COUNCILLORS in the Powys cabinet were unaware of issues in Children's Services before a damning CSSIW report was published almost a year ago

This is the conclusion of an independent report into Children's Services concentrating on an independent audit report of July 2016.

But official opposition leader, Cllr James Gibson-Watt, believes that there are still "many unanswered" questions.

Council Leader Cllr Rosemarie Harris ordered the investigation earlier this year after councillors on all sides of the chamber had called for a post-mortem into how the service got into such a mess.

An audit report produced by consultants Peopletoo in July 2016 looked at a sample of eight cases was part of the investigation.

They highlighted serious concerns about the management of cases and the care the children and young people were receiving.

The Independent Review which finished last month was headed by Nigel Brinn, Powys County Council's Director of Environment .

This latest report concentrates on the Peopletoo report asking the question who knew what when?

The report says that the Peopletoo report was submitted directly to the strategic director, the head of service and the interim head of service on July 20, 2016.

A series of meetings took place with senior departmental officers  in July and August.

Notes from these show that the report and what action to take was discussed, but there was no reference to the work after August 2016.

Mr Brinn said: "The change of personnel in Children's Services is considerable to the extent that no-one in their senior management team meeting of August 9 is still employed by the council, neither are any of the chief officers who were directly involved."

Mr Brinn adds: "It was only much later and critically after the CSSIW inspection that the report got more widely circulated following discussion with the consultants.

"They followed concerns they raised about potential reputational damage as outlined in an email on November 27, 2017, which attached several documents including the case file audit review and was sent to the Leader of the Council.

"There was also a meeting held between the consultant and the leader, deputy leader, strategic director for place and the acting chief executive on January 8, 2018."

Mr Brinn added: "It is considered that the findings should have been escalated to management team and to the cabinet via the cabinet/management team meetings but this was not done.

Council leader, Cllr Rosemarie Harris, said: "It does exonerate the cabinet that we knew nothing of this (Peopletoo) report before then.

"The audit report is for operational management, they are done all the time so an audit check would not normally be expected to get into the political arena."

When asked if it was good to have a caveat that a critical report should be seen by the relevant portfolio holder, Cllr Harris, replied: "Should there be something serious that needs highlighting it should be brought up.

"It's a pity we did not know about this earlier."

Liberal-Democrat and Green group leader, Cllr James Gibson-Watt, said: "There are gaps that need filling and I will be pressing for those gaps to be filled.

"The cabinet were made aware of this report (earlier this year) and as far as I'm aware no action was taken.

"I saw a copy of the Peopletoo report in July and took it up with the acting chief executive who took action following up what happened to the eight children in that report and that they are safe and well."

"There are still hard questions to answer."

Plaid Cymru group leader, Cllr Elwyn Vaughan, thinks it is wiser to concentrate on the present and future rather than try an find someone to blame for past failings:

"It's obvious to me that there were problems with the department for some years.

"The officers and indeed the councillors who were around at this time have all gone.

"So it's difficult to pinpoint whether there is anyone to blame as without evidence. We need to focus our energy on our present challenges."

Recommendations following the report are:

All reports that raise matters such as the Case File Audit review should be discussed at executive management team and raised with the relevant Portfolio Holder.

This investigation is presented to cabinet/management team to fully consider its findings and ensure that corporately the authority learns from this experience.

This investigation and report is put forward to the joint chairs meeting for potential inclusion in the scrutiny work programme.