Welsh Language Strategy 2023 to 2028: Welsh Language is a Corporate priority

We are playing our part to achieve one million Welsh Speakers in Wales by 2050, by providing the Welsh Language Strategy with partners and communities. This includes:

• Ensuring that everyone can access services through the medium of Welsh naturally, and at every stage of their lives
• Supporting children and families during their early years to develop confidence in using the Welsh language
• Supporting the wider use of the Welsh language and celebrating Welsh culture in the community, including workplaces
• Developing a culture and ethos that encourages daily use of the Welsh language by elected members and council staff, and providing training and social opportunities to develop their confidence in using the Welsh language
• Developing the services available at the Welsh Language Centre in St Asaph for the benefit of the wider community

Conclusion of Welsh Language Strategy Achievements 2017 to 2022

This is the first assurance report (on the first language strategy) which has been prepared for Denbighshire County Council to meet the requirements of the Welsh Language Standards. Bearing this in mind, it is expected that there will be some fine tuning to the process of producing the strategy and evaluating it with successive iterations. A number of the recommendations discuss this context, drawing extensively on the Welsh Language Commissioner's advice documents on producing and assessing the achievements of the strategy.

It must be noted that the period of the language strategy has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of the pandemic can be seen on the implementation of the strategy and in the associated activities. Whilst presenting a number of challenges (e.g. in terms of the use of Welsh internally), it also created the need to operate flexibly and creatively and there is evidence of this in this report.

It becomes apparent in the report the importance of working within the national and local policy landscape and taking advantage of the opportunities to work together in terms of the WESP, the Cymraeg 2050 Strategy, the Wellbeing Act 2015, More Than Just Words etc. It is evident that the work of some departments in Denbighshire County Council is driven by these strategies and therefore it is essential to consider this when producing the new strategy. It was seen that the strategy sits side by side within the policy landscape during this period.

Perhaps the main consideration when producing the new strategy should be the Cymraeg 2050 Strategy, with priority being placed on increasing the number of Welsh speakers and also increasing the use of Welsh. Recommendations 1, 2 and 3 offer guidance on this in terms of setting a target to increase the number of Welsh speakers and therefore meeting the requirements of Standard 145. Recommendation 7 identifies the need to ensure that the action points match the vision for the strategy, with scope to be more ambitious whilst ensuring that the actions contribute clearly to reaching the target in terms of increasing the number of Welsh speakers (recommendation 5). Recommendations 5, 8, 9, 10 and 11 all relate to the implementation and performance measuring of the strategy. A discussion on recommendation 12 is included in point 2 below.

From this report, and considering the Welsh Language Commissioner’s guidelines, two specific challenges present themselves for the period of the next strategy:

1. Developing the work of partner organisations as they also take ownership of delivering the strategy

A clear characteristic in the vast majority of the 5 year strategies is acknowledgement of the importance of internal and external partnerships to deliver the work . The Welsh Language Commissioner’s advice document makes is clear that there is a need for close collaboration with partners in order to achieve the aims and objectives of the strategy, with the support of key stakeholders meaning that everyone will share the burden and work towards the same aim. A key component in this is the Language Forum.

It is unclear which activities from the strategy have been completed by organisations apart from Denbighshire County Council. Therefore, the new strategy should follow the Welsh Language Commissioner’s advice and good practice by ensuring that the Language Forum (and members of the Forum) act to regenerate the Welsh language in Denbighshire. The Language Forum should facilitate collaboration with partners and ensure that the new language strategy is implemented across the Language Forum partners. This can also offer an opportunity to create regional connections where appropriate.

2. Developing the use of methods to measure the performance and achievements of the strategy, as well as the procedures to evaluate the implementation of the strategy (see also recommendation 12)

There is guidance in the Welsh Language Commissioner’s advice documents which states that it would be good to consider the wider approach for evaluating the impact of the strategy as a whole or elements of it . This is in addition to the task of evaluating the implementation of the strategy, and it includes the need to evaluate the impact of the strategy. This should be considered when producing the new strategy, partly in order to facilitate the process of determining indicators and to feed into the strategy's action plan but also to ensure that the task of seeking to measure the impact effect of the strategy is considered and planned from the very start. See the Welsh Language Commissioner’s advice document on guidance on methodologies to measure the performance and achievements of the language strategies.

Recommendations

• Recommendation 1: establish a concrete baseline to set a target to increase the number / percentage of Welsh speakers
• Recommendation 2: set a long-term target to increase the number / percentage who can speak Welsh
• Recommendation 3: set a target to increase the number / percentage who can speak Welsh which is consistent with the objectives of the Welsh 2050 strategy
• Recommendation 4: include a statement that explains how it is intended to reach the target in terms of increasing the number / percentage who can speak Welsh
• Recommendation 5: facilitate the monitoring reports in order to meet the requirements of Standard 146
• Recommendation 6: consider which activities are relevant to Standard 146 in order to simplify the monitoring process
• Recommendation 7: ensure that the action points are in line with the vision and the desired results
• Recommendation 8: ensure that it is possible to monitor the progress of the action points
• Recommendation 9: ensure that the performance indicators and the process of monitoring and reporting on the performance indicators enable performance to be measured against the objectives of the strategy
• Recommendation 10: ensure that specific successes or challenges are regularly recorded throughout the period of the strategy
• Recommendation 11: consider appointing a specific officer responsible for implementing the language strategy within each service
• Recommendation 12: be more ambitious when measuring the impact of the strategy