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40.01  As we have said in paragraph 5.01, the balance in Gwynedd on 1 April 1974 between children in residential care and those boarded out/fostered was already heavily in favour of the latter (80 : 122). This was, of course, an inheritance from the predecessor counties, particularly the largest, Caernarvonshire. The number of ""children in care"" did not fluctuate very greatly in the following ten years above and below 300 (the extremes were 323 and 278), as Table B shows, but they began to decline quite steeply then to only 216 in 1989/1990. The table, for the period 1975 to 1990, was compiled by CIPFA and only those years for which the figures are incomplete have been omitted. It was not until the early 1980s that the percentage of children boarded out began to rise appreciably and the percentage of children in residential care declined. In terms of the actual numbers of children boarded out, the peak (181) was reached by 31 March 1986 but there was then a progressive decline to 137 by 31 March 1994 out of a total of 159 children in care (17 were in residential care).

40.02  In Wales as a whole the picture was broadly similar, as is shown by Table C, covering the whole period from 1975 to 1994. Ignoring a dubious figure for 1978/1979, the decline in the total number of "children in care" began in 1980/1981, when it was 4976, and the numbers progressed steadily downwards to 1970 by 31 March 1994, apart from a temporary increase between 1989 and 1991. The percentage of children boarded out rose steadily in the same period from 1980/1981, with only a few exceptions, from 34.7 to 81.3 by 31 March 1994.

  40.03  During the first part of the period under review Area teams in Gwynedd were responsible for the recruitment, selection and preparation of foster parents as well as the placement and supervision of foster children. A senior social worker would be responsible for visiting and assessing prospective foster families. The Area's reports were then submitted to a Fostering Panel, which was responsible for making a recommendation. Foster parents were required to sign the undertakings prescribed in the Boarding Out Regulations. There was little guidance available to social workers involved in fostering, however, apart from supervision from senior staff, and there were considerable variations in practice.Table B: Children in care Gwynedd

Table C: All Welsh Counties

40.04  During the early 1980s efforts were made by Area teams to improve and supplement selection methods by arranging meetings for applicants, by requiring them to attend "Parenting Plus" courses and by encouraging foster parents to meet each other.

  40.05  We were told that increasing recognition of the complexity and specialist nature of foster care service led to the establishment in 1984 of a fostering unit at Cartref Bontnewydd[537]. At first this unit had only one member of staff but it expanded to a staff of four plus a clerical assistant. Under a partnership arrangement with Gwynedd County Council the unit assumed responsibility for the recruitment, selection, preparation, review and support of foster parents whilst the Areas retained responsibility for the placement and supervision of children in foster homes.

  40.06  In the later part of the period under review, following the enactment of the Children Act 1989 and the Foster Placement Regulations 1991 made thereunder, Gwynedd procedures were governed by a Departmental Child Care Manual which set out details, amongst other things, of the planned and staged selection process in which applicants' group meetings were seen as an integral and essential part of the assessment. Detailed guidance in the Manual to residential carers was not, however, adapted for foster carers.

  40.07  In the report of the Examination Team on Child Care Procedures and Practice in North Wales[538] Adrianne Jones drew attention[539] to the fact that both Clwyd and Gwynedd were then making considerably less use of residential care and had a higher proportion of children placed with foster carers than other authorities in England or Wales. In 1995 Gwynedd had access to 170 foster carers and this number included carers providing placement for children with disabilities. The report commented that Cartref Bontnewydd was a relatively small unit to bear responsibility for the support of so many carers spread over wide and difficult terrain as well as the responsibility for all recruitment and reviewing activity. It had been argued in 1991, when the Children Act 1989 was implemented, that additional resources were required and that a family placement officer ought to be established in each of the county's five areas, but that argument had not prevailed. A report in March 1994 by a Children Act Research Group of the University of Wales, Cardiff, which was commissioned by the Welsh Office Social Services Inspectorate, concluded, "The structure of the fostering service in Gwynedd, while properly underwritten by policy and procedures, has evident weaknesses that flow largely from the level of investment in staffing and the undeveloped management information system".

Complaints of abuse in foster homes in Gwynedd

  40.08  One of the matters that attracted public attention in the course of the major investigation by North Wales Police was a reported suggestion in September 1992 that a file containing evidence of physical abuse of a foster child, including photographs, had remained in Gwynedd County Council's possession for eight years. This file, about a child hereafter called M, was in fact amongst documents to which the police had been given access but the report prompted the Chief Constable of North Wales Police to add his voice to those who were already calling for an inquiry into the conduct of the Social Services Departments of both North Wales counties.

  40.09  In the event there was no public inquiry at that stage but the police did investigate M's allegations and brought charges against both foster parents and one of their sons. The foster mother was acquitted but her husband and son were both found guilty in the Crown Court at Mold of assault upon M (in the case of the foster father, of assault occasioning bodily harm).

  40.10  It remained uncertain after these convictions whether or not the Secretary of State would order a public inquiry into the alleged abuse of children in care in North Wales generally. In 1994, therefore, in the light of the sentencing remarks made by the trial judge, His Honour Judge Gareth Edwards QC, Gwynedd County Council decided to commission an independent inquiry to review and report on the supervision by the County Council of M in the foster home between 1980 and 1986 and, in the light of that, to consider whether current child protection procedures and case management arrangements were adequate to avoid any further similar occurrences.

  40.11  The report (referred to as the Walton report) of the three member inquiry team, including appendices, extended to 98 pages, and was presented in the autumn of 1995. It contained an exhaustive account of M's history and of his supervision during the relevant period and our summary account of the case in the next chapter of this report is based partly upon it.

  40.12  Apart from the case of M, we are aware of seven foster parent households in which abuse of one kind or another is alleged to have occurred. In four of these the abuse is alleged to have been sexual. The relevant facts of these cases are, however, quite short and we deal with them in Chapters 42 and 43 of this report.

Footnotes:

537   See para 37.02.

538   Presented to Parliament on 17 June 1996.

539   At para 4.95.