The Welsh Offices responses to Alison Taylor 49.57 We have outlined in Chapter 2 of this report[739] the role played by Alison Taylor in the events leading up to this inquiry; and in Chapter 34 we dealt in greater detail with the history of her complaints whilst she was Officer-in-Charge of Ty Newydd between 1982 and 1987[740] that culminated in her suspension from duty at the end of 1986 and then her dismissal in November 1987. Her complaints to the Welsh Office began about the time of her suspension and continued until this inquiry was announced so that this part of her history conveniently supplements what has been said about her activities in Chapter 34. 49.58 The account given in his written statement by David Evans, the former Chief SWSO/SSIW, of Alison Taylors representations to central government and other relevant persons and bodies between 1986 and 1996 extends to 44 pages, but only a brief summary is appropriate here. It seems that the Welsh Office first became aware of allegations of mistreatment of children in social services establishments in Gwynedd in September 1986 when an article appeared in the Daily Mail[741] referring to a police investigation into such allegations, and an anonymous letter from concerned parents and residents in Gwynedd addressed to the Prime Minister and mentioning the newspaper article was forwarded to the Welsh Office for attention. The first communication from Alison Taylor, however, which was also addressed to the Prime Minister and forwarded to the Welsh Office, was dated 2 December 1986, immediately after Taylor had been instructed to remain off duty[742]. Taylor enclosed with this letter a copy of a letter from her to the Commissioner for Local Administration in Wales bearing the same date. 49.59 By this time the initial police investigation by Detective Chief Superintendent Gwynne Owen of Taylors allegations had been completed and both Bowen Rees, the Chief Executive of Gwynedd County Council, and the Chairman of the Social Services Committee had made statements to the press repudiating, in effect, Taylors complaints. 49.60 Taylors initial complaints were to the effect that she was being treated unjustly by Gwynedd County Council and that issues of public concern were not being investigated properly. The Commissioner for Local Administration, however, informed her that the matters that she had raised fell outside his jurisdiction. The Welsh Office wrote to her on 14 January 1987 stating that it could not intervene in matters that were for local determination and suggesting that she might wish to consider whether further action was necessary after the Social Services Department had reported on her case. 49.61 It is clear from Evans evidence that, in writing in those terms, the Welsh Office was substantially influenced by what it had been told by, or in the name of, the Director of Social Services for Gwynedd, Lucille Hughes. It had been told, for example, that Taylor was regarded as difficult to manage by the Social Services Department of Gwynedd; that the outcome of the police investigation that she had initiated was that there was insufficient evidence to warrant criminal proceedings; that an internal inquiry by Gwynedd Social Services Department had also found nothing on which action could be taken; that the same department had taken the view that Taylors behaviour had influenced the breakdown in professional relations and had adversely affected children in care and parents; and that the Director of Social Services was to submit a report to the Chief Executive and legal department of Gwynedd which would provide a basis on which to decide future action. 49.62 Contemporaneously at least two local Members of Parliament raised issues about the allegations investigated by the police with the Welsh Office and the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General considered the state of the evidence with the result that the police investigation was re-opened and further lines of enquiry were pursued until early in 1988. However, no prosecution ensued. 49.63 Following her initial rebuff, Alison Taylor persisted in her complaints to central government. Thus, she wrote again to the Prime Minister on 17 January and 3 March 1987, setting out a lengthy account of her history and her allegations of mistreatment of children in the first of these two letters. She wrote also at least two further letters to the Welsh Office directly. At the Welsh Office, the Minister of State, the Rt Hon Wyn Roberts MP (now Lord Roberts of Conwy), who happened also to be Taylors constituency MP, dealt with the correspondence. After further internal discussion and consultation with Gwynedd Social Services Department, the Welsh Office sent replies that were again to the effect that it could not intervene in local matters of the kind that she had raised. 49.64 In the summer of 1987 Taylor invoked the assistance of the Childrens Legal Centre and correspondence ensued between that Centre and the Department of Health and Social Security, although the latter had no jurisdiction in Wales. Taylor herself wrote also, in January 1988 to the Health Minister at the DHSS, referring to incidents of physical abuse that she and others had witnessed and making other allegations of misconduct by members of the Gwynedd staff. This letter was passed to the Welsh Office and appears to have been a factor in the decision to carry out an inspection or study of children in two community homes in Gwynedd later in 1988[743]. Taylors complaints were not within the scope of the inspection, although she was eventually sent a copy of the inspectors report on 19 June 1989. 49.65 In the following years, notwithstanding the successful outcome in August 1989 of her own proceedings against Gwynedd County Council for unfair dismissal[744], Alison Taylor continued to display remarkable tenacity in pressing for a fresh investigation of her allegations that children in care in Gwynedd had been abused. On 2 June 1991, for example, before the major police investigation had been initiated, she wrote very fully to the Secretary of State for Wales, presenting a complaint on behalf of a named child and listing 21 allegations; and copies of that letter were sent to the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Health and the junior Health Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Social Services Inspectorate of the Department of Health and to an MP and an MEP.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 09:23:09 +0000
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