Morning all. Am getting ready to live tweet the @HfdsCouncil Extraordinary General Meeting, starting at 10am, following the judgment of Mr Justice Keehan in a case where the council has apologised for comprehensively failing a family... #herefordEGM

..., and, amongst other appalling social work/management failures, a child's life support was withdrawn thanks to wrong legal advice + a DCS who chose to exercise shared parental resp to give permission for the child to die before her mother could reach the hospital #herefordEGM

Current set up - three screens needed! #herefordEGM

Right. One minute to go. Very different sitting here infront of a screen from actually attending the last EGM at Shire Hall here Hereford, where the atmosphere was thick with outrage #herefordEGM

Right. We're on. #herefordEGM A LOT of faces on my laptop screen youtube live stream.

The chair Sebastian Bowen is checking every councillor can see and hear the livestream #herefordEGM

Info - Herefordshire is a Conservative council, leader is Jonathan Lester, who has been leader since 9 March 2018 - just need to check if he became leader after or before first Keehan S20 judgment, published 2018. #herefordEGM

Chair: there will be an official recording of the meeting to be put on the public record #herefordEGM

Chair: at this meeting, I recognise the strength of concern from members about this very distressing matter - if members go over their time for speeches I will allow some leeway #herefordEGM

I would like to know if the officers criticised in the judgment are still in post. One is Dir of Ops Gill Cox, and the solicitor who gave wrong advice on whether the DCS could give permission for the child's life support to be switched off regardless of mother's view #herefordEGM

Reminder that anonymity of the children and families must be strictly preserved - 'failure to do so might result in contempt of court'. #herefordEGM

Interesting - also a reminder that the meeting is not happening to look at the individual action of particular staff, but to receive a report. So who holds the officers to account? #herefordEGM

Chair - questions from members of the public. The responses have already been published (look at council link to papers) - so this is for supplementary question #herefordEGM

Anon question - who will be undertaking the independent review - (there's more)? Cabinet member children and families Cllr Norman: Resp of the DfE and still being worked through who will undertake the review - written answer to follow #herefordEGM

Anon question "Incorrect records were established as fact with doctors - have these been corrrected?? Cllr Norman - her understanding is that incorrect records have been corrected - written answer to follow #herefordEGM

Anon question - professionals were given false information by a social worker and foster carer - have these been corrected?: Norman; she is going to check #herefordEGM

Anon question "Your legal dept has been condemned and foster carers also criticised - what training is planned for foster carers and legal team?' Norman: again, she would prefer this to be a written reply - me: how is this public accountability? #herefordEGM

Another anon question - another Norman "this will be a written answer" - me - this is already appalling - seriously?! Another anon question, another Norman answer that it will be a written reply. What is the point of a public EGM if this shuffle off is the result? #herefordEGM

Right, that is a good indication, in this first Councillor's answer, that there will be no public accountability. She had *plenty* of time to research those answers, they were submitted in advance. #herefordEGM

Leader of the council Sebastian Lester is reading out one of the most damning paragraphs of the judgment #herefordEGM

Lester: I repeat my apologies to the families and children involved. This is not the first time the council has been here - I have read the minutes of the meeting from Jan 2019 - a member raised the importance of moving away from the blame culture to one where people #herefordEGM

..felt empowered. So how will our response be different this time? Clearly there have been failings in leadership. We have a new chief executive. Other changes in leadership and management are being considered - need to do it legally, so can't say much #herefordEGM

(am paraphrasing) - A new person called 'Cath' has been appointed to turn around children's services; me - does that mean Chris Baird has gone? #herefordEGM

It's clear that all the managmenet and scrutiny put in place last time has failed. We will be looking for cultural change. #herefordEGM

Cultural change takes time -we have reached a watershed moment that as leaders we must see as an opportunity. It's not complicated - it shoudl be a natural part of all healthy organisation. #herefordEGM

Presents a real opportunity to do things differently. There are egs in our council to do things well - other directorates for example. #herefordEGM

Cllr Norman is to second the motion, and will speak at the end #herefordEGM

Cllr Gandy - Nobody who has read the judgment can be in any doubt that this case identifies an appalling litany of failings by the children's and families directorate. #herefordEGM

... we as councillors put our faith in officers, scrutinise etc, but for us to do our job well there must be transparency, honesty and trust, and this has always for me been a concern. Challenge has been seen as criticism, response has been defensive #herefordEGM

And what we are told in the scrutiny committee is not always what is the truth (paraphrasing) as we on the commmitte know only too well. There seems to be a poor work practice culture. Nothing seems to have been learned from other judgments #herefordEGM

Birth parents continue to be marginalised. Legal advice is found wanting. Records are not kept. We need to challenge that it is okay to give information to a scrutiny committee that is factually incorrect (blimey she's saying effectively that councillors are lied to) #herefordEGM

Cllor Kenyon - if we are going to do historic case reviews, which I think we should, we need additional govt support. Social workers I speak to do a fantastic job. Foster carers too. Don't tarnish all with the same brush #herefordEGM

I have a question for Cllr Lester - he was the portfolio holder for this while he was the leader - did he feel he could give enough time to this while he was a leader of the council? #herefordEGM

Also q for Cllr Gandy - I was on the scrutiny committee till I was removed from it - those councillors need proper training in how to scrutinise. #herefordEGM

Final q to Cllr Norman - accountability is a big thing and for the public to have confidence in us - if people have been found to do wrong which they have, I am sure action will be taken. Cllr Norman, you were chair of the children's scrutiny committee

and cabinet member for the last two years - six years involved in children's services work - can you justify why we shouldn't be asking for you to resign from your post? #herefordEGM

Cllr Lester - answer - I was not cabinet member for children's services while I was leader #herefordEGM that was cllr swinglehurst.