Welsh Language Social Media consultation

Welsh Language Social Media consultation

Why are we doing this?: To ensure that those who want to communicate with us in Welsh are able to do so
What do we want to know?: That our customers are aware of the ways in which they can communicate with us in Welsh and that those who have done have been able to do so successfully
What we found out: 

There were two  main  themes with regard to the feedback.  Firstly, those choosing to contact the Council in Welsh via the contact centre stated that they were often disappointed that even though they opted for a Welsh language service that it was not available and that their call would be dealt with in English.  Secondly, the lack of availability of Welsh speaking officers to  deal with queries in Welsh in Council departments.  Many acknowledged that staff were answering phones bilingually but felt frustrated that they couldn’t then continue with the call in Welsh.  Even though officers were following the Council’s procedures with regard to dealing with calls in Welsh many of those who completed the questionnaire were dissatisfied with the lack of fluent Welsh speakers in the organisation

What difference has it made?: 

Since the survey was undertaken the Council has been served with its Final Compliance Notice from the Welsh Language Commissioner and the Standards have come into force. This has resulted in Welsh speaking customer service advisors being made available in the contact centre, both for dealing with customers face to face and over the phone.  With regard to Welsh speaking officers in the workforce the Council continues to seek opportunities to recruit Welsh language speakers and the introduction of the Standards has resulted in a strengthening and improving the Council’s recruitment procedures which in turn will hopefully result in more posts being advertised as Welsh essential and filled by Welsh speakers. The Council has recently updated its list of Welsh speakers and all staff have been made aware of how to deal with calls in Welsh and how to contact our internal Welsh speakers. The Council actively seeks to recruit Welsh speakers and has been using different techniques/methods in order to try and reach as wide a Welsh speaking pool of potential recruits as is can  and to provide as many opportunities as possible for Welsh essential posts to be filled by Welsh speakers.

Consultation start date 11 November 2015
Consultation end date 15 January 2016

Contact

Full address Contact Email
Guildhall
Wrexham
LL11 1AR
Stephen Jones stephen.jones@ wrexham.gov.uk