Agenda item

Present the latest information about complaints and instances of good practice to the members.

The report was presented by the Language Development Officer, and noted that it examined complaints and praise in parallel, in order to identify trends and to provide members with a comprehensive picture of activities within the Council relating to compliance with the Language Standards and Policy.

Praise

The report drew attention to two specific cases over recent months where Council officers had excelled in promoting the Welsh language and ensuring that residents and service users received a high-quality Welsh medium service:

1.    Safety training (IOSH): The Health, Safety and Well-being Service had recently received recognition at the Council at its Best Awards for its work in ensuring that IOSH training was fully available through the medium of Welsh. Council staff members had been leading training sessions in this field for some time, but were having to use English only materials as they were not provided bilingually by the chartered body.  The mater had been referred to the Welsh language Commissioner to get their support and influence, but in the end it came down to the perseverance of the Council's officers, who raised awareness of the requirements  and demand from staff for Welsh language materials.

2.    New online forms for Blue Badge applications from direct.gov

It was noted that the Siop Gwynedd and Galw Gwynedd Manager and her officers had recently been working hard to try to ensure that the new on-line forms for Blue Badges met the requirements of the Standards and the Council's policies. The team had noticed numerous mistakes and errors in the Welsh version while testing the system (before it went live), and the Council had refused to transfer to the new on-line system without changes being made to ensure that it reached the expected standard. They had collaborated with the translation unit and the website team to test the system, and had raised the matter with the provider, including Welsh Government.  Discussions were ongoing and the system was still not operational.

Complaints

Since the beginning of 2019, correspondence had been received from the Welsh Language Commissioner about three complaints relating to the Language Standards.

The Commissioner decided not to investigate the complaints further based on the explanations below:

1.    Standard email sent in English only in a response to an e-mail in Welsh from GwE.  The investigation was terminated after the Commissioner received correspondence from the Council's Legal unit, confirming that the Council's Standards were not relevant to GwE due to its status as a joint committee.

2.    English only receipt sent by the Welsh Penalty Processing Partnership.  It was explained that this had happened due to a technical error after the administrators had made updates to the payment system. The matter had already been bought to the attention of the Council and had been resolved by the time the complaint was received by the Commissioner, and the Commissioner agreed that the Council had already dealt with the matter appropriately.

3.    Blue Badge application assessment and processing Service.  The Council confirmed that this was a service managed by the Welsh Government, and that the Council had already received several complaints, and had referred concerns about the quality of the service to the Government. Following the response, the Commissioner agreed that the Council was not responsible for the matter, and referred the complaint and Gwynedd Council's concerns to the relevant Welsh Government Department.

RESOLVED:

To accept the report.