Welsh language skills in your workforce

Our role at Social Care Wales is to protect the public by making sure qualified workers provide quality social care services. One of our main aims is to make sure the workforce is suitably skilled and that the right training is given to the sector. Welsh language skills are an essential part of these skills and knowledge.

You’ll already have a range of resources to help you provide a good quality, effective service. But we need to enable organisations and agencies to provide Welsh language services of an equal standard to those provided in English.

This resource gives suggestions about how you can plan your workforce and make sure you have enough Welsh language provision in your service. There are some ideas and ‘how to’ steps, which include using a language skills plan, and encouraging your staff to assess their own language skills in a practical way.

Legislation, policy, and good practice

Following legislation and developments in Welsh language policy, you must take reasonable steps to make sure you have proportionate, appropriate and adequate staffing arrangements in place to provide a bilingual care and support service.

More legislation created new language standards for public bodies in Wales. These language standards also apply to:

• third party bodies
• agencies
• companies and organisations that provide care services on behalf of public bodies, such as local authorities.

Legislation and policy in Wales require that:

• Welsh language services in social care are of the same standard and as easily and promptly available as English language services
• organisations shouldn't assume English as the default language when providing their services
• Welsh speakers shouldn’t have to ask for a service in Welsh.

Find out more about the Welsh language standards, their purpose and your legal requirements here: Welsh language standards (welshlanguagecommissioner.wales)

The requirements of More than just words for your organisation

More than just words needs you to make sure that you have staff with the right language skills to care for and support Welsh speaking individuals who may be vulnerable.

The Active Offer

The purpose of the Active Offer lies at the heart of the More than just words strategy. The Active Offer means that you shouldn’t wait for an individual to ask for Welsh language provision. Instead, you should actively identify the individual’s language needs in the first place.

The strategy notes that:

“If you are a Welsh speaker, being able to use your own language has to be seen as a core part of care and not as an optional extra.”

This resource and the suggestions in it are designed to help you think about what you and your staff can do to make sure you understand the strategy and are doing all you can to use it.

Welsh language as a professional skill

It’s important to think about communicating in the individual’s language of choice when planning and providing excellent care and support.

Good communication can make sure you have a real understanding of an individual’s needs and can provide them with a high quality and effective service.

Recognising that the ability to speak Welsh is a skill to be valued and used in a positive way in the workplace, will make sure that it’s seen as a professional skill. In the social care sector, it’s a communication skill that’s essential for some jobs and desirable for others. In many situations, as it says in the More than just words strategy, it’s a vital skill for working with individuals and families.

There are unrecognised and unused language skills in Wales, skills which, even if not used in your staff’s private lives, can be used in your workplace.

Your staff’s ability to speak Welsh is a professional skill that should be valued like any other professional skill. Your service should recognise the value of the Welsh language the same as any other needs when assessing and giving care and support services.

Why it’s important to consider Welsh language needs

Some of the risks of not considering an individual’s language needs include:

• isolating individuals in an unfamiliar environment by not providing services in their own language, for example, residential care for older people or children in care
• complaints could be made to the Welsh Language Commissioner about a lack of or poor standard of Welsh language services. The Commissioner has a right to investigate all complaints and a right to fine organisations up to £5,000 for every case of non-compliance with the Welsh language standards
• not achieving your equality standards due to shortcomings in Welsh language services
• incorrectly assessing an individual’s needs by communicating with them in a language that isn’t their first or everyday language
• planning unsuitable, ineffective, or harmful provision based on an incorrect assessment
• damaging the reputation of your service.

First steps to consider

A Welsh language skills plan will help you manage and use your staff’s language skills.

It involves these simple steps:

• deciding which language skills are needed for your workforce, for specific teams and jobs
• assessing and recording your staff’s language skills
• recruiting people with Welsh language skills where necessary.

Legislation and policy in Wales require that Welsh language services in social care are of the same standard, are as wide-ranging and thorough and available as easily and promptly as an English-medium service.

You shouldn’t assume that English is the default language when providing services to individuals who usually speak Welsh as their first or everyday language. You should assume that they’d prefer to speak Welsh with you.

Welsh speakers shouldn’t have to ask for a service in Welsh. The service should be provided in the language they normally use, in Welsh or English, or both. This reflects the principle of the Active Offer supported in health, social services, and social care, and as outlined in More than just words.

You should note and record the language normally used by the individual and always provide services in that language.

The nature of services varies from one organisation to another, and even within organisations. To make sure there’s an equal standard of provision in Welsh and English, the ability to speak both languages fluently will be essential for some jobs and desirable for others. The exact level of skill needed will vary depending on the nature of the post and the amount of contact between the worker and the individuals.

Providing a bilingual service means that you need to have a suitable number of Welsh speaking staff in your workforce. Later in this section we’ll look at how you can plan your workforce effectively and make use of the Welsh language skills your workforce already has.

You should make sure all your staff can show basic linguistic courtesy towards individuals, families or carers and are sensitive and respectful to the language and culture of Welsh speakers.

Basic linguistic courtesy includes:

• pronouncing personal Welsh names correctly
• pronouncing place names correctly
• saying simple greetings
• saying some simple words and phrases
• responding politely to someone who’s speaking Welsh.

Your staff can be trained to get the above competencies in Level 1 Welsh (speaking and understanding) as described in the language skills framework.

This section will support you to assess your staff's Welsh language skills based on the types of communication tasks (reading, writing, speaking, and understanding) your workforce can carry out in Welsh.

The Language Skills Framework in our Assessing and recording your staff’s language skills online module will allow you to be clear about the exact skills levels you need to refer to when assessing, recruiting and planning the use of your staff’s communication skills. The framework looks at the different language levels in more depth, ranging from Level 1 to Level 5.

Don’t forget that this is only a guide. These shouldn’t be used in a superficial and systematic way to decide which skills are needed. You must consider the specific circumstances and requirements of each job.

Talk to your human resources manager, service manager, or other appropriate colleagues, to confirm your conclusions.

If Welsh is desirable or essential for a post, remember to say this in the recruitment material. You should do so in a friendly way with the aim of attracting Welsh speakers and learners who have reached a good standard of Welsh.

When a post becomes vacant, or when a new post is created, you should identify the type of Welsh language skills that are needed in the job description, the person specification and the advert, referring to the language skills framework.

For many reasons, many Welsh speakers don’t feel that their skills are good enough for use at work. Referring to the language skills framework reduces anxiety and can help individuals realise that they already have the exact skills needed. You can also note that applications are welcome from those who have learnt Welsh to a good standard.

If no applicants have the right Welsh language skills needed for a post that identifies Welsh language skills as essential, you can appoint someone with lower level skills, or a good Welsh learner, on the condition that they improve their skills to the standard needed to carry out the post within an agreed timescale. If you do so, this should be included as a condition of employment and noted in a formal learning contract.