Dumfries & Galloway Council Officers refuse to reply – what are Elected Members. MSPs and regulators doing about this unacceptable situation?

The following was delivered to Gavin Stevenson Chief Executive Dumfries & Galloway Council & Alexander Haswell Director of Chief Executive Service on 16-April at 10:04 and then copied extensively.  Including to: The Convener, The Leader, other Elected Members, MSPs, former local MPs, other Council Officers, Care Commission Director of Adult Services Regulation, Mental Welfare Commission, Dumfries CAB Chief Executive, UCI, SWIA, The Deputy Chief Constable (DCC), carers and the media, together with a number of relevant attachments, not reproduced here but available on request to DGPPG. 

It is highly critical and explicitly provided for a right of reply, requesting  evidence of why any of the criticism, some personal, should not be placed openly ‘on the record’ in the public interest if no such evidence was provided.  Eleven days later, well outwith the much extended time period for a response and despite repeated reminders pressing for such a reply, nothing has been received.  So it can only be reasonably assumed all the following is agreed by GS and AH as true and fair comment for the open public record.  Being fully documented all comments can be ’stood up’ in any event, whilst all original emails and letters are freely discoverable from the Council under FoI. 

It is also disappointing that no response has been received from senior Elected Members, the Convener & Leader, who appear to be failing in their duty to represent effectively those who elected them and hold Council Officers properly to account for their behaviour and failures of due process.  Action and comments are also awaited from the regulatory bodies and MSPs etc. 

Dear Mr Stevenson.  We are very pleased to hear from several Elected Members that you will shortly be returning to your post after a long absence and send you very best wishes for a full recovery, hoping to see you again soon.  Unfortunately the saga is seemingly never ending, because your senior officers continue to refuse to answer complaints in an honest, open and transparent way.  They either ignore the questions that are raised or redefine any complaint in their terms to suit the negative rejection they intend to give, whatever the truth.  As we told you on 23 Nov last year, your Council complaints system is morally corrupt.  We are sure all recipients are very bored with the saga and too much correspondence but we make no apology for this, especially as you agreed on 23/11/09 that the complaints and matters raised are legitimate and not vexatious.  We are not stopping until this moral corruption is corrected and believe you support us in that, from what you said last year.

We refer to Mr Haswell’s latest reply, on your behalf, of 12 April 2010, copy attached Ref: SS/3-AH/FS/006.  Yet again this reply is wholly unsatisfactory.  Legitimate questions and complaints we raised have not been answered.  Either the Care Commission continues to be misled by your Officers or we and others in the DPCH Improvement Project Groups have been deliberately lied to.  It’s as simple as that, especially when the Council Press statement of 1 April is taken into account.  Our questions about this to the Project Manager on 6 April remain unanswered. 

We wish to stress we are making no complaint whatsoever about the Project Manager, because she is now put in an impossible position by her senior managers.  She has worked tirelessly and honestly, recognising the importance of the DP model of care in all its facets as a very important resource to all in Dumfries & Galloway.  We trust her, but it seems her good works and ours are being subverted.  That project has nothing to do with day to day routine and ongoing maintenance, decoration, replacements and repairs.  Mr Haswell has chosen to ignore the undertakings given to us all over the past many years, but especially the last two by Mr Alexander and Mrs Collington, that these day to day jobs would be done.  That is not good enough or acceptable.  Can we have all the outstanding answers please.

We do not want a repeat of the history we discussed in November.  Mr Haswell has buried complaints, including one that concerned him directly and the formal Council meeting he convened after 5pm in the public bar of a Castle Douglas hotel to discuss the last FDP complaint, which was of course never answered.  He stated in the presence of three very reliable witnesses that if we wanted to complain to the Ombudsman then we could and if the Council “got a slapped wrist then we will simply ignore it”.  Mr Haswell knows all this is documented and on the record, as is his failure to properly action meetings with Council minutes and Mr & Mrs A’s letter of 10 May 2007 (copy attached) which remains unanswered to this day.  In addition to delivery by email, Mrs A has a signed receipt for its hand delivery to Council HQ.  It concerns a complaint about abuse by a carer at DP and interference with Powers of Attorney, another complaint buried by your Officers, particularly Mr Haswell.  History is now repeating with a named and registered Social Worker (note complaint now submitted to SSSC) because no lessons are learned or corrections made by managers.  This latest ‘investigation’ was another bungled whitewash.

Last November you urged us to complain to the Law Society/SLCC, the SPSO and Standards Commission, because your officers were assuring you that all was resolved.  Because of your extended absence we have not been able to discuss this further with you since, but can advise that complaints have been lodged with SLCC & the Chief Investigating Officer and SSSC.  Since this involves a former Dumfries & Galloway solicitor, now understood to be employed by Edinburgh City Council, a courtesy copy of this note confirming this has been sent to that Chief Executive.

Mr Haswell does refer to the Police and the report you said we would receive.  But DCC Graham has already dealt with this timeously, unlike Mr Haswell.  We have already have a detailed reply from the DCC, which is also attached along with our thanks.  As we say your officers could learn a lot from the Police management culture and the way their complaints procedure actually works and is seen to be open, transparent and honest, being managed with integrity.  Please can / will you establish the same culture in the Council, as the Police have achieved this with effective leadership.       

Finally Mr Haswell appeared to bully the FDP volunteer charity with implied threats about “legal advice”.  Bullying is another characteristic we have experienced in the past from Council Officers.  He also talks about the “right of reply”.  So we are giving a right of reply to the criticism we make in this note.  If by close of business on Monday 19 April Mr Haswell can evidence anything in this note that is untrue, then we will happily withdraw and apologise.  If not then it is all on the public record and we will seek the maximum scrutiny of all the multiple Council failures by whatever means.  It seems that adverse publicity is the only way to hold this Council to account, unless Elected Members will actively do so outwith ‘Party’ politics.

We look forward to your reply by or on Monday, otherwise we assume all that we say is accepted as true and for the public record.   Thank you.   AWIA welfare attorney.