Issue - meetings

To present information on the contribution of the Corporate Leadership and Legal Service Teams in encouraging and promoting the Welsh language.

To accept the report and note the observations received.

The report was presented by the Corporate Director and Head of Legal Service, and they referred briefly to the following main points:

-      Members were reminded that the Leadership Team supported the Council's Chief Executive.

-      It was confirmed that the Microsoft software was now installed as default on all the Council's devices. It was noted that the number of devices that had been kept on the Welsh software had risen to 63% compared with 47% last year. Nonetheless, they emphasised that continuous work was being done to encourage staff to use the Welsh software on their devices and supporting them to gain confidence in their Welsh-language computer skills.

-      It was reported that a new Language Forum was being established, with the first meeting of the Forum to be held in June. The Council Leader, the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support and the Corporate Director were members of the forum.

-      It was considered that one of the Leadership Team's main roles was to influence the use of the Welsh language in external bodies. It was noted that the Home Office were currently recruiting Welsh speakers because the Chief Executive, the Statutory Director and Head of Children's Department had refused to welcome non-Welsh speaking Youth Justice inspectors. They elaborated that officers at the Isle of Anglesey County Council had also made a stand in an attempt to have inspectors who could speak Welsh. Furthermore, it was noted that many other County Councils throughout the country had made a similar stand, noting that they would not accept any inspection until the Home Office had succeeded in recruiting inspectors who could speak Welsh.

-      It was acknowledged that recruitment difficulties had been challenging over the past year and that the legal service had been relying on a locum service to provide services in several fields. It was acknowledged that this had somewhat affected the use of the Welsh language within the service, as it was an exception to find locum solicitors who were Welsh speaking. It was emphasised that the recruitment situation was improving as the service was able to appoint more staff without compromising the Welsh language requirements, as the individuals who had been appointed already met the Council's language requirements.

-      It was explained that Gwynedd was leading on several regional main partnerships including GwE, the Ambition Board and the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee.  The legal service played a key role in maintaining these. The presence of Gwynedd officers within these partnerships was believed to ensure the use of the Welsh language in fields that were naturally technical. This was reflected in the partnerships' work.

-      It was discussed that Cyngor Gwynedd were about to purchase new software jointly with the councils in the east of the North Wales region. It was confirmed that the system's capability to revise and record information in Welsh and English was a core requirement for accepting the software, in accordance with Cyngor Gwynedd's language requirements.

Members were given an opportunity to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5