Agenda item

To consider a report by the Team Leader – Communications and Campaign Management (copy enclosed) detailing the approach to carry out a self-assessment of staff’s Welsh language skills.

The Team Leader – Communications and Campaign Management submitted a report (previously circulated) detailing the approach to carrying out a self-assessment of staff’s Welsh language skills.

As part of its response to the Welsh Language Standards the Council was expected to carry out an annual self-assessment which was undertaken by the HR Direct Team.  Previous surveys had provided a snapshot of skills but there was some uncertainty as to whether the results showed a true reflection of the current situation with some staff identified as having understated their skills – this could be due to various reasons including lack of confidence or to minimise expectations to engage through the medium of Welsh.  It was considered that more detailed information on the self-assessment levels would help staff complete a more accurate assessment and provide more comprehensive and meaningful data to enable services to plan their bilingual provision.  The proposal was to introduce the same system used by North Wales Police and North Wales Fire and Rescue Service and the Welsh Language Officer elaborated upon those levels ranging from 0 – 5.  All staff were expected to effectively reach level 1 which included greeting bilingually in accordance with Welsh Language Standards.  Some work was also being undertaken to identify the training provision to learn Welsh and the intention was to report back to the committee on how the training element was progressing.

Members discussed various aspects of the report with officers who advised that –

·         it was the responsibility of individual services to meet the cost of training courses to learn Welsh – Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol provided some free training courses for Welsh learners and staff were encouraged to take up places

·         the previous survey showed approximately 29% of staff were Welsh speakers which reflected the equivalent, in percentage terms, of the number of Welsh speakers in Denbighshire – however the percentage of staff was not considered a true reflection given that some staff had been identified as understating their competencies; there was a need to work with staff to identify barriers to correctly assessing skill levels and the new system would help facilitate that process

·         Welsh language courses were offered for various levels of language ability to ensure maximum benefits for those staff undertaking the training – courses were provided by Coleg Cumbria and Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol

·         approximately forty staff were currently undertaking courses to suit their language skill levels and the intention was to work with the HR Direct Team on producing a booklet for staff on what formal courses were available together with other informal approaches to developing the language such as mentoring, providing opportunities to chat in Welsh, use of lanyards identifying Welsh speakers, etc.

·         it was also acknowledged that in addition to the provision offered by the Council, some staff also learnt Welsh in their own time outside of work and the current data did not currently reflect those undertakings; in addition there was an ‘app’ which some staff used to learn Welsh – the HR Direct Team were working to identify those individuals in order to better record and reflect the current position

·         noted the variance in the amount of Welsh spoken at the main council offices and members agreed with the initial focus on speaking Welsh and linguistic skills with written Welsh to follow as the natural order of things.

The committee welcomed the approaches and agreed that clarification of the different skill levels should assist staff in providing a more accurate reflection of their abilities.  Members had also been pleased to note that staff were encouraged to take up a variety of training opportunities and to hear of the range of other initiatives to promote and facilitate development of the Welsh language. The Chair looked forward to receiving the results of the self-assessment process at the next meeting of the committee.

RESOLVED that the approach to carrying out a self-assessment of staff’s Welsh language skills as detailed in the report be agreed.