We have published our latest assurance report, and among elements that are highlighted, is the need to address oral services that is offered through the medium of Welsh.
This annual report, which bears the title Raising the Bar, is an opportunity to reflect on the way organisations consider the Welsh language when formulating policies and when planning and delivering services in Welsh. For people to be able to use the Welsh language naturally every day, public bodies, and other organisations in Wales must provide and promote services, operate internally and plan policies that support opportunities to use the Welsh language.
Despite that levels of compliance have generally improved, particularly by organisations that have been subject to the Welsh Language Standards for some time, the report notes that it is necessary to tackle the challenge of creating an environment where it is possible to use Welsh naturally every day. This means working to improve the services that are offered to people verbally, whether over the phone or face to face.
The main findings include that 95% receive a greeting in Welsh when making a telephone call to a public organisation, 90% of public organisations' Twitter and Facebook messages are available in Welsh, and 72% agree that the Welsh language services of public institutions are improving.
A worrying element that came to the fore was that a significant percentage of Welsh speakers had experienced someone else preventing them from speaking the language in their everyday lives. 18% indicated that they had experienced this over the past 12 months but that increased to 29% of those questioned between the ages of 16 and 34.
You can see more of the findings in this infographic and you can read the full report here.
