Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors Elfed Williams and Sasha Williams.

To receive any declaration of personal interest

A declaration of personal interest was received from Councillor Elfed Wyn ap Elwyn in respect of Item 7, however it was judged that it was not a prejudicial interest, and he was not required to withdraw from the meeting.

To note any items that are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chairman for consideration

      No urgent items were received.

The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee held on 30.04.2023 be signed as a true record  (attached)

The Chair signed the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee held on 19 January, 2023 as a true record.

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.

To present information about the Department’s contribution to the Language Policy.

To accept the report and note the observations received.

The report was presented by the Head of Economy and Community Department, and she referred briefly to the following main points:

-      She confirmed that Gwynedd continued to lead on the ARFOR scheme with the Isle of Anglesey County Council. She explained that a successful bid had been made to the Welsh Government which secured the continuation of this project until at least 2025 in order to fund projects to promote the Welsh language.

-      It was reported that the department had a grant fund for supporting businesses and communities. This was in addition to Welsh Government grants and the Council could impose language-related terms as conditions for the receipt of financial assistance.

-      The officer mentioned that there had been a lengthy discussion about how they could promote the Welsh language through the Visitor Economy, and the department had subsequently commissioned Bangor University to work with the Council to set a baseline and indicators for measuring the impact of visitors to the area on the language.

-      She explained that encouraging feedback had been received from individuals who used the facilities provided by the museums, arts and libraries. She explained that several activities were being held in a more informal environment to allow individuals to gain confidence in their use of the language. It was detailed that Welsh learners were more confident to contribute to conversations in such an environment.

-      It was explained that the department had received £18 million from the Welsh Government through the Levelling Up Fund, Llewyrch a Llechi as part of our regeneration programmes. It was elaborated that no language conditions had been imposed by the government as the Council distributed the funding further. Nevertheless, the department was attempting to set a foundation for ensuring that language requirements were imposed on any bid for funding in order to ensure that the language was taken into consideration as part of the regeneration programme.

-      She referred to one of the obstacles faced by the service, which was developing the linguistic skills of the maritime service. It was explained that the department employed 27-30 beach wardens over the summer to protect the public. Because of the seasonal nature of their posts, the department could not work alongside these individuals year on year to improve their Welsh-language ability – this was a barrier that the department was trying to resolve. Despite this, it was specified that 94.5% of the department's staff reached the language designation for their post out of the 80.5% of all the department's staff who had completed the self-assessment.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. During the discussion, the following matters were raised:

-      Members welcomed the fact that the department was working jointly with Welsh for Adults centres, and it was hoped that this arrangement would continue in future.

-      In response to the observations, the Head of Economy and Community Department confirmed that adults education was not the type of work that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

This report is submitted in order to provide a background to Committee members about the existing work and priorities of the initiative.

Unanimously accepted.

The report was presented by the Chief Officer of Hunaniaith (Gwynedd's Language Initiative) who referred briefly to the following principal points: 

-      It was confirmed that a voluntary leading group had been established to complete the work of making the initiative independent from the Council. He explained that a new company (not-for-profit), called Menter Iaith Gwynedd was currently being set up by the voluntary group. He elaborated that the aim was to transfer staff to the new entity by the end of the current financial year.

-      He explained that there was a good representation of different ages, gender and areas on the group.

-      He reported that there would be a soft launch for the new initiative at the Llŷn and Eifionydd National Eisteddfod in August.

-      He noted that they had been successful in attracting additional funding through the Welsh Government's 'Summer of Fun' fund last year, which had allowed Hunaniaith to organise 23 events for 341 children and young people across the county.

-      He reported that there was good collaboration taking place with the Council's departments such as the Education Department in order to ensure that whole families understood and had input into the events of the immersion centres, had information about Gwynedd's language and culture and opportunities to use the Welsh language. He also referred to joint working with Menter Iaith Môn with the goal of attracting funding from Cyngor Gwynedd's Economy and Community Department, in order to encourage more businesses to make use of the Welsh language day to day.

-      The members were reminded that the primary purpose of the initiative was to identify gaps in the opportunities to use the Welsh language in areas, and to work with communities to find long-term solutions for them. The Officer shared an example of this, referring to Welsh yoga lessons in Bangor after identifying the need for such sessions to be held within the area.

-      It was noted that three members of staff were supporting the Chief Officer of Hunaniaith. The main focus of their work was to encourage and support communities to develop projects to promote the use of Welsh, which would be sustainable in the long term. He elaborated that the initiative primarily focused on looking at areas, rather than individual projects. He confirmed that the areas that had been prioritised for next year were Bangor, Ogwen, Penllyn and Felinheli. It was also stated that the initiative would focus on the Pen Llŷn area because the National Eisteddfod would be held in that area this year.

-      Some of the initiative’s priorities for the year ahead were discussed, focusing on ensuring that the National Eisteddfod's visit would encourage more people to speak Welsh in the area and to also work with Welsh children and families to ensure that the language was spoken amongst each other from day to day.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. During the discussion, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To present the latest information to the Committee on complaints and examples of the Unit’s successes when promoting the use of the Welsh language in the Council’s services.

To accept the report and note the observations received.

The report was presented by the Senior Language and Scrutiny Adviser. She referred briefly to the following main points: 

-      Members were reminded that this report shared examples of successes and complaints associated with promoting the use of the Welsh language within the Council's services.

-      She detailed that four complaints had been received relating to compliance with the Welsh Language Standards. She added that the Council had not accepted the final decision on two of those complaints. She explained that it was not appropriate to hold a discussion on those complaints as they were ongoing, and they had been included in the report as information for the members only.

-      Details were shared of four complaints that had been received in connection with the Council's language policy.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. During the discussion, the following matter was raised:

-      The Council was congratulated on its success, and it was noted that only a very small number of complaints had been received.

RESOLVED

To accept the report and note the observations received.