Agenda item

To present information about the Social Services’ contribution to promoting the Welsh Language.

To accept the report and note the observations received.

The report was submitted by the Senior Business Manager and the Assistant Head of Resources. Attention was drawn briefly to the following main points, noting that the Report scoped the work of the Children and Supporting Families Department, as well as the Adults, Health and Well-being Department.

It was explained that the Report scoped the work of both departments for the first time because the Public Services Corporate Director led on a 'More than words' project within the Care field.

The development of the Care Academy to try and cope with recruitment challenges that the Care field had recently faced was reported on. Details were given on the recruitment struggles impacting Local Authorities across the country, with specific challenges in some fields and geographical areas. It was emphasised that the aim of the Academy was to help individuals to develop themselves and highlight clear career pathways within the care field. It was explained that they hoped to meet these targets by offering support and training to ensure that individuals qualify to become carers through the medium of Welsh whether for the positions of Occupational Therapists, Home Manager or any other aspect of the field of care. Pride was expressed on the development of this plan because Welsh language training was not currently available on all aspects of the field, such as apprenticeships. It was explained that the academy currently existed virtually but it was hoped to have a specific location in the future.

It was acknowledged that both departments had faced recruitment challenges, noting that the problem intensified when attempting to appoint more specialist posts who had the necessary language skills. Attention was drawn to the fact that there was a specific challenge in the nursing home and residential care field as it was not possible to recruit quickly enough to meet the demand for the services. It was emphasised that departments ensured that they continued to offer training and support for all workers who needed help with the Welsh language and noted that filling vacant posts and resolving the recruitment challenges was a priority for them. Assurance was given that care providers received the Council's support to ensure that workers had specific time within working hours to nurture their Welsh language skills. However, it was acknowledged that this procedure depended on those providers acting as required.

It was elaborated that the Children and Supporting Families Department had had some success with recruitment campaigns recently, but it was acknowledged that challenges were still seen in the Meirionnydd area. It was noted that another challenge was to ensure Welsh language residential placements for children who wished this as all the residential placements were currently owned by the private sector. It was emphasised that the Council had plans to develop internal residential placements. It was acknowledged that the department had followed the Council's recruitment processes and considered applicants with lower language skills if the post was advertised for the third time. If someone with lower language skills was offered the job, it was ensured that a Welsh training programme was implemented at the beginning of the individual's employment. Both departments had emphasised that they had been making an effort to use agency staff as little as possible.

Assurance was given that the departments were proactive in resolving these recruitment challenges, detailing a number of projects that had been underway to attract social workers such as the Care Academy, trainee scheme, awareness raising, social media, a purposeful section for the care sector on the jobs website, promoting the benefits of working for the council and also to encourage young people to consider social care as a rewarding career.

Members were reminded of the 'AskSARA' company service which provided support to adults after users completed a self-assessment of the support that they needed. It was noted that this service was one that was being used by a number of Local Authorities nationally. It was elaborated that the system had historically been available in Welsh but that this element of the self-assessment had been very defective. It was confirmed that the Adults services had been collaborating with the company to develop a correct Welsh language element to this service and ensure that it was accessible to all users whilst reducing the likelihood of difficulties arising. It was noted that this work ensured that more people received access to support through the medium of Welsh and they were proud that the department had taken a leading role on this work which was used by AskSARA users across Wales.

It was reported that a Flying Start provision had been developed, noting that there were now 22 childcare providers through the medium of Welsh or bilingual within the scheme, as well as an app development for scheme users. It was emphasised that every provider offered care through the medium of Welsh with the option to offer bilingual care in English when appropriate. This was reiterated by the Adults, Health and Well-being Department, confirming that both departments offered Welsh language services proactively by providing services in English following applications.

It was mentioned that the Children and Supporting Families Department had collaborated with CWLWM to provide Welsh language support to nurseries, cylchoedd meithrin, childminders and after school clubs. Attention was drawn to grants available for new childminders who were non-Welsh speaking, to enable them to buy the equivalent of £100 of Welsh language resources for their provision. In response to an enquiry, it was confirmed that there would be further information on the number of individuals who had taken advantage of this grant and on the materials, as well as the number of Welsh language Flying Start care providers with the members following the meeting.

Pride was expressed that the AiDi app had now received consideration for regional and national adoption. Members were reminded that this Welsh app was an innovative app for unpaid young carers as it was an effective method of sharing information and allowed them to contact the school when needed. It was emphasised that the feedback for this app had been very supportive. It was reiterated that an additional app was desired to be developed to support individuals with autism. There was a desire for this bilingual app to be developed by the end of March 2025 after receiving recent grant money.

It was explained that approximately 1,600 staff had been employed across the social services. It was noted that 73.4% of them had completed a language assessment, with 85.5% of those meeting the language requirements of their posts. It was acknowledged that the departments recognised that there was a pattern to these results as a larger proportion of office workers completed the self-assessment compared to front-line staff. It was confirmed that it was a priority for the departments to encourage managers to implement the self-assessment with front-line workers over the coming months to ensure more complete data collection of the linguistic levels of department staff offering Welsh language skills support to any member of staff who wished to receive it, or who needed to attend training as a result of the self-assessment.

Gratitude was expressed for the report.

RESOLVED

To accept the report and note the observations received.