Doncaster

[greengrass]

And the reality at Doncaster Children's Services:

http://www.thestar.co.uk/doncaster/Stre ... 5660931.jp.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

10 February 2009


Via email



Our ref: CS/09/010/HJP
(Please quote our reference when contacting us)



If telephoning contact Hilary Pook on 020 7217 4734
or if using email send to: h.pook@lgo.org.uk



Dear

Request for information

In your email of 19 January, you asked for some figures on children’s social care complaints against Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council in the last three years (ie between April 2005 and March 2008).

There were a total of 16 complaints related to Children’s and Family Services. The breakdown was as follows:

Reports finding maladministration (with or without injustice) none
Local settlements 2
No, or insufficient evidence of maladministration 1
Ombudsman’s discretion not to pursue the complaint 4
Outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction 2
Premature complaints (not complained to the council first) 7
Total 16

Of the local settlements, the sum of the specific financial remedies agreed was £2,800.

You also asked how many times members of the Ombudsman’s staff visited the Council in relation to these investigations. Visits are not always recorded on our computer complaint tracking system, but we have a record of at least two cases that involved a visit to the Council.

Finally, you asked if any investigations were completed purely on data or information supplied by Doncaster MBC, and the answer is no.


/…



That concludes my response and I hope you find the information useful. If you feel I have not dealt properly with your request, you have the right to appeal and, should you wish to do so, I can supply a copy our internal complaints procedure. You also have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner to determine whether your request has been properly dealt with. You should note however that the Commissioner will not consider any complaint where you have not first exhausted our internal complaints process or where there has been undue delay in contacting him. You will be able to obtain further details of the Information Commissioner’s role from the website on http://www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Hilary Pook


Hilary Pook (Ms)
Communications and Records Manager

[ABH]

The problem stems from Labour's tick box and target mentality, never mind the quality of service just make sure the boxes are ticked and targets are met and as long as that happens Government is happy, until a Baby P or similar tragedy comes along! Local Government Ombudsman Investigators have targets for completing cases within a set period and that's the reason why they rush to terminate a complaint for any old reason they can find or manufacture, there's money in them there completed complaints £££££££££££ even if they terminate them for the wrong reasons.

[Ann]

It may help if links to similar threads were included in new posts. There are many different yet similar threads to this and a summary of similar posts together with links may help readers get a better understanding of the issue under discussion.

[ABH]

Edlington report finds multiple failings by numerous agencies

An horrific assault in which two children were almost killed by brothers aged 10 and 11 should have been prevented by the agencies that were supposed to be caring for the young attackers, a report has found.

A leaked copy of the findings, seen by BBC's Newsnight, states that nine agencies in Doncaster failed on 31 separate occasions to take measures that might have prevented the attack.

The report is the latest in a series of probes into failings by Doncaster social services, where since 2004 seven children have died while they were on the at-risk register.

Doncaster council’s children’s services department — whose operation was taken over by a Government team last year — is blamed in the report for displaying a lack of leadership and accountability.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... ttr=797084

[Ann]

Communities Secretary John Denham welcomed today's decision by the Audit Commission to carry out a corporate governance inspection of Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council.

The Audit Commission took this decision in the light of serious concerns about the Council's performance in the last two years and the threat to public confidence caused by recent events. The inspection will be carried out as soon as possible. The Government will provide any relevant information to the Audit Commission's inspector.

In December, Doncaster council scored a 1 out of 4 in their annual Comprehensive Area Assessment and its services got two red flags. Last week, the Edlington Serious Case Review highlighted a number of failings in the council and other partners. Although there have been improvements in Children's Services, more needs to be done.

Representatives from CLG and DCSF held a productive meeting with Doncaster council on Thursday to discuss a package of support to help them make improvements. The inspection will inform that. Effective corporate governance will be an important part of how Doncaster can begin to deliver better services.

John Denham said:

"I welcome the decision by the Audit Commission to carry out an independent corporate governance inspection in Doncaster.

"I promise the people of Doncaster that we are prepared to use the powers we have to tackle any issues identified by the Audit Commission which require government action."

http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1445455

[ABH]

Mr Leader, officially Doncaster’s current director of finance and monitoring officer, was effectively appointed [CEO] following a majority decision of the full council.

Cllr Richard Kemp, leader of the Liberal Democrats at the LGA, said: ‘Normally, I resist the idea of “outsiders” coming in to tell councillors and their staff how to do things.

‘However, in the case of Doncaster, I think that outside intervention is now all that can work. Doncaster has been a basket case for local democracy for more than a decade.’

http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?met ... l&id=85997

[shc]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/ ... functional

Doncaster council 'failing and dysfunctional'
Monday 19 April 2010

Ministers have been urged to take control of a local authority at the centre of the Edlington boys scandal after it was heavily criticised as failing, dysfunctional and riven by political infighting in a damning auditors report published today.

Councillors and senior officers failed to run the council properly, put political feuding before providing good services, and allowed bullying and intimidation to flourish, says the Audit Commission report into Doncaster council in south Yorkshire.

It criticises the behaviour of the controversial elected mayor, the English Democrat Peter Davies, and says he "'does not always act in a way which demonstrates the need for an elected mayor to lead his authority and represent all the people in Doncaster".

Council officials and senior councillors are also taken to task. The report says: "Some influential councillors place their antagonism towards the mayor and the mayoral system, and the achievements of their political objectives, above the needs of the people of Doncaster, and their duty to lead the continuous improvement of services."

The report concludes: "The people of Doncaster are not well-served by their council."

It urges the local government secretary, John Denham, to consider taking some or all of Doncaster's services out of the hands of the council and handing them to a team of commissioners to run them.

The council's children's services department was criticised recently in the wake of the Edlington boys torture case, but today's report makes clear that its housing and education services are also underperforming badly and are unlikely to improve without outside intervention.

Doncaster's childrens services apologised in January for failing the public after two boys aged 10 and 11 in the care of the council were sentenced to indefinite detention for carrying out sadistic assaults on two younger boys in the village of Edlington, near Doncaster.

The Audit Commission said it undertook its investigation – known as a corporate governance inspection – because of "repeated evidence, over more than 15 years, that the council is not well run". It said the body, which has experienced a succession of scandals in recent years, including the conviction of 21 councillors for fraud in the so-called Donnygate affair, had been successful in deflecting all previous attempts to address its problems.

Responding to the report, Davies said: "I see the report as broadly right, although I don't agree with all of the detail. Many of the problems at the council were embedded before I arrived, and I see this as time to draw a line in the sand and move forward for the good of the council and the people we serve, and I am confident we can do this.

He added: "I was, and still am, determined to provide a lead to make Doncaster a better place to live and work. My cabinet and I are committed to turning the council around with the support of strong leadership and members who are willing to work together so that the council can improve."

John Ransford, chief executive of the Local Government Association group, said: "This is a brutally frank assessment of the huge difficulties that have beset Doncaster for many years. The situation is not acceptable, things must improve, and we will play our full part in helping this happen."

[Ann]

Doncaster are not alone, many other councils are in melt down, it's just that the proverbial hit the fan at Doncaster whilst it hasn't in many other councils. Watchdogs such as the Audit Commission and the LGO have been covering council's arses for years and it's only when something big happens as in Doncaster, Haringey etc that they pull their noses out of the council's backsides and do their job.

[ABH]

Doncaster is not all bad! But don't take my word, this is what the LGO stated in their last annual review of Doncaster

........the Council’s complaints procedure is working satisfactorily.

Now isn't that funny? The whole of Doncaster is in a complete mess, and has been for years, but they still have a satisfactory complaints procedure as far as the LGO is concerned. Please don't tell me Seex looks after Doncaster because that would explain a lot!

[Ann]

Doncaster council 'failing and dysfunctional' but not the bit monitored by the LGO. So much for the competence and integrity of the LGO.

[ABH]

In the 2008 Doncaster Annual review the LGO state Part of our role is to provide advice and guidance about good administrative practice. Seex also visited Doncaster during that reporting year. Both may explain why Doncaster is in the sh*t but the LGO think Doncaster has a satisfactory complaints procedure. Seex' advice and guidance appear to be as crap as her monitoring, investigative and reporting abilities.

[greengrass]

The LGO doesn't think that Doncaster is a dysfunctional and entirely useless council. In fact it's quite good according to that entirely dysfunctional regulator. The LGO and especially Seex has to go or be radically reformed in the public interest.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c ... ming-85487

[greengrass]

Mr Eric Pickles has been very decisive, focussed, speedy and resolute in regard to Doncaster Council. He clearly recognises a dysfunctional and failing Council even if the LGO doesn't or doesn't want to. The figures in relation to redress and investigation from the LGO that I gained in relation to Doncaster cannot be correct statistically from a wholly impartial and truly independent regulator in relation to a truly dysfunctional and failing Council. And Mr Pickles does seem to have more of the public interest at heart than Councils' interests. I am sure that Mr Pickles only wants what we want that is a truly fair, impartial and independent regulator. One that is not systemically biased towards the Councils and their CEOs. I really think that to lobby Mr Piclkes and his officials reasonably and properly, with all of the horror stories attached about the LGO, may bear fruit. In essence he seems to be a very decent man in the first instance.

[Ann]

Mr Pickles made clear that wider government intervention was necessary. “The dysfunctional politics, poor services and ineffective leadership must be addressed,” he said. The Board of Commissioners will be able to appoint, discipline or dismiss officers.

John Denham, the former Communities Secretary, had pledged to intervene after the Audit Commission’s damning report in April, but he was unable to follow that through.

The commission’s report traced the council’s troubled history from the Donnygate scandal in the mid-1990s which led to 73 arrests and 21 councillors being convicted for expenses fraud and corruption involving planning applications.

It concluded that Peter Davies, the directly elected Mayor of Doncaster, senior councillors and officers were incapable of delivering adequate public services. The commission described the findings as the most serious indictment it had ever made “of the way a council was run at top level”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 142901.ece

What were the Local Government Ombudsmen doing for the last 15 years? Covering the arses of Doncaster Council staff rather than doing their job!

[greengrass]

Precisely Ann. Doncaster Council and others could be a cause celebre as regards the LGO. Any reasonable and independent bystander will quickly realise that the proven disparity between the actuality at Doncaster and the facade created by the LGO is impossible statistically. These are facts and cannot be spun by the LGO lie machine. Mr Pickles appears to be the kind of guy that will take regard of this sort of outrageous anomaly. However things quickly change when in Government.

[Crazy C]

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/inde ... rticles&q=

Doncaster monitoring officer advised council on his own appointment as chief executive, says Audit Commission

Doncaster's former monitoring officer Tim Leader gave advice to the council on his own appointment as interim chief executive despite the council receiving two separate pieces of legal advice advising it that he should have stood aside when it become clear that he was a serious candidate for the post, the Audit Commission said in its report into the local authority’s corporate governance.

Mr Leader joined Doncaster MBC as director of resources and monitoring officer in September 2009 from Breckland District Council, where he was deputy chief executive and monitoring officer.

When the former chief executive resigned in December, Mr Leader played an active part in the process to find his replacement, providing advice to the full council and its Chief Officers Appointments Committee (COAC) long after it was apparent that he was a prime candidate for the role and despite legal advice to the Cabinet from Eversheds that he should withdraw from the process and declare an interest.

The report said: “We have seen no evidence that Mr Leader expressed concern about the fundamental conflict between his ability to advise the Mayor, Cabinet and Council impartially, and his being one of the likely beneficiaries of the process about which he was advising. The evidence we have received makes it clear that Mr Leader continued to advise the Council on the process it should follow to appoint an Interim Chief Executive even after it became clear that he was a leading candidate for that position.”

Following the initial announcement of Mr Leader's appointment on 18 January 2010, the Director of People, Performance and Improvement, Kay Leigh, and the Interim Monitoring Officer, Roger Harvey (who succeeded Tim Leader), received further legal advice from Wragge & Co on 1 February 2010 which said: “The procedural objections can not be lightly discarded. They appear to be serious, honestly held and substantial in terms of the importance of the appointment.”

The legal advice from Wragge & Co also suggested two further defects with the procedure adopted by the Council. It said that council's constitution was defective in not including within the COAC a voting member of the Executive, i.e. the Mayor or a Cabinet member. Secondly, the advice said that “the resolution of the Council on 18 January was not effective because statutory consultation and objection to any proposed appointment had not taken place. Both procedural requirements are contained in the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001”.

Tim Leader was nevertheless confirmed as interim chief executive at an extraordinary meeting of the council on 3 February, despite the elected mayor's objections to the appointment process and his stated opposition to his appointment. Leader subsequently resigned on 1 April.

The Audit Commission concluded: “The process of appointing the former Interim Chief Executive, Tim Leader, is symptomatic of the fundamental governance failures which afflict the Council. It is a prime example of poor governance processes at work. It also exemplifies the inability of a key officer and some councillors involved in the process to see above their own self-interest and act for the greater good of the people of Doncaster.

“The former Interim Chief Executive, who was previously the Monitoring Officer of the Council, failed to behave in a way that lives up to the required standards of behaviour. He undermined perceptions of the role of Chief Executive as an impartial servant of the Mayor and the Council. The Council failed to live up to minimum governance standards, and persevered with an appointment process they were advised by external legal experts was flawed.”

The District Auditor is currently seeking legal advice and is awaiting the conclusion of this inspection before he decides whether there is any action he needs to take in response to the Corporate Governance Inspection findings in relation to the defects in the appointment process.

With my council, the monitoring officer just invented a new job, gave himself more power than the CEO, paid himself ( with the agreement of the outgoing section 151 officer ) £ 120,000 PA ( same as the last CEO ). Then just increaces the new CEOs wages by £ 30,000 ( to £ 150,000 ) so his wages would be less noticable , and this is just after he the new CEO started his job on an agreed £ 120,000.

So, for £ 120,000 + pa we get a new exec director of business.

Were has this great mind worked, what skills from the outsid eworld do we get for 120k, only worked for my council as there legal officer since 1997.

and my councils been one of the worst financialy managed constantly ( audit commission ) since then.

[ABH]

Jobs for the boys created by the boys. Aided and abetted by SOLACE.

[greengrass]

The posts always go off on ridiculous tangents in this forum. Quite frankly it's a waste of time when facts and statistics, helpful to the overall goal, are not given any credence whatsoever.

[Crazy C]

Sorry there

Just trying to point out the link with the monitring officers and how data gets reported outside councils.

Am sure that for York LGO to give doncaster a clean bill of health for so many years they must have had good reports from the council. The LGOs have to trust the information given to them by the monitoring officer. The problem with the LGO is they seem unable to spot glaring oddeties in the data there presented. By all accounts the records managment at doncaster SS was shockingly dsyfunctional.

[Ann]

The posts always go off on ridiculous tangents in this forum. Quite frankly it's a waste of time when facts and statistics, helpful to the overall goal, are not given any credence whatsoever.

I agree but there are often mitigating factors, many threads are started with slightly different titles essentially discussing similar issues to those which are already under discussion in other threads without any links of reference to them. Making it very difficult for people to follow or gather all the general and specific points about a particular issue under discussion from just one thread. This also makes it extremely difficult for a person to choose the right thread to respond to or even the right response?

Nearly all topics on this forum interlink one way or another, a problem with one council or ombudsman could be linked to a common problem with others. Whilst some may be discussing the issue as a generic problem others maybe discussing essentially the same issue as a problem with a specific council or ombudsman or even a problem they have encountered during their individual complaint.

This very response is another example of how a thread can go off on a tangent, but how else could I respond to the point you made above?

[marie]

with regards the complaints process re -the children's services.
Complaints officers are obstructing complaints by telling the complainant that they cannot put in a complaint as they have been through care proceedings. This is false. You can still put in a complaint but can't challenge the court evidence. The CO's fudge this and make out you cant put in an official complaint. There are also people who have told me that they have dropped complaints as they have been threatened by the councils that they will speak out in court against their children coming home. Then there are all the people who daren't put in a complaint when they are fighting for their children as it might hinder their children being returned.

Seex must be a complete ass if she thinks a small number of complaints means that people are happy with Doncaster SS.