current structure had “failed”.
Next week (January 24) the report will be discussed at a meeting of PCC’s Full Council.
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