Welsh Language Standards Annual Monitoring Report - 2023-2024
Overview
This report has been prepared in accordance with Standard 152 to demonstrate our compliance with the Welsh Language Standards during the financial year 2023-24. The Welsh Language Standards were created in line with the Welsh Language Measure (2011). These standards are regulated by the Welsh Language Commissioner. The Electoral Commissions has a statutory duty comply with these standards. This report provides us with a valuable opportunity to demonstrate our institutional commitment to the Welsh language, and its importance to our work in Wales.
The Welsh Language Standards relate to the entire Electoral Commission, and it is the responsibility of each team within it to ensure compliance, with the support and input of colleagues at the Electoral Commission office in Wales and other relevant support services.
Service delivery standards, policy making, and implementation
During the period 2023-24, a total of 14 members of staff were based at the Electoral Commission office in Wales,12 of whom were part of the Wales team and two were members from other teams within the Commission. We currently have 212 permanent employees and 6 agency staff working across the UK. An audit of the Welsh language ability of all staff working for the Electoral Commission in the Wales office was undertaken using the recognised Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Staff members assessed their own level.
Levels range from Basic user (A1, A2) independent user (B1, B2) and proficient user (C1, C2) in five categories (listening, reading, spoken interaction, spoken production and writing).
Listening | Reading | Spoken insteraction | Spoken production | Writing | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
A2 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
B1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
B2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
C1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
C2 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
All relevant staff in Wales can greet others in Welsh and will do so when answering all telephone calls. They also refer stakeholders or members of the public to our Welsh speaking staff and services if required.
Staff in Wales can attend Welsh lessons with the support of the organisation and are encouraged to improve their Welsh language skills.
During the last year a member of staff attended weekly Welsh lessons during working hours, funded by the Commission.
No members of staff requested internal courses to be delivered in Welsh during the past year. However, in accordance with Standard 124, staff are aware that training courses offered in-house are available through the medium of Welsh, if so desired.
In the past financial year, we advertised the following posts:
- Stakeholder Engagement Advisor
- Digital Support Officer
- Welsh Translator
- Public Information Officer x2
The five positions were advertised externally and bilingually. Four of these were recruited through an agency. It was noted that Welsh language skills are desirable for the role of Stakeholder Engagement Advisor and that Welsh language skills are essential for the role of Digital Support Officer, Welsh Translator and Public Information Officer.
This section addresses complaints in relation to issues of service provision, policy making, and implementation. This includes any complaints made directly to any of the Electoral Commission’s offices in the UK.
We have implemented measures to ensure that members of the public can submit a complaint in Welsh and then receive a response in Welsh.
During the financial year 2023-24 no complaints were received.
We have measures in place to ensure that all our correspondence with stakeholders in Wales is sent bilingually. In addition, measures are in place to ensure that any correspondence we receive in Welsh receives a reply in Welsh.
Measures are also in place to ensure that all members of the public who contact us by email or telephone can do so in Welsh, and that doing so will not delay any response. If a member of the public calls us and wishes to use the Welsh language, they can do so. If no Welsh speaker is available at that time, they will be given the option of a call-back as soon as a Welsh speaker is available.
We have a Welsh language telephone service that transfers directly to a Welsh speaking member of staff. With up to six fluent Welsh speakers working at any one time in the Wales team during the 2023-24 financial year, it ensured that there were no delays when answering Welsh language calls. In the period leading up to the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, a Public Information Officer was recruited to ensure that a specific member of staff was available to answer enquiries in Welsh and English. An additional Public Information Officer was recruited for the period leading up to the UK Parliamentary General Election (May 2024-July 2024).
All publicity and advertising material in Wales, or material containing information relevant to Wales, is produced bilingually.
When we arrange for external partners to attend meetings, measures are in place to ensure that these partners receive a Welsh language service, if they so wish. Simultaneous translation is available for stakeholders who wish to contribute in Welsh at virtual meetings when the terms of reference of the meeting state that it will be conducted in Welsh and English. We also provide simultaneous translation at any in-person events where stakeholders are invited.
All messaging relating to or affecting Wales are published on our bilingual X (Twitter) account (@ElectoralWales) which is managed by staff at the Electoral Commission in Wales. Information specifically intended for Wales is produced and shared by this account. Tweets are created bilingually, either within a single tweet, or through a separate tweet that is shared at the same time.
If anyone contacts us in Welsh through our social media, there are measures in place to ensure that they receive a reply in Welsh, and that this does not delay a reply.
All guidance and content relevant to Wales is produced bilingually, and we aim to publish the Welsh and English versions at the same time. Where there are updates, we aim that the Welsh versions will be updated and published with the English versions.
Although guidance is mostly published simultaneously, during busy periods there have been short delays between Welsh and English publications of guidance on our website. During the 2023-24 financial year we increased our Welsh language resource by creating two new roles to mitigate this risk.
Where Welsh language provision is available, it is proactively promoted, and the option for Welsh language content is clearly shown on equivalent English language content.
All human resources policies have been translated and are all available bilingually.
During the 2024-25 financial year a new human resources system was launched, this new system is available in Welsh and English.
Information relating to any grants or tenders in Wales is published and promoted bilingually.
Electoral Commission events in Wales are advertised and promoted in Welsh and English, and Welsh language provision is available. In addition, information relating to these events, such as leaflets and signs are bilingual.
Policy making standards are included in our document 'Equality Impact Assessments'. This document is available to all staff via our intranet. The impact of any new policy on the Welsh language will be measured through the Equality Impact Assessment procedure.
Looking to the future, and our next steps
During the financial year 2023-24 we appointed two new fixed term posts, (Welsh Translator and Welsh Digital Support Officer). Depending on our funding settlement, we intend to make these permanent as well as creating further internal resource to improve and expand our internal Welsh language provision.
This year, we carried out a review of the current translation process to make the most of our resources. Following this review and discussions with staff across the Commission our internal Welsh language translation procedures and staff guidance were updated. These documents are easily available on our staff intranet.
This work also led to launching a new translation request system on our intranet. This has enabled us to improve our translation process and ensures all our translation data is collected and recorded.
We did not hold awareness sessions to staff in 2023-24. During that time all internal resources were focused on preparing for the electoral events that took place in 2024. Ensuring that all resources, advertisement, guidance were published bilingually were prioritised over the awareness sessions. However, during this period, the intranet was used as a tool to post about Welsh language and culture.
In 2024-25 we intend to hold in-person awareness sessions before the Christmas period.
Sessions will focus on;
- The history of the Welsh language
- The Welsh language and culture today
- The Welsh Language Standards (What they are, why they exist and how they affect our work).
Following these sessions, we will hold a meeting with each team to assess our compliance and we will create action plans for each team to strengthen and improve their compliance.