Welsh Language Strategy 2023 to 2028: theme 4 - Council internal administration

Denbighshire's economy relies heavily on the public sector. The county has a higher proportion of people working in the public sector than any other part of the UK, particularly within health and social care. The County Council is one of the largest public bodies in terms of employment, approximately 5,000 people are employed by the Council.

The Council therefore has a central role in providing leadership and setting an example in a variety of very diverse areas. A central part of this is that the Council can offer strong leadership in terms of developing the Welsh language and promoting the area's unique culture and identity. In this context, it is important to consider the Council's role as a service provider for a bilingual community but also as a significant employer. This is recognized in the Council's Economic and Community Ambition Strategy which states - 'The intention of the Strategy is to build on the economic strengths provided by Denbighshire's strong Welsh identity and culture, and to encourage businesses, residents and visitors to use the Welsh language.' In order to respond to the reduction in the number of Welsh speakers over recent decades, the County Council needs to be more proactive by setting higher expectations of itself as a body that can lead the way to raise the status and increase the use of the Welsh language in the county. Over a period of time, this approach could lead to the development of a workforce ethos and culture that would reflect the bilingual nature of the communities the Council serves.

In time, this would enable the Council to develop with confidence to start naturally providing bilingual administration in the future.

Skill levels

These are the results of an audit in 2023 of the staff's language skills by following the Welsh Language Skills Framework below.

Level 0

No current level of Welsh language skills.

Level 1: entry

can say place names / Welsh first names or Welsh signs correctly
can greet and introduce others in Welsh
can show linguistic courtesy by opening and closing a conversation
can give and receive personal detail

Level 2: foundation

can understand the essence of conversation in Welsh
can convey basic information e.g. simple admin or routine tasks
can give and receive instructions and directions

Level 3: intermediate

can converse partly in Welsh but turns to English in discussion and to give detail information
can describe people and locations

Level 4: advanced

can contribute effective in meetings with in own area of work and argue for or against a case.
can deal with people in most situations in Welsh but turns to English when dealing with complex situations

Level 5: proficient

can deal effectively with complex discussion and questions in Welsh
can adjust the style of language to suit all situations and needs

(*excluding Schools)

Listening and speaking
Level	Number	Percentage (%)
Level 0	289	12.09
Level 1	759	31.76
Level 2	243	10.17
Level 3	126	5.27
Level 4	132	5.52
Level 5	135	5.65
No information	706	29.54
Total	2390	100%

Reading and understanding
Level	Number	Percentage (%)
Level 0	354	14.81
Level 1	742	31.05
Level 2	194	8.08
Level 3	121	5.06
Level 4	147	6.15
Level 5	125	5.23
No information	707	29.58
Total	2390	100%

Writing
Level	Number	Percentage (%)
Level 0	559	23.39
Level 1	596	24.94
Level 2	197	8.24
Level 3	120	5.02
Level 4	87	3.64
Level 5	135	5.65
No information	706	29.54
Total	2390	100%

In order to build on these foundations, it is important that the County Council recognizes the Welsh language as a skill within the workforce, and helps staff gain confidence to use the Welsh language by supporting them to further develop their skills to enable them to naturally work bilingually and to encourage and support staff with no Welsh language skills to learn the language over a period of time.

Welsh Language Champions

Within each Council Service there is a Welsh Language Champion and meetings are held regularly to monitor progress against the Standards as well as to share good practice and to act as a critical friend. The members have detailed understanding of the Standards’ requirements and the associated strategy as well as conducting secret shopper exercises. We will work closely with the Champions in order to promote and facilitate Welsh language events and activities within the Council.

As well as supporting the Council's current staff, we continue to give the Council's recruitment and workforce policies detailed consideration in order to support the aim of developing as a bilingual body. This includes categorizing posts and promoting the need to set language requirements in job descriptions. In response to the Standards, the Council has put procedures in place to develop and outline how it plans to develop a bilingual workforce, develop staff language skills and adopt a recruitment policy that will enable the Council to normalize the use of the Welsh language in its day-to-day administration and in the services it provides.