Workforce Strategy

4. Our Role in Delivering Bilingual Services

We understand that the Welsh language is key to the identity of many of our residents and that people are often able to better express their opinions and needs in their first language. It is therefore our duty to ensure our residents and customers can access our services through their language of choice and to make sure our employees have the required skills.

Working alongside our Welsh Language Advisory Panel, we are refocussing support to promote and develop the Welsh Language in the context of ensuring we are able to recruit to key and critical roles.

The latest Census data for 2021 tells us that Carmarthenshire is home to 72,838 Welsh speakers. This translates to 39.9% of the county’s total population. This figure has decreased by 5,210 since the last Census in 2011, which translates to a percentage point decrease of 4.0. This is the largest percentage point decrease of all local authorities in Wales.

In 2001 and 2011, Carmarthenshire had the highest number of Welsh speakers of all local authorities in Wales, with 84,196 and 78,048 Welsh speakers respectively. These new figures mean that the county now has the second highest number of Welsh speakers of all local authorities in Wales. Carmarthenshire remains the fourth highest in terms of the percentage of the population that can speak Welsh.

In line with Council’s Welsh Language Promotion Strategy and the commitments set out in the Welsh Language Standards, Welsh Language Skills Strategy, and the Equalities and Diversity Policy this Strategy echoes what Carmarthenshire County Council will do to facilitate the delivery of bilingual services.