JUST thirty Welsh language speakers out of a workforce of 4,500 means Monmouthshire County Council are unable to offer frontline services to Welsh speaking members of the public according to a new report.

The authority, along with all such bodies in Wales, has a statutory responsibility to comply with the terms of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 which lays down standards of Welsh language use for public bodies.

Overall, the 2018 report states that the council is doing well in terms of what it describes as ‘challenging standards’.

However, the report highlights the fact that there are just 30 fluent Welsh speakers among the council’s 4,500 employees - less than one per cent, in a county where 13,900 out of 91,300 people (15.2 per cent) state they are able to communicate in Welsh.

That percentage is the lowest in Wales, but is rising year on year according to Welsh Government statistics.

The author of the report, Alan Burkitt, policy officer for equalities and Welsh language, comments, ‘This potentially makes us susceptible to challenge as a result of our inability to provide or proactively offer any kind of frontline services to the Welsh speaking members of the public of Monmouthshire.

‘To try and tackle the shortfall, a workforce planning process has been underway for the last year, which involves auditing the Welsh language skills that exist in divisions, looking for any gaps and then designating posts as ‘Welsh Essential’ when they become vacant.’

Alan Burkitt added, ‘It is anticipated that the numbers of fluent Welsh speakers in the council will increase gradually but that will take some time to have the desired effect.’

Rhys Jones of Menter Iaith, Monmouthshire, whose aim is to support and promote the Welsh language, stated, ‘In broad terms Welsh speakers constitute about 10 per cent of the local population and 20 per cent nationally. There is both a demand from this group for services in Welsh and also a requirement from the Government for certain services to be provided.

‘Menter Iaith has started to work with local schools and colleges to build awareness of the importance of Welsh language skills in the modern workforce.

‘The council and its partners will have to develop their support for Welsh within our local schools and work to ensure school leavers have the skills and confidence to take on these roles.

‘This would take the form of accelerating the work done to improve the quality of Welsh teaching in English medium schools and by extending the number of places available for Welsh Medium education by opening new schools or streams.’

Chair of Menter Iaith for Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen, Sarah McGuinness added, ‘Monmouthshire County Council has made inroads into compliance and should be applauded for that.

‘We live in a bilingual nation; Menter Iaith is committed to working in partnership with the three boroughs to implement all the requirements of the measure to enable everyone to conduct their business in the language of their choice.’