Agenda item

To present information about the contribution of the Finance Department to promote and further the Welsh Language.

To accept the report and to note the observations received..

The report was presented by the Assistant Head of Finance (Accountancy and Pensions) and the Assistant Head of Information Technology. They referred briefly to the following main points:

The members were reminded of the Digital Plan which the Cabinet had adopted in November 2023. ⁠They noted that the Welsh language was a central element of the Plan, and recognised the need to have a Welsh-medium provision for any public facing software. They elaborated that every effort was being made to also ensure a Welsh-language provision in every other aspect of the Council's work. They referred to the Digital Suitability Assessment that was used for any product being developed or purchased by the Council, ensuring that the Welsh language was an important element of those requirements.

It was detailed that the Department had sourced a Welsh-language software package for the new Council Tax self-service site, noting that there was no Welsh-language provision available in the standard package. They explained that this enabled the Council to provide the site bilingually to the public when it became operational.

⁠It was emphasised that a large number of the department's staff reached the language designations for their posts. They added that two members of staff were receiving additional Welsh language training, including a course in Nant Gwrtheyrn recently. It was ensured that every member of staff had some level of Welsh skills within the Department, therefore it was emphasised that all internal correspondence within the Department was shared in Welsh only.

It was confirmed that the Department was currently working with Audit Wales. ⁠It was elaborated that the Department had produced six packs of 2023/24 final accounts for Cyngor Gwynedd, Ambition North Wales, GwE and Gwynedd Harbours. It was explained that Audit Wales carried our detailed external audits on all the accounts. They expressed how pleased they were that Audit Wales had appointed more Welsh-speaking auditors following a recent recruitment drive, which meant that meetings were held through the medium of Welsh.

There was pride that the Department had managed to attract trainees for the fields of Finance and Information Technology, and that they were developing their careers through the medium of Welsh.

It was explained that the Pensions Unit had been working with an external company to develop Welsh-medium annual personal video statements. They elaborated that this meant that a virtual person within the video guided individuals through the annual statement of their pension, in Welsh. It was recognised that this had been challenging work for the unit.

It was noted that a new bilingual self-service system for the pension fund had been launched in April this year. Pride was expressed in the fact that the Gwynedd Pension Fund had been the first fund in Wales to upgrade the new site with the support of an external company. It was confirmed that this work was spreading throughout Wales, since the Powys Pension Fund now used it, and there were further plans for other pension funds across Wales to upgrade and use it.

During the discussion, the following observations were made:- 

The report explained that every laptop provided by the Council was provided with the operational platform set in Welsh. It was asked whether the Department had obtained further statistics to check the number that chose to continue with the Welsh setting. In response, the Assistant Head of Information Technology confirmed that 63% of the devices were still in Welsh, and 37% had been switched back to English settings. It was ensured that all Heads of Department encouraged staff to use the Welsh-language interface on their devices, but it was acknowledged that this could not be made compulsory.

The Department was congratulated on the fact that 99.5% of the Department's staff (218 members of staff) had completed a language self-assessment. It was asked if officers had any good practice that could be shared with other Council departments, so that more members of staff completed it. In response to the observations, the Assistant Head of Finance Department (Accountancy and Pensions) confirmed that there were arrangements in place to remind the Management Team to remind the staff regularly, rather than attempting to hold a campaign to get every member of staff to complete it at the same time. It was acknowledged that it was easier for the officers to contact all members of staff because a greater number of them had technological equipment, compared with some other Council departments that dealt with front-line work, where employees did not have laptops.

The members expressed their thanks for the report.

 RESOLVED

To accept the report and note the observations received.