Present the latest information about complaints and instances of good practice to the members.
Minutes:
The report was presented by the Language Development
Officer, and noted that it examined complaints and praise in parallel, in order
to identify trends and to provide members with a comprehensive picture of
activities within the Council relating to compliance with the Language
Standards and Policy.
Praise
The report drew attention to two specific cases over recent
months where Council officers had excelled in promoting the Welsh language and
ensuring that residents and service users received a high-quality Welsh medium
service:
1. Safety training (IOSH): The Health, Safety and Well-being
Service had recently received recognition at the Council at its Best Awards for
its work in ensuring that IOSH training was fully available through the medium
of Welsh. Council staff members had been leading training sessions in this
field for some time, but were having to use English only materials as they were
not provided bilingually by the chartered body.
The mater had been referred to the Welsh language Commissioner to get
their support and influence, but in the end it came down to the perseverance of
the Council's officers, who raised awareness of the requirements and demand from staff for Welsh
language materials.
2. New
online forms for Blue Badge applications from direct.gov
It was noted that the Siop Gwynedd and Galw Gwynedd Manager and her officers had recently been
working hard to try to ensure that the new on-line forms for Blue Badges met
the requirements of the Standards and the Council's policies. The team had
noticed numerous mistakes and errors in the Welsh version while testing the
system (before it went live), and the Council had refused to transfer to the
new on-line system without changes being made to ensure that it reached the
expected standard. They had collaborated with the translation unit and the
website team to test the system, and had raised the matter with the provider,
including Welsh Government. Discussions
were ongoing and the system was still not operational.
Complaints
Since the beginning
of 2019, correspondence had been received from the Welsh Language Commissioner
about three complaints relating to the Language Standards.
The Commissioner
decided not to investigate the complaints further based on the explanations
below:
1. Standard email sent in English only in a
response to an e-mail in Welsh from GwE.
The investigation was terminated after the Commissioner received
correspondence from the Council's Legal unit, confirming that the Council's
Standards were not relevant to GwE due to its status as a joint committee.
2. English only receipt sent by the Welsh
Penalty Processing Partnership. It was
explained that this had happened due to a technical error after the
administrators had made updates to the payment system. The matter had already
been bought to the attention of the Council and had been resolved by the time
the complaint was received by the Commissioner, and the Commissioner agreed
that the Council had already dealt with the matter appropriately.
3. Blue Badge application assessment and
processing Service. The Council
confirmed that this was a service managed by the Welsh Government, and that the
Council had already received several complaints, and had referred concerns
about the quality of the service to the Government. Following the response, the
Commissioner agreed that the Council was not responsible for the matter, and
referred the complaint and Gwynedd Council's concerns to the relevant Welsh
Government Department.
RESOLVED:
To accept the report.
Supporting documents: