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Cabinet considers Welsh Language Standards
Published: 14/07/2017
天涯社区鈥檚 Cabinet will be asked to approve the progress made
in complying with the Welsh Language Standards when it next meets later this
month.
The report provides an overview of the Welsh Language Annual Report, progress
being made to comply with the Standards and identifies areas for improvement.
The overall aim of the Standards is to continue and develop the work of
previous Welsh Language Schemes. It aims to increase the number of people
using Welsh language services and offers guidance to organisations on what they
need to meet this aim.
The majority of the Standards are consistent with the commitments set out in
the Council鈥檚 previous Welsh Language Scheme and the Council continues to
improve in many areas such as:
the implementation of the 鈥楳ore than Just Words Framework鈥� in Social Services
which puts them in a positive position to comply with the Standards and deliver
bilingual services.
By 31 March this year, just over 82% of employees had completed the Welsh
language skills audit, compared to 40% at the same time last year. Further
initiatives to increase the response rate to the audit will be introduced over
the next 12 months.
an increased number of employees are attending Welsh language training compared
to 2015/16.
A small number of complaints relating to Welsh language were investigated by
the Commissioner. These relate to issues like misspellings on signs, English
only correspondence, not offering an education course in Welsh and time taken
to answer Welsh telephone lines.
天涯社区 Cabinet Member for Corporate Management, Councillor
Billy Mullin, said:
鈥溙煅纳缜� is committed to working with the Welsh Language
Commissioner to ensure that the new standards can be practically achieved,
recognising the Council鈥檚 geography and demographic breakdown. Although we
have had complaints, we continue to liaise with the Commissioner and are
working hard to rectify the issues.鈥�
鈥淭he Council is also developing a five year Welsh Language Promotion Strategy
and a policy for Welsh in the workplace to ensure that we raise the profile of
the Welsh language to help increase the number of Welsh speakers in the county
and for opportunities for employees to use Welsh at work.鈥�