, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Thank you. Rhianon, I'll bring you in at this point.
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
In a way, I suppose, it's an opportunity for Dr McCullough to respond to the way that you've reacted, or the actions you've put in place in light of her recommendations. It might be that, giving it a 12-month—. It may be just a, 'This is what we've done, any…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
As part of that, and looking at your key performance indicators, are you going to be adjusting any of those to maybe monitor what Dr McCullough was trying to make sure wasn't happening? Or have you given any thought to how it's embodied in something going…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
If you could write to us with those timelines, that would be helpful.
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
I'll just bring Mike in.
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Thank you.
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Sorry, on that point, were any members of staff who used to work in that team, who were working in a different team, given that opportunity?
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Okay. Diolch yn fawr. Peter.
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Yes, that's right. So, the dip sampling was to do that: it was to satisfy her, I think, about the robustness of the approach they were using and that the whole team was using the same approach. And they applied that. We weren't involved in the dip sampling…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
And using the same methodology, so the—
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Okay. Thank you for that. There's talk, in the process and in the review process that went on, that 5 per cent of the cases that were selected for review were subject to an additional dip sampling. How was that dip-sampling size determined, and how were those…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Fine. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. What sorts of thresholds were applied for something to be considered as having been influenced by bias? Going on from the definition, then, where do the margins happen, and what would constitute sufficient evidence…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
One of the big parts of the review, and part of what was being investigated, was potential political bias. How was that defined, and what did you do to formalise the definition of political bias? If you could talk a little bit about that.
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
But because she was confident as it was going along, and, obviously, from her report, that she had all the information that she needed, she didn't feel it necessary then to widen beyond that. Okay. Thank you.
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Oh, she didn't from that. Would that potentially have been then to interview people who had been investigated, or is that where that natural progression might have gone if she thought it was necessary?
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
As the review went ahead, the lead reviewer obviously had the opportunity to widen scope if she wanted to. Did any conversations about that happen? Was there a need to look beyond what was in those terms of reference? Did any conversations about that happen…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Sorry. The interviews with staff happened on Teams, or on an online basis.
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Croeso cynnes—a warm welcome to you. This item of course is a review of the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, and it’s the evidence session following the publication of the independent review. As…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Right, we'll move on to our first substantive item, and we've got some witnesses with us here. Would you introduce yourselves for the record?
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
There we are. So, we'll note those papers. Just to say that we've noted the paper from Dawn Bowden, the Cabinet Secretary for Children and Social Care. It was worrying to see the numbers change so much from evidence given, and, obviously, our report will…
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
We've had nothing further from them other than the letter, but we do have Mark Drakeford in with us later as the Cabinet Secretary, and we'll obviously have him in for the budget as well. So, it might be an opportunity for you to maybe raise it at one of…
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
We'll move on to the second item, which is the papers to note. Are we happy to note those? Yes, fantastic. Rhianon—yes, I'll bring Rhianon in.
, Finance Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Diolch, Mike. Great. Okey-dokes.
, Finance Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
A warm welcome to you all to this meeting of the Finance Committee this morning. We have two major items to cover this morning, and all Members are here, and I’m pleased to see you. This meeting is being broadcast live on Senedd.tv, and the Record of…
, Plenary
Debate on the Equality and Social Justice Committee Report, 'Sound the Alarm: The Governance of Fire and Rescue Services'
I'd like to begin by echoing some of the key points raised by my colleagues Sioned Williams and Rhun ap Iorwerth: there's absolutely no place for such behaviour in Welsh society, especially within our public services, including the fire and rescue service…
