How the council has complied with Welsh Language Standards

Bridgend County Borough Council has published its annual Welsh Language Standards report which details the authority’s efforts to meet and comply with its statutory responsibilities over the last year.

Covering the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, the report outlines how the council is continuing to provide services in both Welsh and English, and its efforts to develop and enhance the Welsh language.

To demonstrate this, it highlights a number of new developments that have taken place. Parking and other self-service machines have been made fully functional in Welsh, anyone telephoning the council can select their language preference, and a bilingual chatbot has been launched at the council’s website and Facebook page.

Work has taken place to develop new Welsh-medium childcare settings in the county borough, and a groundbreaking event was recently held place for the first of four new hubs. A steering group made up of childcare professionals and third sector colleagues has been established, and will ensure effective delivery over the next three years.

The council has continued to promote Welsh-medium education to parents, working with health visitors, midwives and other professionals to deliver a Welsh-medium education booklet to parents at an early stage in their child’s life.

Working alongside partners from Welsh Government, childcare professionals, schools and the third sector, non-Welsh speaking parents have been offered Welsh-medium home schooling during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the council’s website has been updated to ensure parents could access relevant learning materials during the pandemic.

The council also supported a range of different events during the period, including advice and guidance on supporting children at home using Welsh, offering Welsh lessons live on Facebook, organising ‘Clwb Cylch’ online sessions, providing Welsh summer activities, offering programmes such as ‘Welsh Me and my baby’ and much more.

Bridgend County Borough Council remains fully committed towards the Welsh Language Standards, and we are continuing to make every effort to place the language at the heart of what we do.

Our annual reports outline how we have complied with the standards and detail the progress we are making towards our objectives, and keep pace alongside the development of our five-year Welsh language strategy.

The annual Welsh language surveys that we carry out play an important role in ensuring that we can reflect the views of local people within the services that we provide, and I would like to thank everyone who continues to take part in this process.

Welsh Language Champion Councillor Dhanisha Patel, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations

To view the Welsh Language Standards report and find out more, visit the Equalities and Engagement page at the council’s website.