Welsh Language Standards Annual Report 2025-26

Summary of Progress – Operational Standards

Employee Communication preference

Communication preference	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Employees wishing to receive paper correspondence that relates to his or her employment, and which is addressed to him or her personally, in Welsh.	33	32	33	33	65

 

The above table demonstrates that the work done by HR to make it easier to recognise and respond to staff communication preferences, including improving the HR (ESS) system and periodic prompts to invite staff to submit their communication preferences has made a difference.  There are almost double the  number of staff choosing to receive correspondence in Welsh in 2025-26 (65) compared to 2024-25 (33).

 

Welsh Language Skills Assessment

Welsh language skills	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Number of employees who completed the self-assessment.	1,969	1,870	1,774	1,674	1,534
Number of employees that indicated Welsh language speaking skills at Level 1 or above that completed the self-assessment.	919	899	868	765	712
Number of employees able to speak Welsh at Level 3 or 4 that completed the self-assessment.	177 on 29/4/22	179 on 12/4/23	170 on 31/3/24	169 on 31/3/25	155 on 31/3/26

 

Welsh Language Skills

• The number of employees who had completed the Welsh language skills self-assessment decreased by 8.37% (140) from 1674 in 2024-25 to 1534 in 2025-26.

 

Welsh Language Skills at Level 1 or above

• The number of employees that indicated Welsh language speaking skills at Level 1 or above that have completed the Welsh language skills self-assessment also decreased by 6.9% (53) from 765 in 2024-25 to 712 in 2025-26.

 

Welsh Language Skills at Level 3 or 4

• The number of employees able to speak Welsh at Level 3 or 4 that had completed the Welsh language skills self-assessment decreased by 8.28% (14 ) from 169 in 2024-25 to 155 in 2025-26.
• Guidance is provided for managers to assess the need for Welsh language skills in a job vacancy, and we will continue to reinforce this need. Maintaining and increasing the Councils capacity to deliver bilingually remains an ongoing challenge due to the ongoing national shortage of bilingual workers. We will continue targeted recruitment, including development of our recruitment web pages.
• We are required to assess the Welsh language abilities of all employees as part of the Welsh Language Standards. To improve Welsh language workforce data to support workforce planning and annual reporting we will align workforce skills assessment with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) framework in line with the Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Act 2025. The Act sets the target for all pupils to develop oral skills measured against the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Implementation of the Act includes a consultation on a statutory Code to describe Welsh language ability which will become available following this process. 
• The CEFR is a widely used framework to describe language proficiency. The framework is divided into six levels, from A1/A2 (Basic) to B1/B2 (Independent) and C1/C2 (Proficient) with level AO for no current Welsh language skills. 
• As part of the assessment, staff will be required to choose the most accurate ‘can do’ statements for listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and choose the level that describes their skills best overall. 
• Once implemented we will use this framework to be able to assess current skill levels and provide development opportunities to support staff in building these skills. We aim to increase the numbers who have completed the information as part of their role, there is considerable work to be done to ensure that all staff complete the self-assessment process.

 

Training through the medium of Welsh

Training (in Welsh)	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Recruitment & interviewing	0	0	1	1	0
Performance management	3	0	0	0	0
Complaints & disciplinary	Not provided	0	0	0	0
Induction	3	0	0	0	0
Dealing with the public	Not provided	Not provided	Not provided	Not provided	0
Health and safety	66*	152	114	100	144*

*In addition, Safeguarding Children, Young People & Adults (22), VAWDASV (28) and Fire Safety.

 

• There was no recruitment and interviewing training courses delivered through the medium of Welsh.
• There were 144 Health and Safety related training courses delivered through the medium of Welsh an increase of 44% (44) compared with 100 in 2023-24.
• There were no Performance Management, Complaints and Disciplinary and Induction training courses conducted through the medium of Welsh. This has been consistent for the last 3 years. Dealing with the public training is not provided.
• The 144 courses included 50 Safeguarding Children, Young People & Adults, 11 Fire Safety Awareness, 12 Safer Manual Handling and 43 Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) courses, 14 Equality in the Workplace, 10 Workstation Assessments and 4 Worker Protection Act – Preventing Sexual Harassment. 

 

Welsh Language Learning

• As part of Induction, all new employees are required to complete a 10-hour Taster course, unless they already speak Welsh.
• A new process, launched in October 2025, saw the Corporate Welcome Booklet for new staff being replaced by a new induction e-learning module. The Welsh Language Awareness module is included. It will now be mandatory for new starters to complete this module which is designed to raise awareness of the Welsh language including awareness of its history and its role in Welsh culture. It also aims to help to develop an understanding of the duty to operate in accordance with the Welsh Language Standards and how the Welsh Language can be used in the workplace.
• Courses at Entry, Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced, Proficiency level and Confidence Building courses are also provided. Course registration data is used to monitor the numbers of learners and their progression for community and work based Welsh language courses and to support reporting within this report for 2025-26. Welsh language courses are available at various locations and times.

 

Welsh Language Courses

Course - Community Classes	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Taster (online and face to face)	0	0	1	0
Entry	11	80	19	21
Foundation	13	26	31	23
Intermediate	4	13	18	23
Advanced	6	22	21	17
Proficiency	2	0	4	5
Other	0	0	0	0
Total learning	36	141	93	89

 

Course - Work Welsh	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Taster (online and face to face)	26	105	93	61
Entry	47	40	36	37
Foundation	5	9	26	29
Intermediate	4	4	5	8
Advanced	0	4	3	0
Proficiency	0	0	5	9
Other	0	0	0	0
Total learning	82	162	168	144

 

Overall totals:

• 2022-23 - 118
• 2023-24 - 203
• 2024-25 - 261
• 2025-26 - 233

 

Community and Work Welsh Courses for Council Staff

Course	Work Welsh - number of learners	Community Classes - number of learners
Taster/Blasu (online/ face to face)	61	0
Entry/Mynediad	37	21
Foundation/Sylfaen	29	23
Intermediate/Canolradd	8	23
Advanced/Uwch	0	17
Proficiency/Gloywi	9	5
Total learners	144	89

Overall learners = 233

 

• A designated tutor funded by National Centre for Learning Welsh delivers the Work Welsh courses to Council staff.
• During 2025-26, 144 staff attended Work Welsh classes and 89 attended Community courses at various levels. The figures include staff who completed at least one session in 2025-26.
• The overall total Council staff learners is 233, a decrease of 10.7% compared to 2024-25 (261 learners).

 

Course progression for Council staff

Out of the 89 PCC staff in community classes there were 60 unique learners. Of these 60, 32 (53%) only attended one course/level and 28 (47%) learners progressed to the next course level.

Progressed from/to	Number of learners
Mynediad 1 to Mynediad 2	4
Mynediad 2 to Sylfaen 1	2
Sylfaen 1 to Sylfaen 2	4
Sylfaen 2 to Canolradd 1	5
Canolradd 1 to Canolradd 2	4
Canolradd 2 to Uwch1i	2
Uwch 1i to Uwch 1ii	1
Uwch 1ii to Uwch 2i	2
Uwch2i to Uwch2ii	3
Gloywi i to Gloywi ii	1
Total	28

 

Welsh language exams

• A total of 7 Council staff learners passed exams in June 2025: 2 at Mynediad level, 3 at Sylfaen, 1 at Canolradd and 1 at Uwch. This is an increase of 133% on the exam rate for June 2024 (3 staff).

 

Promotion and learner progress

• Learners from the Mynediad class of April 2025 are progressing to the Sylfaen class starting in April 2026. Learners from Sylfaen and Canolradd classes are also progressing to the next level of learning.
• In addition to the usual methods of promoting uptake of learners to complete one level of learning within 120 hours of teaching (i.e. within 12 months), it was decided to target a specific sector with the offer of a 10-hour face-to-face course. This led to the further development of a Mynediad 1 course tailored to the needs of the targeted sector. Managers involved regard this model as a useful route forward for their teams.
• A further development was the provision of a 10-week revision and consolidation course which has in turn led to increased uptake at the next level of learning. This course targeted previous learners who had taken a break from learning but were now keen to return to classes.
• Revision and consolidation courses were also provided at Mynediad, Sylfaen and Canolradd levels to ensure that learners were fully prepared and confident to progress onto the next level.
• Increasing course uptake and completion, maintaining full attendance, and encouraging progression is often challenging and highlights the need to consider how Welsh learners’ needs will be supported. There are many factors which impact on the above including work/family commitments, staff moving on to other internal or external roles, retirements, and vacancy management.
• To promote courses, details of Welsh language courses available have been shared with local authority staff via internal communications via the “Pembrokeshire Focus” newsletter that is emailed to staff and the “Latest News” section of the intranet. Course details are also available on the Intranet. A celebration of St Davids Day event was held in County Hall for Council staff which included Welsh language course information.

 

Learn Welsh Pembrokeshire learners

Learn Welsh Pembrokeshire (opens in a new tab) also offer courses which are available at various locations and times. Details of 2025-26 learners are provided below and does not include Council staff learners.

Course	Learn Welsh Pembrokeshire learners
Taster/Blasu (online/ face to face)	32
Entry/Mynediad	652
Foundation/Sylfaen	250
Intermediate/Canolradd	177
Advanced/Uwch	261
Proficiency/Gloywi	53
Total learning	1,425

 

Out of the 1425 learners there were 966 unique learners some of which only attended one course/level, with others attending more than one course progressing to the next course level. This is an increase of 8.8% of learners compared to 2024 – 25 (total of 1,310) and an increase of 9.8% in unique learners (880).

 

Welsh Language requirements on posts advertised

The designations of Welsh language requirements on posts advertised has remained static since 2020-21 across all designations. The posts advertised include school posts. Please note the information in the table differs from the annual equality in employment report which quotes the number of job adverts (some job adverts are for a number of posts).

Since 2024-25:

• Posts advertised designated as “Welsh language essential” have remained static.
• The number of “Welsh language desirable” posts advertised have decreased by 4% (11).
• Whilst the number of posts requiring “Welsh to be learnt” remains low, the number of posts has increased from 7( 0.7%) to 16 (1%).
• “Welsh not required” posts increased from 129 (14%) to 173 (18%).

Requirements on posts	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Welsh language essential	70 (11%)	72 (10%)	85 (8%)	67 (7%)	55 (7%)
Welsh language desirable	439 (66%)	480 (70%)	813 (75%)	718 (78%)	707 (74%)
Welsh to be learnt	9 (1%)	5 (1%)	6 (1%)	7 (0.7%)	16 (1%)
Welsh not required	143 (27%)	130 (19%)	186 (17%)	129 (14%)	173 (18%)
Total posts	660	687	1,090	921	951