Councillors updated over recommendations in Foden report

Dale Spridgeon Local Democracy Reporter

An update on the latest measures taken to investigate and respond to the horrific crimes committed by paedophile Neil Foden has been given to councillors by a Welsh council – but is leader says “there is more to be done”.

Foden, 66, of Old Conwy, was jailed for 17 years in July last year, after being convicted of sexually abusing four young girls. The crimes happened while he was the headteacher of Ysgol Friars in Bangor.

Cyngor Gwynedd has pledged to leave “no stone unturned” in its search for answers, to learn and improve on its procedures, to “keep young people in Gwynedd safe”.

It had employed a specialist safeguarding barrister Genevieve Woods to look into the council’s handling of the case, and specific incidents in 2019, which were highlighted during Neil Foden’s criminal trial.

Her report also fed into the independent investigation of the statutory Child Practice Review,  led by Jan Pickles and carried out by the North Wales Safeguarding Board, which is nearing completion.

Recommendations

Councillors and key stakeholders had been informed this week over responses to the barrister’s recommendations, progress on work streams and details concerning  the various internal investigations.

Recommendations had included how the council is now making arrangements and implementing a new system to investigate safeguarding concerns.

This included putting in arrangements to deal with the concerns that don’t “meet formal child safeguarding thresholds”.

Record keeping arrangements for safeguarding matters across the authority had also been strengthened. A central record keeping management system has also been put in place, and staff training bolstered.

The council had also tightened up whistleblowing arrangements and improved safeguarding training for all departments.

Under school safeguarding policy, steps had also been taken to tighten procedures for staff to follow when challenging safeguarding cases, including when to share information with governing bodies.

Developments had come in the wake of the Response Plan, adopted by Cyngor Gwynedd’s Cabinet, in January, 2025.

The aim was to set out “the range of procedures and arrangements” that Cyngor Gwynedd would implement internally.

Councillor Nia Jeffreys, Leader of Cyngor Gwynedd said: “Neil Foden’s horrific crimes continue to have a far-reaching impact on the people and communities of Gwynedd.

“The victims and their families remain in our thoughts as we investigate what went wrong and what more we can do to ensure children are safe in our schools.

“While we cannot undo the effects of Neil Foden’s horrific crimes, as a Council we are determined to use this serious case to identify and learn lessons and use them to strengthen our arrangements.

“Our aim is to ensure that we have the best possible safeguarding arrangements to protect the young people of Gwynedd and which can also be of use to other councils across Wales.

“Creating the Response Plan back in December was the beginning of the journey. Since then, we have made progress in a short space of time with all the work streams, but we are fully aware that there is more hard work ahead especially when we receive the recommendations of the statutory Child Practice Review in the autumn.”

“No stone unturned”

Dafydd Gibbard, Chief Executive of Cyngor Gwynedd, said: “As a Council, we have made it clear that we will leave no stone unturned in the search for answers and to learn and improve. The Response Plan helps us with this by setting out in a single document the measures that have been put in place.

“Council officers immediately started to implement the recommendations made by the independent specialist barrister who looked into specific incidents in 2019.

“In addition, the investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office has been completed and we have updated our Freedom of Information procedures; the Council’s Scrutiny Committee has started its investigation into safeguarding arrangements in our schools; and an independent investigation into a report commissioned by an Independent Complaints Panel has been completed and will be shared with councillors soon.

“There is much more to do and we won’t rest until we are satisfied that everything possible has been done.”

Anyone with new information relating to possible child abuse are urged to report the matter directly to the Police or contact the Social Services Department of their local council.