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Welsh in education strategic plan.

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Anglesey’s vision, aims and objectives for Welsh-medium education.

• Download: Welsh in Education Strategic Plan 2022 to 2032 [2.99MB | PDF]
• Download: Approval letter from Welsh Government [208KB | PDF]

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• Welsh in Education Strategic Plan consultation
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Local authority welsh in education strategic plans.

The review considers: the impact of Welsh in Education Strategic Plans (WESPs) on improving planning for Welsh-medium education, the influence that WESPs have had in stimulating and supporting actions to raise standards of Welsh and Welsh second language, and the degree to which the statutory responsibility of local authorities in producing WESPs allows for co-operation with, and support from, regional consortia school improvement services.

Recommendations

Local authorities should:.

• R1 ensure that the WESPs are a strategic priority
• R2 have systematic processes in place to measure the demand for Welsh-medium provision
• R3 work with schools to explain the advantages to pupils and parents of Welsh-medium education and of following courses through the medium of Welsh
• R4 work with schools to set targets to increase the proportion of pupils in key stage 4 who continue to study Welsh as a first language and follow specific subject areas through the medium of Welsh
• R5 make effective use of their Welsh-medium education fora to help to develop their WESP and to monitor progress
• R6 evaluate their Welsh-medium additional learning needs provision to identify any gaps

The Welsh Government should:

• R7 ensure that the targets agreed in the WESPs reflect the aspirations in their Welsh-medium education strategy
• R8 ensure that all local authorities place enough strategic importance on delivering the targets within the WESPs
• R9 monitor the implementation of the WESPs rigorously

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Are Welsh in Education Strategic Plans working?

The Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport and International Relations Committee and the Children, Young People and Education Committees are carrying out a joint inquiry into Welsh in Education Strategic Plans (WESPs), to see if they are delivering the intended benefits.

The Committee will explore how the statutory framework - established to promote planning and development of Welsh-medium education - is working.

Find out about the inquiry .

The challenge to raise the number of Welsh speakers

The Welsh Government’s Welsh Language Strategy – Cymraeg 2050, sets challenging targets, including:

• increasing the proportion of each school year group receiving Welsh-medium education from 22 per cent in 2017 to 30 per cent by 2031, and then 40 per cent by 2050, and
• transforming how Welsh is taught to all learners (including those in English-medium and dual-stream schools), with a target of 70% of learners reporting by 2050 that they can speak Welsh when they leave school.

What is a WESP?

A Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) is a local authority’s programme to improve planning and development of Welsh-medium education provision in its area. The plan should also set out how it will seek to improve standards in Welsh-medium provision and the teaching of Welsh.

It is a mechanism by which the Welsh Government can ensure local authorities are working towards national objectives and targets. Originally, plans were set for three years, and reviewed annually. However, given the Welsh Government’s objective to reach a million Welsh speakers by 2050, WESPs are now on a ten year cycle.

The targets correspond with those in Cymraeg 2050, and when they were published, the Minister at the time said that she expected to reach the milestone of 30% of learners in Welsh-medium education by 2032.

Previous reviews of WESPs

WESPs were last reviewed in 2017. The report’s key findings found that there was a need to ‘agree on activities and criteria at a local authority level which are then driven and monitored nationally’. A total of 18 recommendations were made, including:

• Creating a more open and challenging relationship between the Welsh Government and all stakeholders in the development of the WESPs especially in setting targets and agreeing outcomes.
• Simplify the process of linguistic categorisation for schools.
• Urgent planning and action to increase the number of teachers trained to teach through the medium of Welsh.

Following the review, a revised regulatory framework was established in 2019 . The Welsh Government also published Guidance on Welsh in Education Strategic Plans in 2021.

In 2015, the Children, Young People and Education Committee of the 4 th Senedd undertook an inquiry into Welsh in Education Strategic Plans .

The Committee’s report noted that despite initial optimism following the introduction of WESPs in 2012, many stakeholders were left disappointed by the lack of impact they had in practice. There was also growing concern that the WESPs were ‘not fit for purpose’, and that nothing heard as part of the inquiry ‘suggested that the Welsh Government and local authorities [were] working together sufficiently’.

The Committee noted at the time that it was unclear how Welsh Government intended to support the “improved planning action” that was necessary to meet its targets, and warned that were local authorities to fail to meet the duties, ‘intervention by Ministers [would] be necessary’.

The Committee made 17 recommendations for the Welsh Government, including:

• Review the process for changing a school’s category with the aim of simplifying it;
• The Minister should use the powers available to him under existing legislation to intervene where local authorities are failing to deliver their WESPs;
• The Welsh Government should outline the reasons for the deficit between the percentage of Welsh-medium places available under Flying Start and its target for 25 per cent of seven year olds to be taught through the medium of Welsh by 2015 (and 30 per cent by 2020). The Welsh Government should explain how it will address the deficit.

The Welsh Government’s response to the recommendations can be found here .

Most, if not all the recommendations were accepted or acted upon, although some are only now coming into fruition, such as the changes to guidance on school categories according to Welsh-medium provision , announced by the current Minister for Education and Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles MS.

Have your say

Do you think WESPs are working? We would like to hear from you about your experiences. Learn more about the inquiry, and find out how you can share your thoughts with the Committee . You have until the 24 June 2022 to have your say.

You can also keep up-to-date with the inquiry by following us on Twitter .

As part of the inquiry, the Committee will also be speaking to representatives from statutory education providers, pre and post statutory education and adult learning providers, teaching unions, academic experts and groups supporting the promotion of the Welsh language.

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Strategic equality plan 2024-2028

• Last updated: 09/09/2024

Foreword by the Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Cardiff University has a long and proud history of being a progressive and inclusive institution. That pride extends from promoting Millicent Mackenzie as Wales’ first female Professor in 1904 and opening our doors to Belgian refugees in 1914 to celebrating Professor Emmanuel Ogbonna’s role in creating the Welsh Government’s Anti-Racist Action Plan for Wales. I have the pleasure and honour of being the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University.

Our history of promoting social justice supports our contemporary journey towards equity and fairness, both within our University and in the context of our wider local and global communities. Our ambitions cannot be achieved in isolation, and we will work with others to tackle injustice and strive for fairness for all. Equity by definition cannot be pursued for particular groups and institutions only. That is why our Strategic Equality Plan takes a connected view of our large institution while also being committedly outward-facing.

Like all Higher Education institutions across the UK, Cardiff University is facing significant financial challenges. We know we need to live within our means and generate new sources of income so that we can deliver on our strategic objectives, invest in new activities and achieve academic and financial sustainability. In addition to this financial context, we know we are facing a decade of rapid change, to which we will need to adapt.  In the face of these challenges, achieving the objectives of our Strategic Equality Plan and achieving our ambitions for equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism are, for us, a non-negotiable.

The form and reach of our Strategic Equality Plan — which stands in a mutually supporting relation to the new institutional strategy, Our Future, Together — signals a step change from previous years. It touches all parts of our bilingual University’s activities, and it is underpinned by the recognition that it is the responsibility of every single member of our community to take steps to support its goals. It is purposely conceived as a Plan that locates global values in a distinctively Welsh context — committed as we are to being not only in, but of, Wales.

Our Plan lays out how we propose to enhance cultures and values of Cynefin, Tegwch, and Cyfrannu — Belonging, Equity and Contribution. These are the touchpoints in our Plan, which sets out who we want to be as an institution and what we need to do to get there. A clear Action Plan sits alongside, detailing what actions we will take and how we will monitor our progress.

I pledge to work with all of you to achieve the vision set out in this Plan.

1. Introduction

1.1 context.

Welcome to our Strategic Equality Plan 2024-2028. Its values, commitments and objectives were identified in University-wide consultations and conversations about what matters to us as a community, as an anchor institution in our capital city, as a University that is proud to be not only in but also of Wales, and as an international partner. Our new ten-year institutional strategy, published in July 2024, identifies community, place and the co-creation of equitable and sustainable futures for all as strategic priorities. This Strategic Equality Plan’s commitment to enhancing a socially just, diverse, inclusive and actively anti-racist culture supports those institutional goals.

Since our last Strategic Equality Plan, published in April 2020, we have faced a pandemic; global protests relating to race equality; wars in Europe, the Middle East and around the world; and an ongoing cost of living crisis. As a society we are facing a range of complex and interconnected challenges that affect everyone in our Cardiff University community. The impacts of these challenges are not felt equally. We recognise that entrenched inequalities in wider society are also felt within Cardiff University and are committed to taking bold steps to identify and tackle those issues.

This Strategic Equality Plan provides the blueprint for how Cardiff University will meet our ambitions for equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism. We have assessed external evidence to understand the key issues affecting wider society, including in the context of Higher Education, and have explored our internal data to understand how these issues are playing out in our own community. This evidence base underpins our proposed Equality Objectives.

1.2 Our values and vision

In developing this Strategic Equality Plan, we hold fast to the values that connect us as a community. We strive to be socially just, diverse, inclusive, and actively anti-racist, and to support academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law. We will actively work to overcome inequalities, celebrate our diversity, and work in an intersectional way to create an inclusive environment, so that everyone who works or studies at, or collaborates with, Cardiff University can fulfil their potential.

1.3 Equality legislation

The general duty.

The Equality Act 2010 places an equality duty on public sector bodies such as Cardiff University. In carrying out our functions, we must have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited under the Act;
• Advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it; and
• Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

The General Duty covers the following protected characteristics: Age, Disability, Gender Reassignment, Pregnancy and Maternity, Race, Religion and belief, Sex and Sexual orientation, Marriage and Civil partnership (in respect of the requirement to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination).

Strategic equality plans

As a listed body in Wales under the Equality Act 2010 , Cardiff University is required to draw up a Strategic Equality Plan at least every 4 years. This Plan sets out how we aim to meet our commitment to equality and how we will meet legal obligations contained within the Equality Act 2010.

2. Our approach

2.1 developing our equality objectives.

In summer 2023 we sought initial feedback on our proposed Equality Objectives from staff and students to hear views on whether these were the right areas for us to focus on. From autumn 2023 the University consulted widely with staff, students, the local community and other stakeholders through ‘Y Sgwrs Fawr – The Big Conversation’ to help us shape our future and develop a new University strategy. The feedback and insight gained from these engagements have informed our Strategic Equality Plan, Equality Objectives and our underpinning action plan. Headline findings from these consultations include:

• The need to ensure that no protected characteristic is prioritised over another, with a strong steer towards intersectionality.
• Terminology and definitions are important, and the language we use needs to be more active and more accessible. Our community is calling for up-to-date, relevant, consistent and inclusive language and terminology.
• We need to improve our knowledge and understanding of disability, accessibility and dignity.
• There was recognition that our data needs to be substantially enhanced if we are to understand our community’s needs, identify and swiftly address inequities using an evidence-based and data-driven approach, measure our progress and hold ourselves to account.
• Our reporting and complaints procedures were identified by staff and students as difficult to navigate and use.
• There was a gap in the proposed plan around action on violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence (VAWDASV).
• There was an emphasis on the need for the Strategic Equality Plan to enshrine academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law.

2.2 Introducing our overarching themes

We are the largest University in Wales, located in the capital city of our small and ambitious nation. We are proud of the rich and diverse history of Cardiff University and its longstanding commitment to inclusion and promoting equal opportunities. We are a multilingual institution, operating in both Welsh and English, that is part of a global and multilingual community.

Our Strategic Equality Plan 2024–2028 is an opportunity to reflect on what type of institution Cardiff University is, what we want it to be, and what steps we need to take to make this a reality. We will adopt a whole-institution approach to achieving our Equality Objectives, recognising that our diverse community comprises staff and students in Colleges, Schools and Professional Services teams in various locations across our campus, our external partners nationally and internationally, and the local communities with which we work. Every individual in our community is a valued member or partner of our University, and brings with them a unique mixture of lived experiences, characteristics and perspectives.

We want to support every member of our community to feel confident in their sense of belonging, strengthening trust in Cardiff University as an institution. We recognise that this requires us to be transparent in how we operate and that we must promote clear and understandable processes and systems that are fair, equitable and easy to navigate. We want Cardiff University’s campus and all its varied activities to nurture a sense of familiarity, comfort and safety. We will robustly tackle identity-based harassment, violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence on our campus, and support those who are impacted. This ambition can be meaningfully articulated using the Welsh concept of cynefin. Our Strategic Equality Plan outlines how we will build Cardiff’s culture as one of cynefin.

Cynefin (pronounced kənˈɛvɪn or kuh-nev-in) can be understood to mean the place where we feel we belong – a familiar habitat to which we are accustomed and in which we feel rooted. It signals a trusted relationship with a particular, recognised environment and its multiple interconnected relations.

Cardiff University’s diversity is one of our biggest assets and is the key to our future success. We are committed to ensuring that everyone in the University has access to equal opportunities, including in recruitment, career development and degree awards. We must value the talent that we have in our community, while supporting individuals to achieve their goals. We call this tegwch , meaning fairness or justice.

Tegwch (pronounced teːɡʊχ or teg-ookh) is defined as equity, fairness, justice or impartiality.

We are an outward-facing University that recognises that the things that we do, and the decisions we make, have an impact on lives and communities that are not bounded by our campus. We will ensure that our education, research, innovation, operational, and civic mission activities have a positive social impact and that through them we actively promote our values in the service of being socially just, diverse, inclusive, and actively anti-racist. We will engage with and learn from each other and from the local communities in Cardiff, understanding and celebrating differences and sharing new ideas. We call this commitment cyfrannu , meaning to contribute.

Cyfrannu (pronounced kəvˈrani or kuv-ranee) is defined as the act and culture of contributing. It encapsulates the impact we have outside the University through our education, research, innovation, civic mission and operational activities.

2.3 Whom this plan is for

Our Strategic Equality Plan is designed to support three specific groups whom the University has a duty to work both with and for:

Our students

Our Strategic Equality Plan will foster our students’ sense of belonging to Cardiff University, celebrate their diverse viewpoints and experiences, and enhance their student life and learning experiences.

The objectives outlined in our Strategic Equality Plan will help nurture a culture where we become an employer of choice with a vibrant and international staff body that is more representative of the diversity in our city region.

Our local communities and external partners

By delivering on the objectives in the Strategic Equality Plan, the University will be more meaningfully integrated into our city region, co-locating and co-creating on multiple platforms with communities and partners – local, national and global.

3. Equality objectives

We will work towards achieving three overarching Equality Objectives during this period, which will enable us to create positive change for everyone in our community – covering all protected characteristics and taking an intersectional lens – and fulfil our equality duties:

Objective 1: Build cynefin, a place where everyone in our community feels they belong, ensuring that studying and working at Cardiff University nurtures trust in the institution, a familiarity with how we operate, and a belief that diverse contributions are valued, celebrated and recognised.

Building cynefin means creating an environment of psychological and physical safety, trust, respect, wellbeing, and accessibility-with-dignity for all.

What success looks like

• People feel valued in their work and studies
• People are treated with respect and dignity
• Diverse contributions are sought and recognised
• The mental load spent on overcoming systemic challenges is eliminated.

How we get there

• Support our diverse community to feel a sense of belonging and trust in Cardiff University.
• Embed a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism, ensuring everyone in the University community is treated equitably, and with dignity and respect.
• Create a welcoming and accessible campus.
• Provide a safe, welcoming, accessible and inclusive environment that allows everyone in our community to bring their authentic self to their work and studies.
• Promote an inclusive understanding of Welsh culture and the use of the Welsh language in all our activities.
• Ensure that we encourage and celebrate diverse ideas and perspectives from staff and students across all of our activities.
• Promote an open, transparent and evidence-based dialogue on equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism, while enshrining academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law in our ways of working.
• Ensure that our policies, processes, practices and decision-making build cynefin and are fair, clear, consistent and supportive.
• Promote a culture that does not tolerate identity-based harassment and violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence.
• Provide support for those who experience or are impacted by identity-based harassment and violence and take action to eliminate this from Cardiff University.

Objective 2: Establish tegwch, providing equitable opportunities for everyone in Cardiff University to achieve their goals.

Achieving tegwch means addressing structural and systemic barriers to equal opportunity. In this state, everyone is recognised and rewarded as equals, diverse viewpoints are considered in policies and decisions, and staff and students are not held back and disadvantaged by structural inequalities.

• A reduction in disparities in the experience and outcomes of our students based on their characteristics and background.
• The staff body is significantly more representative of the local area across all grades and job roles.
• Gender pay gaps and pay gaps related to other protected characteristics are reduced.
• Student numbers are increased in underrepresented groups on our taught and research programmes.
• A diversity of perspectives inform our policies and decision making.
• Staff and students have equal opportunity to pursue their studies and careers through the medium of Welsh.

To achieve this objective, we will:

• Take action to ensure our student and staff body is diverse and representative.
• Design and deliver programmes that recognise and respond to the needs of our students, empowering them to achieve their potential.
• Support students throughout their student journey into, through and out of University, enabling them to thrive both within and beyond the classroom.
• Ensure that all staff are equally supported to achieve their career goals.
• Take action to reduce pay gaps.
• Take action to ensure membership of our Committees and other decision-making bodies reflects the diversity of Cardiff University.
• Promote opportunities for everyone in our community to learn and use the Welsh language in their work and study.

Objective 3: Embrace cyfrannu. Through a culture of cyfrannu, we will take an outward-looking approach that ensures that our education, research, innovation, civic mission and operational activities help tackle inequality and racism at local, national and international levels.

Achieving this objective means that our education, research, innovation, civic mission and operational activities address real-world global and local challenges, including the climate crisis, and actively contribute to addressing inequity in all its forms. It also means that we share with and learn from our communities and collaboration partners, understanding new ideas and concepts and diverse viewpoints, and that circles of learning and the sharing of good practice occur.

• Through our education, research, innovation and civic mission work, knowledge is disseminated accessibly, widely, creatively and impactfully for the benefit of others, to address inequity in all its forms.
• Collaborations with research partners, funders, communities and civil society continue to tackle real-world global and local grand challenges.
• Our day-to-day operations support our ambitions to be a socially just and sustainable institution.
• Contribute to the Welsh, UK and international evidence base on what action works in promoting equitable outcomes for all.
• Use our research, innovation, education and civic mission activities to tackle structural and socio-economic inequalities in Cardiff, Wales and the world.
• Equip students with the knowledge and skills to tackle social inequalities and promote equal opportunities for all during and after their time at Cardiff University.
• Continue to develop a climate-conscious approach to procurement, estates and travel.

4. Implementing and monitoring our equality objectives

Responsibility for our Equality Objectives lies with the University Executive Board with oversight from the EDI sub-Committee and Governance Committee. The University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor is the Executive Sponsor responsible for our Strategic Equality Plan.

Implementation of this Plan is a University-wide initiative but will be driven by the University’s EDI Hub, which will take a programme management approach to its delivery. Oversight of our progress will be monitored through the University’s governance structures.

Detailed scrutiny on our progress towards meeting our Equality Objectives will be published in our annual report by 31 March each year on the University’s website. In line with the Equality Act 2010 Specific Duties, we will publish detailed employment information and student equality data reports. This data will support us to assess our progress towards achieving our Equality Objectives.

Get in touch

For further information or to provide feedback on this Strategic Equality Plan, please contact:

EDI Hub e-mail: [email protected]

Appendix Appendix 1: Map of actions against protected characteristics and public sector equality duties

Appendix Appendix 2: Evidence Sources

Following the publication of this strategy, the University will publish an accompanying action plan that sets out how we will meet the strategy’s objectives, including what metrics we will use to establish a baseline and continually review our progress. We will also develop an equality, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism data strategy that will underpin the monitoring and implementation of this Strategic Equality Plan.

The following sources of evidence will be used to assess our performance:

• Data on our workforce;
• Data on our students;
• Our staff survey;
• National Student Survey, Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey and Postgraduate Research Experience Survey data;
• Student feedback;
• Feedback from the local community;
• Our Charter Mark status

As noted above, we will publish an annual monitoring report to track our progress towards meeting our objectives and the actions outlined in this Strategic Equality Plan, providing transparency on our progress. We will use this to further develop and refine our action plans, which we will iteratively review to ensure we stay on track to meet our Strategic Equality Objectives.

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Cymraeg 2050: Welsh language strategy action plan 2023 to 2024

What we will do during the 2023 to 2024 financial year to deliver Cymraeg 2050: a million Welsh speakers.

This file may not be fully accessible.

In this page

Introduction.

In July 2017, we published the Welsh Government's Welsh Language Strategy, Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers . The strategy’s second Work Programme was published in July 2021, which will, alongside the Programme for Government , underpin our plans until the next Senedd. Some elements also appear in the Co-operation Agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru.

Section 78 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 places a duty on Welsh Ministers to publish an annual action plan explaining how they will implement the proposals outlined in their language strategy during each financial year. This is the action plan for the 2023 to 2024 financial year.

Since our last action plan was published, some of the 2021 Census data has been released. The initial results relating to the Welsh language were published in December 2022. We were disappointed to see that the number and percentage of Welsh speakers aged 3 years or over fell from 562,000 (19.0%) in 2011 to 538,300 (17.8%) in 2021. It’s important to note that the census does not provide data about language use.

We have already started to analyse these results and are considering them in relation to all the other data and research sources available to us, including the latest population data. School data tells us that there are more children than ever in Welsh-medium education, and the National Survey for Wales informs us that an increasing number of adults are reporting that they have some Welsh speaking ability.

At the time of publication of this action plan, we await further results from the 2021 Census, specifically on the transmission of the Welsh language from one generation to the next, and in relation to the Welsh language and characteristics such as gender and ethnicity. Once we have analysed the entire picture, we will review our priorities as necessary to ensure we continue to work together towards achieving a million Welsh speakers, and doubling the numbers who use Welsh every day.

‘Cymraeg 2050’ includes two main targets: 

• The number of Welsh speakers to reach one million by 2050.
• The percentage of the population that speak Welsh daily and can speak more than just a few words of Welsh to increase from 10% (in 2013 to 2015) to 20% by 2050.

These targets provide a clear narrative for us all in Wales, in Government, in the public sector and as citizens: the Welsh language belongs to us all. The responsibility for its future likewise falls on us all. In addition, all we do under this Plan embraces both the letter and spirit of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 specifically: 'A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language'.

‘Cymraeg 2050’ is based on 3 strategic themes:

• Increasing the number of Welsh speakers.
• Increasing the use of Welsh.
• Creating favourable conditions – infrastructure and context.

We’ll continue to focus on these principles as we work across the Government’s policy areas, paying particular attention this year to:

• the importance of ensuring that Welsh remains the main language spoken in communities in the west and north-west, where there is a high density of Welsh speakers
• the attainment of pupils studying the Welsh language in English-medium schools
• creating bilingual citizens by offering opportunities for everyone of all ages to learn Welsh and use it regularly
• analysing a range of data sources to try to better understand the differences we are seeing in the numbers who identify as being able to speak Welsh
• publishing a final linguistic infrastructure policy
• continuing with the Welsh Language Standards programme
• continuing to develop the Welsh Language Education Bill
• preparing the next Welsh language technology work programme
• developing the Welsh-speaking workforce, especially in the education sector
• continuing to focus on Welsh language transmission in the home and ensure an increase in Welsh-medium provision for the early years and the Childcare Offer
• continuing to mainstream ‘Cymraeg 2050’ in all Government portffolios

Areas of work

Theme 1: increasing the number of welsh speakers.

Creating bilingual citizens who can confidently use their Welsh and English language skills is at the core of ‘Cymraeg 2050’. We want people to have the ability and motivation to use their Welsh in the community, in the workplace and in their daily lives. We will therefore continue to ensure that diverse education provision is available across all learning phases – from the early years, statutory and post-compulsory education, both in the workplace and in the community.

The early years

Expanding Welsh-medium nursery provision across Wales, in order to provide a route into Welsh-medium education for as many children as possible remains one of our priorities. We’ll therefore continue to work with our key partner, Mudiad Meithrin, in this area and will continue to work closely with Plaid Cymru via the Co-operation Agreement to further expand on this work.

Mudiad Meithrin has achieved the initial target of establishing 40 new Welsh-medium early years groups as part of the Set Up and Succeed (SAS) programme, despite the impact of COVID-19. The programme will continue to work towards the next target of opening 60 groups during this Senedd term, to reach the goal of 150 new early years groups by 2026.

To achieve this, we will continue to support Mudiad Meithrin to develop the early years workforce through schemes such as the apprenticeship training scheme and the Cam wrth Gam Schools scheme. This is a scheme for post-14 and post-16 pupils to pursue a vocational qualification in childcare to prepare them for a career in this field.

In collaboration with the Deputy Minister for Social Services and as part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, £3.8 million was announced over 3 years (up to 2024 to 2025) to support and grow Welsh-medium provision and practitioners in Wales. During 2023 to 2024, the recruitment of 100 practitioners to undertake Welsh-medium Level 3 childcare qualifications through Cwlwm’s early years partners, and the recruitment of an additional 50 practitioners to undertake Welsh-medium Level 5 childcare qualifications through Mudiad Meithrin will be implemented.

Work to expand and strengthen Welsh-medium early years provision through the Flying Start programme has begun, it includes all Flying Start services offered to around 2,500 additional children under the age of 4. This is the first step towards our ambitious commitment to expand funded childcare for all 2 year olds, as outlined in the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. Each local authority's Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) recognises the role of the Flying Start programme as they design Welsh-medium provision, with targets included to increase provision throughout the duration of the WESPs.

The Cymraeg i Blant or Cymraeg for Kids programme will continue to support parents to use Welsh with their children, and to choose Welsh-medium childcare and education.

We’ll also continue to implement our  National Policy on Welsh language transmission and use in families .

Statutory education

Welsh language education bill.

The ‘Cymraeg 2050 Work Programme (2021 to 2026)’ and the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru commits us to introducing a Welsh Language Education Bill during the course of the sixth Senedd. On 27 March 2023, we will publish a White Paper outlining proposals for the Welsh Language Education Bill and the wider policy programme.

The purpose of the proposals in the White Paper will be to facilitate the work of increasing the number of Welsh speakers to reach the goal of a million by 2050. The White Paper will propose legislative action to support pupils' progress along the language continuum and support all pupils to become Welsh speakers by the end of their statutory education, by 2050. This includes laying solid foundations to increase the number of Welsh-medium schools, as well as planning for continued progress to improve the linguistic outcomes of pupils in all schools.

Following the consultation, we will consider the responses and continue with the work to develop the Bill.

Welsh in Education Strategic Plans

The Welsh in Education Strategic Plans (WESPs) continue to be a basis for planning Welsh-medium education across Wales. They aim to increase access to Welsh language learning across all school categories in all parts of Wales, regardless of the medium of learning. They support our ambition to see everyone learning in a school or setting in Wales being supported to enjoy using the Welsh language, to make continued progress in learning it, and to have the confidence and skills to be able to choose to use Welsh beyond educational settings.

Each WESP has been in place since September 2022 and each local authority has submitted an action plan for the first 5-years of the Plans. We will monitor the work based on annual review reports and our WESP officers will continue to work with the authorities throughout the year to offer guidance and support. 

Along with the local authorities, will use our  Guidance on school categories according to Welsh-medium provision as part of this work. This will help to offer more clarity on the expected linguistic progress and outcomes for pupils according to the teaching medium of schools. In turn, it will support parents to make informed decisions about their children’s education. It will also encourage and support schools to increase their Welsh-language provision.

Welsh-medium capital funding will continue to support the efforts of local authorities in implementing their WESPs. Over £112 million of Welsh-medium capital funding has been approved to increase Welsh-medium education provision across Wales since 2018 with plans to further expand financial support during 2023 to 2024. The investment will enable more learners to become confident bilingual speakers.

Late immersion is a crucial part of this picture and under the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, we have committed to invest £6.6 million until the end of this Senedd term to support late immersion provision in every local authority in Wales. The funding will continue to support provision already established (centres or units) or will lead to establishing new late immersion provision. We have set up a network to provide an opportunity for officials to come together with immersion teachers to raise awareness of the various provisions available, the latest developments and best practice used across Wales. 

We will continue to innovate in this field for example by supporting the National Centre for Learning Welsh to run an exciting pilot project with a school where pupils use the 'Say Something in Welsh' app every day . A successful pilot scheme has already been carried out with schools in Merthyr Tydfil and on Anglesey and we will extend the scheme to at least 10 new schools during this financial year.

We will also continue to fund the e-sgol project in line with the 'Welsh in Education Workforce Plan' to 'Increase delivery of e-sgol provision as a solution to providing access to a broader curriculum through the medium of Welsh at GCSE and A level’. We will continue discussions with local authorities to expand provision across Wales so that an even greater number of children can access Carlam Cymru’s study sessions thanks to this innovative project.

Curriculum for Wales

The Curriculum for Wales was introduced in all primary schools in September 2022 and in some secondary schools for learners in Year 7.

In the Curriculum for Wales, progression in learning in all areas is presented as a continuum. For Welsh and other languages, descriptions of learning indicate the progression of children aged 3 to 16, from starting with little or no language towards proficiency.

A Framework for Welsh in English-medium education was published in October 2022. This non-statutory framework is for all practitioners in English-medium education involved in organising, planning, assessing and reviewing the Welsh language in their curriculum. It will help them develop their understanding of what is being learnt and taught, as well as their understanding of progress. Schools can use this guidance as they design their curriculum and assessment to help identify the knowledge, skills, experiences and approaches that will be central to it. The framework, along with supporting materials, resources and professional learning, will support schools to improve Welsh learning and teaching.

Post-compulsory education

The Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol will continue to develop higher education provision in line with their revised Academic Plan and will work with Welsh universities to ensure that more Welsh-speaking students are able to follow some of their courses in Welsh. The Coleg will also undertake 2 initial teacher education projects to support the Welsh in Education Workforce Plan.

The Coleg will build on strategic projects already completed to develop provision and capacity in further education colleges, extending opportunities for learners to study through the medium of Welsh and bilingually. In order to achieve this, the Coleg will work with strategic partners and the post-16 sector, establishing a sound infrastructure.

As part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, we will allocate an additional £2.825 million to the Coleg for 2023 to 2024 to expand the infrastructure of colleges and extend tailored support for the apprenticeships sector in partnership with the main providers in the field. In the further education sector, the aim is to continue to strengthen and support provision in the leisure and sport, health and social care, childcare and agriculture sectors; as well as expanding provision in the business and creative arts sectors.

In the apprenticeships sector, the Coleg will support strategic projects to develop capacity and expand provision in the health and care, and childcare sectors, as well as develop infrastructure to support the development of the Welsh language across the network of providers. In developing this structure, the intention is to enable more learners to speak Welsh and become confident bilingual speakers in the workplace.

The National Centre for Learning Welsh (the Centre) will continue to ensure that it builds on the growing interest in learning Welsh, providing a wide range of on-line and face-to-face courses where possible.

As part of our Co-operation Agreement, the Centre will receive £1.675 million for 2023 to 2024. This funding will develop and expand free Learn Welsh opportunities, specifically for 16 to 25 year olds. The funding will also expand support for the education sector, ensuring that workers in the education sector can access free Welsh lessons at all levels.

The Centre will continue to run the Cymraeg Gwaith/Work Welsh scheme, with provision varying from on-line self-study taster courses to intensive residential courses. As well as increasing the number of Welsh speakers and the use of the language, Cymraeg Gwaith also allows organisations to provide better Welsh services to its users. The scheme will also contribute to our agenda of increasing opportunities for people to use Welsh in the workplace.

The Centre will continue to maintain and develop its formal partnership with 'Say Something in Welsh' and 'Duolingo' to increase the provision and support available to those wanting to learn Welsh.

The Centre will continue to run a pilot project to encourage young Welsh speakers to return from universities to help teach Welsh in schools. The Centre will work with partners in the education sector to offer a training course for students at the end of the academic year. The project will also offer work experience placements at secondary schools. It will hopefully attract young people into teaching and the Learn Welsh sector, as well as help increase the use of Welsh in schools.

Educational resources

We’ll continue with our programme to ensure that Welsh and bilingual educational resources are available to support all areas of learning and experience in the new curriculum for 3 to 16 year olds, as well as qualifications for 14 to 19 year olds. We will pay particular attention to resources that support the teaching and learning of Welsh in English-medium settings, immersion resources, resources on Welsh history and identity, as well as resources for additional learning needs.

Adnodd, the new resource company, will be operational from 1 April. It will ensure that the provision and commissioning of resources is undertaken in a more strategic and cohesive way. It will lead to the creation of quality resources and equality in Welsh and English language provision, working in partnership across different sectors to make the best use of the expertise and budget available in Wales.

We will continue to implement the Welsh in Education Workforce Plan published in May 2022 to correspond with the 10 year period of the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans. The Welsh in Education Workforce Plan includes many actions that involve working in collaboration with a number of key stakeholders to address the 4 aims:

• Increase the number of teachers able to teach Welsh as a subject and other subjects through the medium of Welsh.
• Increase the number of practitioners able to work through the medium of Welsh who are supporting learners.
• Develop all practitioners’ Welsh language skills and expertise to teach Welsh and through the medium of Welsh.
• Develop leadership capacity for Welsh-medium schools and equip all leaders with the skills to strategically plan the development of Welsh within a culture of schools as learning organisations.

The External Operating Group will continue to monitor progress in implementing the scheme and the independent chair, Rhodri Llwyd Morgan, will report to the Minister regularly.

Theme 2: increasing the use of Welsh

The first aim of ‘ Cymraeg 2050’, to reach one million speakers, has caught the public’s imagination since the strategy was published in 2017. But we do, of course, also give our full attention to the second aim, which is to double the numbers who use Welsh every day.

We have publicly stated that we will view everything we do in the context of ‘Cymraeg 2050’ through the lens of language use. During 2023 to 2024, we will take steps to maintain and increase the use of our language at home, at community level, on the schoolyard, in workplaces and in businesses.

Use of Welsh in the community

We will work with external stakeholders to support work to carry out a comprehensive socio-linguistic survey of the Welsh language in its heartlands. The survey will be based on the detailed analysis by Conchúr Ó Giollagáin and others in communities where Scottish Gaelic is a community language. The survey is intended to provide a better evidence base of the position of the Welsh language in our communities to support our understanding of the policy interventions needed to protect those communities.

We will also pay particular attention to the link between community development and the economy and the Welsh language, and will increase our involvement in particular with the social enterprise and co-operative sector.

As more results from the 2021 Census on the Welsh language are published, many of the mentrau iaith (language initiatives) will actively revise their language profiles and consequently revise their individual work plans for 2023 to 2024 onwards.

We’ll continue to offer grant support to various bodies in order to help achieve the objectives of ‘Cymraeg 2050’. This includes the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Urdd Gobaith Cymru, Young Farmers' Clubs and many more. In 2023 to 2024, we will publish a review of the Grants Scheme to Promote and Facilitate the Use of the Welsh Language. Once published, we will respond to the report's recommendations.

Welsh Language Transmission and use in families

Our Transmission policy focuses on:

• Inspiring children and young people to speak Welsh with their children in the future.
• Reviving the Welsh language skills of those who may not have used the language since leaving school, or who lack confidence in their language skills, to speak Welsh with their children.
• Supporting and encouraging use of Welsh within families where not everybody speaks Welsh.
• Supporting Welsh-speaking families to speak Welsh with their children.

At the time of publication, we await data from the 2021 Census on the linguistic composition of Welsh households. This data will help us understand the families who may have passed the language on to their children aged 0 to 4. We will use the data to inform the interventions that we will introduce in the field. Statistics clearly show that using Welsh at home as a child strongly influences the extent to which Welsh is used later in life.

In 2023 to 2024, we will study the new data and trial interventions to increase language transmission in families. These interventions will be based on behavioural change science.

Young people and Cymraeg

We will develop a new policy to support children and young people's use of Welsh, with a focus on bridging between education, community and family. We will work together extensively across Government and with external stakeholders, including young people, to shape this work.

The Siarter Iaith/Welsh Language Charter continues to be a key intervention in increasing children and young people's use of Welsh. Since expanding the Charter to a national programme, the world around us has changed. The growth of technology and the digital sphere continues to affect the linguistic habits of our children and young people and the way that they socialise. We believe that all of this, including the introduction of the Curriculum for Wales, calls for the Charter to be updated and developed. We will do so by working with stakeholders to ensure that it continues to be a strong tool to increase the informal and social language use of children and young people in Wales.

We will continue to fund the Urdd and Young Farmers' Clubs, amongst other partners, to ensure we provide opportunities for young people to use their Welsh. Our Memorandum of Understanding with S4C was published in February 2023. It includes commitments relating to the Welsh language and young people, and will therefore be a means for us to strengthen our relationship with S4C to give young people opportunities to enjoy the Welsh language in a variety of ways.

Welsh language spaces

In line with the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, we will maintain and create more Welsh-medium spaces to create new speakers and increase daily use of our language.

Welsh Language Communities Commission

Following the publication of Second Homes: Developing new policies in Wales (March 2021), the Minister for Education and Welsh Language launched a Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities during the Ceredigion National Eisteddfod in August 2022. The Commission will focus on considering the future of Welsh as a community language and will make public policy recommendations. The Commission will lead a socio-linguistic analysis of the language in our Welsh-speaking communities, developing a model to support policy makers with matters relating to the viability of the language. A key part of the work will be to consider the challenges Welsh-speaking communities face and to foster a better understanding of them.

To inform this, the Commission will analyse the results of the 2021 Census to obtain a better understanding of the linguistic change seen over the past decade. It will then consider what interventions are needed today.

A central element of the Commission’s work will be to develop models that promote effective linguistic planning at a community and regional level. Part of this work will be to consider the potential function of areas of special linguistic significance, and how to define them. It will also analyse the support and interventions required in these areas to safeguard the language, and how the interventions will be used together to ensure policy aims are achieved. The Commission intends to publish a position paper before the summer which will include initial principles and comments on the way forward, followed by a final report by summer 2024 containing detailed policy recommendations regarding the future of Welsh-speaking communities. The Commission will then consider the use of Welsh as a social language in other parts of Wales.

Leading in a Bilingual Nation

This year, we intend to build on the pilot work undertaken with this programme by expanding the number of participants and the number of courses available. Leading in a Bilingual Nation is a joint programme between the Cymraeg 2050 Division and Academi Wales. It provides an opportunity for organisation leaders to discuss how the spirit of ‘Cymraeg 2050’ can be embodied within their organisations.

Use of Welsh within the Welsh Government

Over the next year, we will focus on continuing to realise the objectives of the Government's internal use strategy, Cymraeg. It belongs to us all , for 2020 to 2025, to facilitate greater use of Welsh in our workplace. Our aim is to support the organisation to increasingly operate through the medium of Welsh and provide opportunities for our workforce to learn the language, develop their skills and use Welsh at work. We are committed in the Co-operation Agreement to lead by example, and to support more sponsored bodies, local authorities and the Welsh civil service to operate through the medium of Welsh.

Welsh Language Standards

We will continue with work to introduce standards regulations to bring new bodies and sectors under the standards regime during 2023 to 2024, in line with the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. We will start 2023 to 2024 by bringing regulations before the Senedd to bring water companies under the standards regime, before moving on to prepare standards for public bodies that are currently still outside the standards regime. After that, we will begin the work of preparing standards for housing associations and railway companies.

Theme 3: creating favourable conditions – infrastructure and context

We’ll continue to work in a variety of areas to build infrastructure that will create favourable conditions for the Welsh language to thrive so that everyone is given the opportunity to learn our language and use it.

The economy

In October 2022, the Minister for Economy announced an £11 million budget for the second instalment of the ARFOR Programme, a programme that’s part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. The Programme will include a number of schemes that will address the economic challenges of the region, taking into account specific interventions that will benefit the Welsh language.

We’ll continue to collaborate extensively with local authorities and other stakeholders on a series of actions arising from the work of our Round Table on the Language and Economy.

Affordability of housing in Welsh-speaking communities

With the publication of our Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan, we will continue to pursue a number of the Plan's interventions, working across Government to act in the interests of Welsh communities with a high density of second homes. We will also expand the remit of the Round Table on the Language and Economy and to include housing. The Round Table's work will also consider the progress being made against the 'Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan'.

Our work on the Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan will go hand in hand with the affordability and second homes pilot being undertaken in the Dwyfor area . A number of interventions will be introduced to support people to access the property market, to rent, and to bring long-term vacant homes back to local use.

Digital technology

2023 to 2024 will be the final year of implementation of our Welsh Language Technology Action Plan . We will therefore set about preparing the next programme of work for technology and the Welsh language. Also, during the year, we will be releasing more synthetic Welsh and bilingual voices. These, like all components funded by the Welsh Government, will be released free of charge under a suitable open licence for anyone to use, reuse and/or include in their products.

During 2022 to 2023, we saw the outcome of our partnership with Microsoft to secure simultaneous translation in scheduled Teams meetings. During 2023 to 2024, we will continue to develop our links with a variety of companies so that the components created under the Plan can be used in products, and for those products to create more opportunities for us to use the Welsh language.

Linguistic infrastructure

We will publish a final linguistic infrastructure policy, building on the draft linguistic infrastructure policy consultation held during 2021. The policy will outline how we will develop a more strategic and co-ordinated structure to maintain and develop the Welsh language linguistic infrastructure. The ultimate aim is to make it easier for everyone to know where to access support when using Welsh, giving everyone the confidence to use the language freely. 

We will begin the work of promoting and marketing existing resources by taking steps to develop a new website, with the aim of helping people find Welsh words and terms. We will continue to hold meetings of the Welsh Language Standardisation Panel, to address the orthographic issues of the language. We will also focus on establishing a regime for commissioning packages of new terms, and standardising urgently needed terms, learning lessons from the work undertaken over the past year to standardise terms in relation to equality regarding race and ethnicity, and LGBTQ+.

Welsh place names

During the financial year, we will continue to collaborate widely in this area across Government and with external stakeholders, in line with our commitment in the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru to 'ensure Welsh language place names in the built and natural environments are safeguarded and promoted'. We will proceed to implement the steps set out in the Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan , published in October 2022. These include:

• Commissioning research to learn more about how, why and where place names change, to enable us to develop targeted policy interventions.
• Exploring steps to better protect geographic names in the natural environment.
• Examining how local authorities will fulfil their role in this area to ensure that all possible steps are taken to protect place names.
• Considering the recent use of covenants to protect house names and exploring how these can be used more widely in the future.
• Exploring the use of conveyancing packages as a means to raise awareness of the value of the name of a particular property.
• Considering new ways to raise awareness of and promote the List of Historic Place Names of Wales.

Because place names are an integral part of Welsh language culture locally and nationally, we will take every opportunity to feed into the Welsh Government's new culture strategy.

Wales and the wider world

We’ll continue to promote the Welsh language on the international stage. This will include playing a leading role in international networks on linguistic planning such as the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD), the British-Irish Council and UNESCO’s Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022 to 2032.

We’ll continue to highlight the importance of the Welsh language and our bilingualism as we promote Wales internationally, as part of our International Strategy . We will be involved in organising the Welsh Government's year of 'Wales in France' during 2023 to ensure that the Welsh language is an integral part of the campaign and to make connections with France's minority languages. This will include contributing to the updating of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Welsh Government and Brittany.

We will continue to work on a joint project with Fryslan (European Charter Classroom Activities/ECCA) to empower young people from areas of Europe with minority languages to come together to discuss and share experiences and best practices.

We’ll also work with the Urdd on its Message of Peace and Goodwill for 2023, this year's theme will be Anti-racism.

The Welsh Language and equality

Creating a more equal Wales is a priority for Welsh Government. We will therefore continue to work across Government, and beyond, to realise the actions identified in our various social justice action plans.

The Anti Racist Wales Action Plan was published as part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. It includes a number of actions to ensure that considerations in relation to racial and ethnic equality are embedded further still in our work, including access to the language.

We will focus on 2 categories of work, ensuring that the voices of Welsh speakers belonging to Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority communities are heard, and that those who are not familiar with the language begin to feel that the Welsh language is available to them, whether in the education system, in the workplace or in the community.

We’ll also continue to ensure that the anti-racism agenda is fully adopted by all of our partners involved in delivering 'Cymraeg 2050'.

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Sub-group of the Welsh Language Partnership Council will continue to play a key role in our work in this area.

We will continue to work with the National Centre for Learning Welsh to promote their ‘Croeso i bawb’ scheme, providing opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers to learn Welsh on courses especially tailored for them. This will include opportunities to learn Welsh through languages such as Cantonese, Syrian Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and Ukrainian.

The LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales was published in early February 2023. The Plan includes several actions relating to the Welsh language – we are committed to embedding the ethos of the Plan throughout our work. Similarly, we will be ready to respond to other social justice policy developments throughout the year.

Broadcasting

We will continue the work of taking forward the broadcasting and media commitments set out in the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. We will respond to the findings of the expert panel considering the creation of a shadow Broadcasting and Communications Authority for Wales, following the publication of its report in summer 2023.

We will use a budget of £1 million for broadcasting and £100,000 for the media to support targeted broadcasting and journalism projects during the financial year and continue our work to support Welsh language productions and the growth of the language through our Memoranda of Understanding with S4C.

Through the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Government is developing a new culture strategy. The strategy will showcase all the diversity of Wales, ensuring that the Government works strategically to create 'a Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language', one of the aims of the 'Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015'. In doing so, we will be closely and meaningfully involved with the arts, culture and heritage sectors. The precise priorities of the strategy will be agreed in close consultation with the sectors. The aim is to publish the draft strategy before the end of the financial year.

Research and statistics

We’ll continue to expand our research and statistics evidence base as a foundation for implementing ‘Cymraeg 2050’.

The Office for National Statistics, which is responsible for the census in England and Wales, published the initial 2021 Census data on the Welsh language in December last year.

The number and percentage of Welsh speakers aged 3 years or over fell from 562,000 (19.0%) in 2011 to 538,300 (17.8%) in 2021. There was a decrease in the percentage of 3 to 15 year olds identified as being able to speak Welsh between 2011 and 2021 in all local authorities. However, there has been a slight increase in the percentage of people who can speak Welsh in the young adult groups (16 to 19 year olds and 20 to 44 year olds), and an increase in the percentage in local authorities in south east Wales. But there has also been a decline in the traditional Welsh-speaking heartlands, particularly so in Carmarthenshire. Carmarthenshire saw the largest drop in the percentage of people aged 3 or over who can speak Welsh, falling from 43.9% in 2011 to 39.9% in 2021. Carmarthenshire also saw the largest decline between the 2001 and 2011 Census. Reductions were also seen in some towns in Anglesey, Gwynedd and Ceredigion.

We have already begun to analyse the results relating to the Welsh language, looking at them in light of a wide range of other data sources. Following correspondence between the First Minister and the National Statistician about the differences we are seeing between various sources on the Welsh language, our statisticians are working with the Office for National Statistics to better understand these differences in order to improve our understanding of how people respond to questions on the Welsh language.

We will also scrutinise further data from the census when it becomes available later this year to develop a more complete picture, specifically on the intergenerational transmission of the Welsh language, and the relationship between the language and other characteristics such as gender and ethnicity.

We will use this data and further updates to population projections to update the statistical trajectory for reaching one million Welsh speakers by 2050.

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