WELSH LANGUAGE SCHEME: ANNUAL MONITORING REPORT TO THE WELSH LANGUAGE COMMISSIONER

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1 WELSH LANGUAGE SCHEME: ANNUAL MONITORING REPORT TO THE WELSH LANGUAGE COMMISSIONER Your guide to this report: 1. INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SCHEME COMPLIANCE WITH THE WELSH LANGUAGE SCHEME CONCLUSIONS NEXT STEPS APPENDIX 1 PROGRESS WITH THE OPERATION OF THE SCHEME APPENDIX 2: GETTING TO KNOW YOU... 8 APPENDIX 3: QUICK ACCESS TO GUIDANCE ON THE WELSH LANGUAGE... 9 APPENDIX 4: EXAMPLES OF BILINGUAL SIGNAGE APPENDIX 5: EXAMPLES OF BILINGUAL PUBLICATIONS APPENDIX 6: EXAMPLE OF A BILINGUAL NOTICE APPENDIX 7: WELSH LANGUAGE SCHEME - QUICK GLANCE GUIDE APPENDIX 8: WELSH LANGUAGE AND STAFF INDUCTION APPENDIX 9: SHWMAE/SU MAE DAY... 15

2 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The purpose of this report is to outline the progress made by Bron Afon Community Housing in delivering public services in accordance with its Welsh Language Scheme. 2. BACKGROUND Current position: Welsh Language Scheme 2.1 On 30 March 2011, Bron Afon adopted the principle that in the conduct of its business with the public, it will treat the Welsh and English languages on the basis of equality. 2.2 Our Welsh Language Scheme sets out how Bron Afon will continue to develop this principle when providing services to the public and explains how we will plan and provide our Welsh medium services. 2.3 We are fully supportive of the principle of promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language in a proportionate and reasonable way, and of treating the Welsh language no less favourably than the English language. 2.4 We are aware there will be a period of change in due course, when our Welsh Language Scheme is replaced by Welsh Language Standards. Welsh Language Standards explain how organisations are expected to use the Welsh language in different situations. The purpose of the Standards is to clarify which services people can expect to receive in Welsh and for those services to be consistent. Moving forward: Welsh Language Standards the process 2.5 The process starts with the Welsh Language Unit, a department of the Welsh Government, drafting a document known as regulations - a list of potential standards for each individual organisation. 2.6 The Welsh Language Unit advises that the regulations to bring forward Welsh Language Standards for housing associations will now be introduced to the Assembly for approval in This follows a call for evidence by the Minister responsible for Welsh Language, Alun Davies AM, with those who have already been through the process of adopting Standards in other sectors; and proposals to bring forward a new Welsh Language Bill, which has led to this delay in preparing Standards for the sector. 2.7 The Welsh Language Unit have confirmed that a consultation will take place on the draft regulations - before they are tabled at the Assembly - and this won't take place until after the consultation on the new Welsh Language Bill (i.e. after October). In the meantime, we will continue to implement our current Welsh Language Scheme prepared in accordance with the Welsh Language Act

3 3. MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SCHEME 3.1 Reporting on progress In preparing this report, we have referred to The Welsh Language Commissioner s Regulatory Framework which explains how Welsh Language Standards and Welsh Language Schemes have been regulated since April The Director of Organisational Development reports to Bron Afon s Board every year prior to sending a copy of the report to the Welsh Language Commissioner. 3.2 Monitoring & reviewing Monitoring this Scheme is an ongoing process. We made a commitment in our Welsh Language Scheme to keep it under review to reflect changes in community language profiles... We have developed a Customer Insight module within our customer services system that captures language preferences of our tenants and leaseholders this includes the Welsh language. This year we have been carrying out a profiling exercise of our tenants which includes language preference. To date, six of our 8,000 tenants have told us that Welsh is their preferred language. We have carried out a Welsh Language skills assessment among our staff which has shown that we have four intermediate users and two proficient users. We will work with them to determine their language needs at work. We continue to use our complaints procedure to record and deal with complaints in relation to our Scheme. This ensures that any specific complaints associated with the Scheme can be addressed and complaints monitored, lessons will be learnt and shared within the organisation. We have received no complaints in regard to the Welsh language during 2016/2017. Any new signage (including on-site health and safety signage) fitted or replaced as part of any building programmes, capital programme works or repairs complies with the requirements of our Scheme. We have a dedicated resource in our Equality & Diversity Advisor who is responsible for promoting, monitoring and reporting on compliance with the Welsh Language Scheme. 4. COMPLIANCE WITH THE WELSH LANGUAGE SCHEME Progress with our Welsh Language Scheme is outlined in the appendices to this annual monitoring report. Bron Afon s Welsh Language Scheme and action plan contains measures which have been reproduced along with comments on Bron Afon s progress during in implementing each measure. 5. CONCLUSIONS 5.1 We continue to make progress with the measures outlined in Bron Afon s Welsh Language Scheme and have received no complaints about lack of compliance with the Welsh Language Scheme. 2

4 5.2 We will continue to adhere to commitments in our current Scheme and will need to monitor the position regarding the Standards, to ensure those that we are required to comply with are reasonable and proportionate. 6. NEXT STEPS During 2017/2018, we: a) Will continue to raise awareness of the Scheme (until the introduction of the Welsh Language Standards) using existing communication methods. We will continue to ask the language preferences of new tenants and new staff joining us. b) Will produce reports for analysis on which to make any improvements using language preference data. Currently, weekly reports are produced showing the percentage of data (including the Welsh language), collected as part of our ongoing tenant profiling exercise. c) Will capture data on, and monitor the Welsh language skills of our workforce, including new starters, in order to have current and up to date information. This will enable us to access and utilise the skills of our Welsh speaking staff where appropriate. We currently have 2 members of staff who are included on our internal directory of Welsh speaking staff. We continue to send a monitoring form out with all new starter packs to ensure that our records are kept up to date. We do not yet monitor this data regularly but it is an action for year 2/3 of our Equality and Diversity Strategy. d) Will access all funded opportunities to learn Welsh and offer these to our staff. And may, subject to funding, introduce Welsh language skills training as a standard offering in our learning and development portfolio for all staff who wish to learn Welsh. e) Will explore opportunities to support our Welsh speaking staff members, and any support identified will need to be reasonable and proportionate. f) Will finalise our Welsh language e-learning module which will be rolled out to staff later this year. g) Will continue to include in our staff induction, the need to use the bilingual greeting and ensure they are aware of the Welsh language guidance on the staff intranet site. h) Will continue to ensure that the Welsh language needs of our customers are considered when planning our services. As outlined in our Equality & Diversity Strategy, we have introduced an Equality & Diversity Impact Assessment process. This ensures equality and diversity issues (including the Welsh language) are mainstreamed in all that we do; and that the impact on all our communities is considered before decisions are made. i) Will continue to implement the actions in our Equality and Diversity Strategy which incorporates our commitment to the Welsh language this will include celebrating Shwmae Day in October j) Will continue to liaise with Torfaen County Borough Council s Welsh Language Officer and others as needed, to help develop our approach and learn from best practice. k) Will continue to work closely with Community Housing Cymru in the coming months as they support us in preparing for the Welsh Language Standards. 3

5 APPENDIX 1 PROGRESS WITH THE OPERATION OF THE SCHEME Measure Commitment Progress Service provision All key documents will contain the following statement in Welsh: If you would like any of our information in Welsh please ask. You can do so by visiting us or writing to us at the address below or by telephoning If you would find it easier to talk to us in Welsh we can arrange for a Welsh speaker to be present at an appointment. This statement will also be displayed in our reception area. Correspondence Services provided in Welsh and English will be of equal quality and will be provided within the same timescale. Establish efficient and effective translation process to ensure there is no delay when a response to correspondence is required in Welsh. This statement appears on Bron Afon s key documents and in our reception area. 'Iaith Gwaith' posters can be found in our interview room and 'Iaith Gwaith' lanyards have been given to our Welsh speaking staff. No requests were received to provide services through the medium of Welsh during this period. We continue to work closely with Torfaen County Borough Council s in-house Welsh Language Translation unit to ensure consistency of the language in the county borough. We have a service level agreement that means requests for translations are dealt with without any unnecessary delays. Six of our 8000 tenants have indicated that Welsh is their preferred language and we are currently exploring how service delivery needs to be adjusted. As mentioned in previous reports we have the Iaith Gwaith' footer. However, we do not have an automated process that can change the signature. We will continue to promote awareness of this to staff as part of our commitment to the Welsh language. 4

6 Measure Commitment Progress Keep a record of those persons who wish to deal with us in Welsh. We have carried out a tenant profiling exercise this year Getting to know you (Appendix 2). The language preferences of tenants are recorded in our customer services system. Data on language preferences is captured so we can report on it, and Communication over the telephone Our Customer services team will answer telephone calls with a bilingual greeting. improve our systems and engagement as needed. This forms part of our corporate telephone greeting. Customer Services staff are aware of our corporate greeting. Public meetings & face to face meetings Corporate identity and signs We will publish names of staff that have Welsh language skills on the intranet. We will publish internal guidelines and ensure that front line staff know how to respond to telephone calls from Welsh speakers. We welcome meetings with the public in Welsh or English and will provide translation facilities. We have a bilingual corporate identity. When renewing or erecting new signs these will be bilingual. A link from the homepage of Bron Afon s staff intranet enables staff to access guidance on the Welsh language. This includes an internal directory of staff who can speak Welsh, their contact details and guidelines for dealing with telephone calls (Appendix 3). We have arrangements in place to provide translation where needed. This can be provided by our Welsh speaking colleagues if appropriate or the Wales Interpretation & Translation Service. Our Equality & Diversity Advisor continues to work closely with our customer services staff by attending team meetings to ensure they are able to respond to requests in Welsh on the telephone. We have arrangements in place to provide translation where needed via the Wales Interpretation & Translation Service. To date, we have received no requests for any public or face to face meetings through the medium of Welsh. We have a bilingual identity promoting Bron Afon, our premises and services. Previous reports have explained that a process is in place for this. Examples of bilingual signage produced this year can be found in Appendix 4. 5

7 Measure Commitment Progress Printed material We will produce documents that are needed to Examples produced this year can be found in Appendix 5. access our services for the first time in both languages e.g. leaflets, application forms and a summary of our Welsh Language Scheme. We will produce these documents separately giving people the choice of which language version they require. Our Annual Report for public consumption will be published bilingually. Our annual report is available from the corporate information section of our website. Include a statement in our bilingual Annual This can be found in our latest Annual Report 2016/2017. Report for public consumption, noting where Our annual monitoring report for 2016/2017 is available on our members of the public can obtain a copy of our website. annual monitoring report to the Welsh Language Commissioner. Website Publicity - Press releases, notices Staffing and recruitment Access information referred to above is available in Welsh through our website. This includes a webpage explaining in Welsh how people can deal with us using the Welsh Language. Our Welsh Language Scheme will be posted to the website. Notices will be bilingual if considered appropriate. Analyse Welsh language skills of new starters to identify Welsh speakers Evaluate vacant customer facing posts to identify if Welsh language is desirable. Our website is now available in English and Welsh and our contact details appear in Welsh explaining the ways in which we can be contacted. This can be found on our website. All notices advertising community events are produced bilingually. An example of this can be found in Appendix 6. We continue to send a monitoring form out with all new starter packs to ensure that our records are kept up to date. We do not yet monitor this data regularly but it is an action in our Equality and Diversity Strategy. We continue to include as part of job descriptions and person specifications for customer facing roles whether Welsh language is essential/or desirable for the post. 6

8 Measure Commitment Progress Compare results of above exercises to identify workplaces where there is a shortage of staff with appropriate skills in the Welsh language. We carried out a Welsh Language skills audit of staff this year. A number of actions have been identified which are being followed up. To date, we have very little/no demand for services in Welsh language; therefore we have not identified a shortage of Training/Support Provide awareness training for staff with regards to the requirements of the Welsh Language Scheme. Our standard practice will be to include such training in the induction of new staff. Undertake to support staff to learn Welsh wherever it is able to do so. E.g. general introduction to the language for learners, confidence building sessions for staff with some knowledge of the Language, Welsh for front line staff, advanced courses, Welsh language awareness. Identify in discussions with Welsh speaking colleagues, what support would benefit them in the workplace. appropriate skills amongst the workforce. A quick glance guide of the Scheme (Appendix 7) can be accessed from our staff intranet and copies have been distributed to customer service staff at team meetings. Awareness of the scheme has been built into our corporate induction programme for new staff (Appendix 8). Our Equality & Diversity Advisor meets regularly with customer service teams (who are our first point of contact for those contacting us by telephone) to continually promote the Welsh language this includes the process in place for dealing with Welsh language speaking tenants. We celebrated Shwmae Day in October 2016 there was a Welsh themed menu in our café, Bron Appetite and our Welsh learners also took part (Appendix 9). Following on from last year s Welsh in the Workplace training, five staff continued their learning and four staff attended a 10 week Welsh in the Workplace programme. The course included: pronunciation and greetings, answering the phone, asking for information and arranging meetings. Several went on to a further level to learn how to tell the time, how much things cost. A weekly informal drop-in session (Clwb Cymraeg) was set up over the lunch hour for staff to meet and practice their learning. Atendance was low, so we will work with staff to identify what support they need. 7

9 APPENDIX 2: GETTING TO KNOW YOU Details of our tenant profiling exercise (on Bron Afon s website) which has been running since October

10 APPENDIX 3: QUICK ACCESS TO GUIDANCE ON THE WELSH LANGUAGE Staff can quickly access guidance on the Welsh language from the homepage of Bron Afon s staff intranet. 9

11 APPENDIX 4: EXAMPLES OF BILINGUAL SIGNAGE 10

12 APPENDIX 5: EXAMPLES OF BILINGUAL PUBLICATIONS 11

13 APPENDIX 6: EXAMPLE OF A BILINGUAL NOTICE 12

14 APPENDIX 7: WELSH LANGUAGE SCHEME - QUICK GLANCE GUIDE The following is available on the staff intranet and is used at customer services team meetings: 13

15 APPENDIX 8: WELSH LANGUAGE AND STAFF INDUCTION The following is an extract from the corporate induction for new staff which includes the Welsh language: 14

16 APPENDIX 9: SHWMAE/SU MAE DAY Shwmae day was advertised on the staff intranet prior to 15 October 2016: Bron Appetit helped to celebrate Shwmae day with a Welsh themed menu the following was posted on Bron Afon s staff Facebook page: Our Welsh learners also took part on Shwmae Day: 15