The case of convicted paedophile Neil Foden raises more questions than answers

Neil Foden was the head teacher of Ysgol Friars in Bangor since 1996 and only resigned from that post in April 2024, being still employed by Cyngor Gwynedd (Gwynedd County Council) when his trial started on April 22. He had also been made ‘Strategic Head’ of Yysgol Dyffryn Nantlle in Penygroes, near Caernarfon from June 2021 until August 2022 and had a long, and sometimes controversial, career in education. He was known for a disciplinarian style and, chillingly, it has been reported that in his public-facing role he spoke to the media about sexual harassment in schools in 2021.

Behind the scenes, it has now been made public that Foden was a prolific paedophile. BBC Wales Investigates, which aired this week, interviewed women who disclosed offending by Foden dating back to 1979. The women said that police told them there were up to 20 potential victims. This has led to questions being asked in the Senedd and the Comisiynydd Plant Cymru (Children’s Commissioner for Wales) has said that they are considering their options in light of the BBC documentary.

An independent Child Practice Review has been started by North Wales Safeguarding Board to examine agencies’ involvement and identify lessons to be learned. As part of this review, a panel of senior managers from all agencies will be established and the Board will appoint an independent Chair (now confirmed to be Jan Pickles OBE) who will be supported by two independent reviewers. Agencies sitting on the panel will gather information on their involvement to develop a timeline of significant events that took place.

This review was announced before the BBC Wales Investigates documentary and it is important that it covers the full period of Foden’s alleged offending and not just the offences that took place between 2019 and 2023 of which he was convicted this year.

It is also vitally important that the Child Practice Review proactively reaches out to people who may have been directly affected by Foden’s behaviour. Two of the women who took part in the BBC Wales programme, ‘Jo’ and ‘Nia’, told the documentary-makers that they had not been contacted by anyone involved. The review cannot properly carry out its stated functions of identifying and disseminating any steps that can be taken by safeguarding board partners or other bodies to achieve improvements in multi-agency child protection practice unless those who have directly experienced or witnessed abuse are involved. The review must conduct its work using an approach which puts the victims and survivors of Foden’s abuse at the heart of their process and properly supports them to take part.

It appears, from what has been reported, that there will be plenty to investigate and questions to be asked, both of Foden’s workplaces and Cyngor Gwynedd.

It appears that Foden had accusations put against him of bullying and other inappropriate behaviour. In March 2020, Foden appeared before a fitness to practice hearing, accused of unacceptable professional conduct towards teaching staff between 2014 and 2016. He was alleged to have victimised one of the teachers for whistleblowing their concerns about the falsification of exam results; that person is reported to have told the professional conduct panel: “You were either in his gang or you were not”.

In the criminal proceedings, it came out that in 2019 concern about Foden’s closeness to teenage girls had been raised; however, Cyngor Gwynedd decided that there would be no formal investigation as no specific allegations had been made. The Judge said that the failure to investigate was “very concerning” and added that it was possible that this “emboldened” NF to continue his behaviour.

A former colleague of Foden’s, ‘Rose’, told BBC Wales Investigates that Foden had sexually assaulted her during a 1:1 meeting in his office in December 2022 and definitely knew how to take advantage of situations where people were vulnerable.

These reports give rise to a worrying picture of a man whose authority appears to have been virtually unchallengeable and possible red flags were ignored whilst Foden was promoted and allowed to take up an executive headship. It is vital that there is a full and searching investigation of how the mechanisms that are supposed to provide effective oversight and challenge seem to have failed in this case.

There was further potential evidence that Foden was effectively ‘operating in plain sight’ in the BBC programme – ‘Jo’ told the BBC that other teachers and staff would see her getting into Foden’s car alone and make comments on “how lucky” she was to have him drive her home.

For many years now, survivors and other campaigners have been concerned that our framework for child safeguarding is deficient in lacking a ‘mandatory reporting’ duty that would require those working in regulated activities or positions of trust to pass on reasonable suspicions of child abuse to the statutory authorities. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) made a recommendation about this in their final report, albeit that the effectiveness of this recommendation has been criticised on the basis that criminal sanctions for non-reporting are only recommended to apply in the limited circumstances where the ‘mandated reporter’ is either told by the child or perpetrator that a child has been abused or directly witnesses a child being abused. A much more effective iteration of a mandatory reporting duty was that in the Private Members Bill introduced by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson in July 2022.

The last government responded to IICSA’s recommendation by conducting a consultation on proposals for a mandatory reporting duty, which closed on 30 November 2023. In May 2024, the then government tabled amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill, which fell when parliament dissolved ahead of the general election.

This case, among others, illustrates the importance of now implementing, without delay, a proper mandatory reporting obligation, so that those who know or suspect a child has been abused and fail to report - or fail to act on a report – face potential criminal sanction.

The government must act on IICSA’s report now and implement a mandatory reporting duty and the Inquiry’s other important recommendations, or cases like Neil Foden’s will continue to happen. Child protection is much too important to be ‘kicked into the long grass’.