Issue - meetings

To consider the report.

·       To accept the report, noting the observations received during the discussion.

·       To request that the Cabinet Member for Corporate and Legal Services and the Welsh Language corresponds on behalf of the Committee with the General Registration Office, to state dissatisfaction that it is not possible to register in the Welsh language and ask them to put steps in place to change this. 

The report was submitted by the Democracy and Language Service Manager in the absence of the Head of Department. They referred briefly to the following main points:

A reminder was given that the Department contributed to the work of developing policies, strategies and projects which promoted the use of Welsh in work areas, services, communities and workforce development as a part of the Welsh Language Strategy 2023-2033.

It was noted that the department had integrated the Welsh language into key policies and continued to do so. It was confirmed that emphasis was placed on ensuring that services for the public and staff were available bilingually, with Welsh prioritised in phone systems, websites, social media, training and internal communications. It was elaborated that research provided evidence to steer decisions, and that specific projects promoted the use of Welsh amongst young people, businesses and communities.

Pride was expressed that the workforce's language skills was a priority for the Department, noting that there were training plans, support for apprentices and projects to teach Welsh to the workforce, with further support provided to those individuals who worked within the care field. It was confirmed that enterprises were in place which focused on increasing staff confidence in using the Welsh language. Attention was drawn to the fact that the report evidenced the high language skill levels of the Corporate Support Department.

It was acknowledged that the Department faced challenges and barriers when providing and promoting Welsh-medium services. Reference was made to some specific challenges such as the lack of a Welsh-medium provision by some key partners such as the police and the WLGA, national procurement and tendering systems which did not support the Welsh language adequately and social media technology. Specific attention was drawn to a barrier within the field of birth and death registration, noting that legislative restrictions restricted the ability to be able to complete a registration in Welsh only.

It was noted that the Department intended within the next year, to develop a guide to assess the impact on the Welsh language so that staff use it on major projects. It was also noted that other plans included Welsh Technology training promotion and raising staff awareness of the offer available to assist them. It was emphasised that the work in the language training field continued and that the Department also continued to collaborate with the General Registration Office to improve the Welsh provision offered.

During the discussion, the following observations were made: 

Attention was drawn to the fact that Galw Gwynedd systems ask service users whether they want to continue to use Welsh services on many occasions, although the user had already noted their language of choice. In response to the enquiry, the Senior Language and Scrutiny Advisor noted that the Officers were not aware that this question was being asked, and she confirmed that they would hold discussions with the service to ensure that this will not happen in the future.

In response to an enquiry about whether customer mobility assessments  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7