Welsh language annual report 2025-2026

Executive summary

Croeso to our Welsh language annual report for 2025-26 which outlines how we have complied with our Welsh language standards, improved and promoted our Welsh language services.

During the reporting year, we have strengthened some of our Welsh language services, improved internal processes, and expanded opportunities for both the public and colleagues to use the language with us. This progress has been supported through our engagement with the Welsh language Commissioner when implementing new systems and our continued support to our colleagues who are developing their language skills at all levels.

Our overall compliance has remained high, with 3 areas identified in the report as areas of non-compliance which need improvement to attain full compliance. Actions have been set out in our Welsh Language Action Plan to address these.

Our work in promoting our Welsh language services is beginning to show an increase in the use of our services particularly our digital and customer hub services.

We continue to actively support the aims of Cymraeg 2050 in increasing opportunities for the public and colleagues to use the language in all aspects of their lives both internally and externally.

Key highlights from the report:

• Increased use of Welsh services:
  Welsh language calls to the Customer Hub increased by 80%, and Welsh webpage views increased by over 81,000 compared to the previous year.
  
  
• Strengthened digital and recruitment systems:
  A new fully bilingual e-recruitment system was introduced, alongside our early adoption of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) framework, improving consistency in assessing Welsh language skills.
  
  
• Increased translation output:
  3.4 million words were translated, an increase of 1 million from the previous year, with the Translation Team supporting both compliance and the creation of original Welsh content.
  
  
• Improved language choice in key services:
  Our Flood Warning Service saw an increase in customers choosing to receive communications in Welsh, 163 compared to 23 for the previous service.
  
  
• Increasing language capability and internal use of Welsh:
  139 colleagues have been supported to develop their language skills, 76% of our workforce have completed our Welsh language awareness training, and a new initiative Clwb Clebran is supporting everyday use of Welsh in our workplace.

Introduction

The Welsh language standards came into force for NRW on 25 January 2017, under the Welsh language (Wales) measure 2011 and regulated by the Welsh language commissioner under Welsh language standards (No. 2) Regulations 2016.

The standards we are required to comply with are in four categories:

• Service standards - the Welsh language services we provide to the public.
• Policy standards - ensuring that Welsh language forms part of the decision-making process by carrying out Equality Impact Assessments ensuring that the decision has no adverse effect, but positive or increased effects on the opportunities to use the Welsh language.
• Operational standards - promoting and facilitating the Welsh language in our internal administration processes.
• Record keeping standards - keeping records for compliance with the requirements of the standards in areas such as colleagues Welsh language skills, training, complaints, and recruitment.

Our Welsh Language Standards require that we produce an Annual Report which demonstrates how we complied with our standards and the work we have done to improve our Welsh language services during each reporting year.

List of historic place names

We also have a statutory duty to consult the List of Historic Place Names of Wales and to consult and add to this List. The List is a resource that contains hundreds of thousands of Place-names collected from historical maps and other sources and provides an insight into the land-use, archaeology, and history of Wales. As part of this duty, we are required to submit an activity report on our implementation of the duty for each reporting year.

The governance process for approval of our annual activity report is to submit the full report to the Head of People who has responsibility for the Welsh language, with a summary of the activity report included in our Welsh Language Annual Report. The Corporate Services Business Group and People and Customer Committee will endorse and approve the report prior to submitting to the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and publishing on our website.

Compliance oversight arrangement of standards

Monitoring compliance of our Standards is carried out by Lead Specialist Advisor Welsh Language, any risks highlighted to our Head of People, Executive Director of People, Fleet & Facilities for discussion with Managers and explained at Grŵp Pencampwyr (Welsh Language Champions) meetings.

Head of People has overall responsibility and oversees implementation of the policy across the organisation.

Over this reporting year the Grŵp Pencampwyr Iaith Gymraeg included representatives from across our Directorates including Executive Director of Communications, Customer and Commercial, Head of People, Head of North West Wales Operations and Principle Advisor of Strategic Projects. The Pencampwyr will raise issues of non-compliance with the Lead Specialist Advisor Welsh Language at the quarterly meetings.

Our Welsh Language Annual Report follows our internal Governance process of endorsement by our Corporate Services Business Group (CSBG) and approval by our People Committee (PC) prior to publication.

Matters arising during the reporting year

Welsh language commissioner promoting compliance plan 2025-2026

As part of the Commissioner’s Promotion Compliance Plan, we have received guidance and support to help improve compliance and the services we provide to the public. Over this reporting year we:

• Completed quarterly monitoring surveys
• Submitted a self-assessment questionnaire on our compliance with the standards
• Participated in thematic studies
• Responded to a key line of enquiry on handling complaints
• Attended events organised by the Commissioner throughout the year

During this reporting year, we were invited to give a presentation at 3 events hosted by the Commissioner, where we shared good practice on our policy and process in handling Welsh language complaints and our approach to promoting our Welsh language services with the aim of increasing their use.

Due to our proactive adoption of the CEFR framework, our Strategic Resourcing Manager was invited to participate in a discussion group at the Welsh Government and National Centre for Learning Welsh conference on the introduction of the framework. He shared our experience of using the framework to support a clearer and more consistent approach to assessing Welsh language skills in recruitment.

Self-assessment of compliance with our standards and risk of non-compliance

As part of the Welsh Language Commissioner’s Promoting Compliance Plan 2025–2026, we completed a self‑assessment of our compliance with the standards with evidence to support our assessment by January 2026.

The process enables us to review our compliance in detail and develop an action plan to address areas for improvement or closer monitoring. The actions we plan to take were shared with the Commissioner as part of our response.

As part of this process eight areas were identified as not fully compliant which require further action to improve our compliance. Two areas of non-compliance were also identified as follows:

Non-compliance with Standard 146

Standard 146 requires that we record the number and percentage of colleagues who have completed courses listed under Standard 124 in Welsh. Whilst courses are available in Welsh on our Learning Management System (LMS) due to the bilingual functionality of the system colleagues can change their language preference at any point within the course. Due to this functionality, we are unable to record the number who have completed courses in Welsh as required by Standard 146.

To address this matter, our Learning and Development Team are currently looking at options on how colleagues could confirm which language the course was completed in. If successful this will be implemented during the next reporting year. This will enable us to report and be compliant with Standard 146.

Non-compliance with Standard 56

DEFRA administer the Fishing Rod Service on our behalf, whilst the service itself provides a language choice to customers on the Government Digital Service (GDS), the landing pages for the service which forms part of the angler user experience prior to accessing the service remain in English only. These pages are managed by GDS directly. DEFRA have supported the user case for GDS to provide the content bilingually and helped co-ordinate the provision of the Welsh translations. We are dependent on GDS to update these pages which we have been assured are on their work schedule.

We continue to have quarterly meetings with DEFRA to discuss Welsh language capability of the service.

All areas identified as requiring further action to improve compliance or non-compliance have been added to the Welsh Language Action Plan.

Non-compliance with Standard 56 - Car parking upgrade

In addition to the findings of the self-assessment, following the recent implementation of the new parking upgrade system at some of our sites, it has been identified that the support the supplier provides customers online and by telephone in the event of queries is available in English only.

Our Customer hub colleagues have been supporting members of the public with issues in their language preference. Our website has also been updated to include useful information to support customers in using the system.

The payment parking machines and Ring Go app are available to be used in Welsh along with all signage. All correspondence or outputs from the systems for the public is bilingual. A meeting is being held in June where this matter will be discuss what further mitigations we can put in place in relation to this non-compliance issue.

Implementing and improving our Service Delivery Standards

Translation team services

The Translation team continues to provide an essential service to the organisation, supporting compliance with Welsh Language Standards and enabling increased use of Welsh internally.

Over the reporting year the team have translated:

• 1.6 million words internally (102,237 word decrease since last reporting year)
• 1.8 million words externally (818,718 word increase since last reporting year)
• 3.4 million words in total were translated over this reporting year (716,481 more than last reporting year)
• 5 million words are now contained in our translation memory system (2 million word increase since last reporting year)

The work of the team has increased and with the support of the translation memory system now in its third year helping to deliver increasing efficiency and consistency.

For half of this reporting year the team were working with 25% less capacity. Changes in the team’s capacity have taken place during the latter part of this reporting year, with two part-time Translators having recently been recruited filling longstanding vacancies, and a new Senior Translator who will start in June. The team has maintained high levels of support for colleagues’ Welsh language needs while also working across the organisation to ensure the Welsh language is embedded and given due prominence in all of NRW’s activities. Having additional translating capability in-house will provide more resilience within the team and less reliance on external translators.

Translation work is mainly focussed on translating from English to Welsh with some Welsh to English undertaken. The Translation Team continues to work proactively with teams across the organisation to create original Welsh content and to advise on integrating Welsh into projects. This has supported the production of a wide range of Welsh‑language outputs, including podcasts, blogs, videos, poetry and prose.

Request for simultaneous translation service

Over this reporting year 33 requests were made with some requests for multiple events.

The statistics were as follows:

• 13 requests for simultaneous translation on location (compared to 15 last year)
• 20 requests for simultaneous translation over Teams (compared to 10 last year)

The above figures reflect the increase in meetings being held on Teams. This change has led to far greater demand for simultaneous translation facilities, and fulfilling some meetings in rural areas can be challenging, with freelance simultaneous translators more choose their work. Feedback has generally been overwhelmingly positive. The team will continue to monitor developments in the sector and adapt accordingly.

Alongside translation, the team promotes language checking services, encouraging colleagues to use and develop their Welsh language skills. Reported figures do not capture the high volume of short translation tasks handled daily, nor the extensive additional work undertaken, including proofreading, quality assurance and advisory support. The team has also contributed to naming trails and sites, and to the proofreading and approval of signage and public‑facing materials, much of which is delivered through digital platforms.

The team also continues to provide services to external partners, including work on specific projects involving organisations such as the Mining Remediation Authority and the Environment Agency in England.

Further details on the work of the Translation Team are included in Appendix 1 of this report.

E-recruitment system

A new e-recruitment system was launched in September 2025. Having a system which functioned bilingually was one of the main considerations in the procurement process to meet the requirements of the Welsh Language Standards relating to recruitment. The system enables applicants to complete all stages of the recruitment process in their language of choice, providing a consistent and inclusive language experience.

With the implementation of The Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Act 2025 and plans to introduce the use CEFR framework for assessing and describing Welsh language ability across speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. We have taken a proactive approach in introducing the framework within our new recruitment system. This framework will bring consistency to how Welsh language skills are assessed and described across the public sector in due course.

Work is currently underway to update MyNRW with the CEFR framework to enable colleagues to re-assess and record their language skills. This will support compliance with Welsh Language Standard 123 and provide us with more accurate data on the Welsh language skills of the organisation for workforce planning, reporting and audit purposes. We plan to ask all colleagues to update their skills during summer/autumn 2026 and monitor the completion of this mandatory requirement.

Procurement training and guidance

Training on our procurement processes has been developed for colleagues which includes Welsh Language Standards requirements. This will help incorporate Welsh language considerations into our processes when procuring services from a third party.

Guidance on Welsh Language Considerations in our procurement process is provided to support colleagues in specifying the Welsh language services that suppliers must deliver and how these should be delivered. This supports compliance by ensuring that relevant third-party services meet Welsh Language Standards.

Purchase a fishing rod licence

The Fishing Rod Licence service is administered on our behalf by DEFRA with support from our Translation Team to ensure compliance with our Welsh Language Standards.

In October 2025, the rod licence service became the first in government to offer opt-in automatic yearly renewal through Gov pay’s recurring card payments. The service integrates into the main service and available in Welsh from the offset. All written communication received by anglers are bilingual for anglers with a Welsh postal address.

Over this reporting year regular small changes have been made to existing content to improve clarity for customers following feedback, with every content change updated bilingually. Examples of improvements have included:

• Disabled licence eligibility
• Additional statement asking customers to confirm that the information they have submitted is correct and ensuring that they understand that knowingly providing incorrect information will mean their licence isn’t valid.
• Update in content for juniors, clarifying how they will receive licence expiry reminders
• Translation of Ordnance Survey terms and conditions available from a link in the footer
• Content to clarify that a postal licence is now a letter rather than the old-style plastic-coated card

Promoting Welsh language website pages

The majority of the services we provide are available on our website. To raise awareness and encourage use of our online services in Welsh, our website offers customers a proactive and real language choice at the start of their customer journey as shown below:

Each page includes a Cymraeg toggle at the top so that users can change their language preference throughout their journey on our website.

Data on the use of our Welsh language services

The Welsh Language Commissioner wants to see an increase in the use of Welsh language services supported by data to monitor trends, help identify any barriers and target interventions. Alongside this, focussing on the importance of promoting Welsh language services is important to raise awareness and encourage more use of our Welsh language services.

To help us in understanding more about the use of our Welsh language services are, we have started to look more closely at data for our most used services, and monitor moving forward:

Customer hub

The Customer hub deals with all general enquiries and operates Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm.

During the reporting year the hub dealt with:

• 16,328 calls in total
• 1,646 (10%) were dealt with in Welsh
• 14,682 (90%) were dealt with in English
• 730 (80%) increase in Welsh language calls compared to last reporting year

The hub saw a significant increase in calls related to our nature reserves and days out, including the closure of our visitor centres in North and Mid Wales which we believe accounts for the increase in Welsh language calls during this reporting year.

Incident Communications Centre

Our Incident Communications Centre (ICC) is a service provided to the public to report an environmental incident and is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. ICC provide a proactive language choice to all callers.

During this reporting year:

• 13389 calls in total were dealt with by the centre
• 359 (3%) calls were dealt with in Welsh, which is the same as the previous year.
• 13030 (97%) calls were dealt with in English

ICC also provides the Welsh language service for Floodline UK which was transferred over to us in 2024. 91 calls were dealt with on this line.

The Welsh language service our Customer Hub and ICC provide is promoted on our website with the aim of increasing its use. Evidence from previous reporting years show an increased use of our Welsh language enquiry lines when our work or campaigns are focussed on the agricultural sector or within predominantly Welsh speaking communities.

We proactively offer a Welsh language service as the first option to customers with the calls handled by fluent Welsh speakers. However, a number of Welsh speakers initially select our English service, and many calls will change to Welsh medium calls when it’s understood the call handler speaks Welsh. These calls which are dealt with in Welsh are automatically recorded as English calls within our system due to the initial language selection by the customer. We are working with our Customer hub team to understand why some Welsh speakers choose the English option and identify ways to encourage use of the Welsh option, ensuring our records reflect the use of our Welsh service more accurately.

Website

With the majority of our services now available digitally we are seeing an increase in the use of our website by customers. Between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026, we captured a total of 3,067,164 views on our website, with 1,187,388 new users.

Our statistics from 2025-2026 show that over this reporting year there were:

• 201,310 (6.56%) page views on our Welsh pages, an increase of 81,266 views from last year.
• 2.24% total increase in the views on our Welsh pages from last year
• 2,865,854 (93.4%) views across our English pages.
• The most accessed page in Welsh after the homepage, was our Flooding page which had 2,477 views. This page was also our most accessed page during the last reporting year.

Webpages

The most popular pages visited over the reporting year were:

Page title	Cymraeg total views 25-26	English total views 25-26	Cymraeg new users 25-26	English new users 25-26	Welsh figure 24-25	Percentage increase (24-25)
Homepage	22,300	522,034	7,540	172,531	89,240	−66,940 (−75.01%)
Flooding	2,477	58,482	1,392	38,923	1,750	+600 views (+31.6%)
Check your flood risk by postcode	1,713	80,296	680	50,786	779	+934 views (+119.9%)
Search for a job	1,211	56,582	507	26,524	560	+651 views (+116.25%)
Sign up to receive flood warnings	1,129	15,259	479	9,258	1,658	−529 views (−31.91%)
Top news story	2799	3,088	704	865	n/a	n/a

The above figures show a decrease in the views for our Welsh language homepage and sign up to receive flood warnings pages. However, there has been an increase in direct views to our Flooding, Check your Flood risk postcode and Search for a Job pages in Welsh.

We believe the increase in the views on the Welsh pages is as a result of the proactive approach we have taken in promoting these services through various channels and noting the Welsh language services we offer as part of this work. Our #Barod am Lifogydd/Be Flood ready campaign and the promotion of our reviewed Search for a Job pages as part of the introduction of the new e-recruitment service were supported by the use of social media and promoted the Welsh language availability of the services.

Research has shown when services are promoted well there is an increase in their use. With Welsh language services we have to take that additional step in being explicit and noting their availability to help increase their use due to historically services were not always available in Welsh and habitual behaviours.

Please note, our website usage data is based on analytics data and gives an estimate of user activity rather than accurate data, as tracking depends on user consent settings.

Flood warning service

Our new flood warning service was launched in July 2024. This service provides Welsh speakers with a much improved language choice in how they receive correspondence from the service both written and verbally which as we know may differ as our statistics below show.

Flood warning service accounts created 01/04/2025 - 31/03/2026:

• 2,857 total accounts have been created
• 57 to receive Welsh written and verbal messages
• 14 to receive English written and Welsh verbal messages
• 7 to receive Welsh written and English verbal messages

The above stats show that during this reporting year 78 (2.73%) users opted to receive some or all communications in Welsh, including different combinations of written and verbal preferences.

Total flood warning service accounts created since launch in July 2024:

• 5,998 total accounts have been created
• 115 to receive Welsh written and verbal messages
• 13 to receive Welsh written and English verbal messages
• 35 to receive English written and Welsh verbal messages
• 5,835 to receive English written and verbal messages

Previous flood warning service:

• 23 registered for Welsh‑language service

Since the launch of the new service in 2024, 163 (2.73%) users in total have chosen to receive communication from the service in Welsh in full or part, compared to 23 under the previous service. Although the numbers remain low, the data suggests that offering a genuine language choice encourages more use of Welsh-language services.

New accounts tend to rise in response to forecast messages, particularly when flooding is likely. As part of our promotion of this vital service, we will continue to state that the service is available in Welsh to encourage more use of the service.

Digital forms

This is the first year we have looked at the statistics in relation to our digital forms, which provide users with a clear choice to complete forms in Welsh or English at the outset:

Our statistics show that the most used forms in Welsh are:

• Report an incident form: 6115 total responses across languages, 64 (1%) of which were in Welsh and 6,051(99%) in English
• Get in touch with us form: 936 total responses, 23 (2.5%) of which were in Welsh and 913 in English
• Apply to use land we manage form: 622 total responses, 8 (1%) of which were in Welsh and 614 (99%) in English
• Make a complaint form: 346 total responses, 13 (4%) of which were in Welsh and 333 (96%) in English

The data shows that the use of our Welsh language forms is currently low, ranging between 1% and 4%. We will continue to monitor their use and promote the Welsh language availability of the forms to encourage an increase in their use.

Recruitment

With the implementation of our new e-recruitment system in September 2025 we are now able to provide timely and more detailed information and reports.

Since the implementation of the system:

• 89% of roles advertised during reporting year 25-26 were assessed at A1.
• 17% of candidates had intermediate to fluency Welsh language skills.
• 5097 applications received
• 188 (3.7%) requested interviews in Welsh
• 4909 (96.3%) requested interviews in English

The Welsh language self-assessment form has been updated on the e-recruitment system. Whilst this change has seen an increase in the number of roles requiring Welsh language skills, the higher percentage of roles remain to be assessed at A1 level. We will further review the process to ensure we are meeting our Welsh language obligations.

Implementing our policy making standards

Equality impact assessments

Our Equality Impact Assessments (EQIA) consider the impact our policies and practices could have use of the Welsh language and to ensure the Welsh language is treated no less favourably than the English language.

During this reporting year 89 proposals were screened to determine whether an EQIA was required, with 31 EQIA’s completed.

As part of the review process, we ensure that:

• Our work, policies and services comply with our Welsh Language Standards
• Welsh language services are proactively promoted and readily available
• Welsh speakers are engaged with during consultations to help inform decisions
• The needs of Welsh speakers, and their ability to use the language with us in their interactions with us are considered

Welsh language impact assessments

When there is an increased impact on the Welsh language identified, a separate Welsh Language Impact Assessment (WLIA) is undertaken to ensure the language is given appropriate consideration.

During this reporting year no new WLIA were completed, two were updated following decisions made by NRW Board:

• Designation for Glyndŵr National Park
• Case for Change

Equality impact assessment training

A new EQIA training course has been developed and is currently being developed into a storyline on our LMS in readiness for publication. The course will help colleagues in gaining a better understanding when to complete an assessment, the process involved and what considerations need to be given to the language and when to consider and complete a separate WLIA.

The course emphasises the importance of evidence gathering and engagement to help us in making better informed decisions and provide better services. We are aiming on the training going live on our LMS by December 2026.

Grant policy

Standard 90 requires that we produce and publish a policy on awarding grants. During this reporting year our policy was updated to meet the requirements of Standard 90.

The updated policy ensures that all grant processes are delivered bilingually, including applications, guidance, webinars, and award letters. Enquiries and correspondence received in Welsh are dealt with in Welsh. Grant conditions also require successful applicants to ensure that when undertaking engagement work, their material and any opportunities provided are bilingual supporting the use of Welsh.

In addition to the requirements of Standard 90, guidance is in place to support applicants in using and considering the Welsh language within their projects, and to support colleagues in assessing applications to ensure that consideration has been given to how projects will be managed bilingually and the Welsh language conditions of our grant policy.

Implementing our Operational Standards

Internal language policy - increasing opportunities to use Welsh internally

The Welsh Language Commissioner has published a 5-year strategic plan which focuses on increasing the use of Welsh within public organisations, alongside ensuring the availability of Welsh language services. To support this work, the Commissioner has published 3 policy models which organisations can use to support this work.

Standard 94 requires that we have a policy on using Welsh internally for the purpose of promoting and facilitating the use of the language. Our current internal language policy has been in place since 2017, with a review planned.

Following Case for Change and the re-structure of the People Function, with a new Head of People recently recruited and a People Policy, Reward & Inclusion Manager to be recruited both with responsibilities relating to the Welsh language, over the coming year we will review this policy using the models published by the Commissioner to support this work.

We have continued to increase opportunities for colleagues to use their language skills internally and some examples of what we have done over this reporting year:

• All electronic automated Microsoft Teams calendar meeting invitations are now sent bilingually
• 6 online People Policy related MS Teams forms for internal moves have been developed bilingually
• Head of People hosted an informal Welsh quiz in January
• Clwb Clebran has been established to provide opportunities for learners and fluent Welsh speakers to chat and share
• The Translation Team supports the provision of bilingual materials, including presentations for large group meetings as required

Publishing internal policies and procedures in Welsh

Standards 101 – 107 require that our People Policies are available for colleagues in Welsh. Our Internal Language Policy states that all our policies are available in Welsh.

During this reporting year 15 new or revised policies were published in Welsh which go beyond the requirements of our Standards and provides more opportunities for our colleagues to use Welsh as part of their day-to-day work.

Developing NRW bespoke training

The implementation of a bilingual Learning Management System (LMS) has enabled colleagues to access training in Welsh or English. However, limited bilingual capacity within the LMS team affects the development time and consistency of Welsh language content. Further development of bilingual capability would improve efficiency and support a more consistent and equal learning experience for Welsh language users.

Welsh Language Awareness Mandatory Training

During the last reporting year we launched our Welsh Language Awareness Training. The course explains the role of the language has played in Wales’s history and culture and how it can help us in achieving our purpose alongside the key principles of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011.

• 1873 (76%) colleagues have completed this mandatory e-learning training which includes our duty to comply with our Welsh Language Standards. Completion rates monitored with reminders sent to Managers throughout the year.

We will over the coming year aim to work towards 100% completion rate for this course.

Welsh Language Standards Training

A new Welsh Language Standards training course has recently been launched on our LMS to support colleagues in understanding their responsibilities to comply with the Welsh Language Standards as part of their day-to-day work. This course compliments our Welsh Language Awareness Training.

The course provides guidance and visual examples of letterhead templates, forms, agendas etc being shared on the screen as well as good practices in working bilingually. The training also raises awareness of the support we have in place to help everyone to be able to work bilingually.

To date 27 (1.1%) colleagues have completed this training.

This course will be promoted during the next reporting year.

Other training developed in Welsh

• Media training course was held for our Executive, Leadership and Management Team and MT during March 2026. 9 (17.3%) completed the training in Welsh with 52 completing the training in total.
• Environmental Management Systems e-learning Training, 4 (0.7%) completed the training in Welsh, with 586 completing the training in total.

Over the coming year we will continue to develop more bespoke NRW training courses in Welsh and do more to promote their availability through various internal channels of communication.

Welsh language training programme

This year, 139 colleagues have enrolled to develop their language skills at various levels. This figure is down by 4 from the last reporting year. There are also an additional 8 colleagues who have expressed an interest in enrolling on a course.

Colleagues are developing their language skills as follows:

• 47 (34%) at entry level
• 43 (31%) at foundation level
• 27 (20%) at intermediate level
• 18 (13%) at advanced level
• 4 (2%) at proficiency level

The 22 who are developing their language skills at advanced, and proficiency level are mainly colleagues who are fluent but don’t have the confidence to speak Welsh.

Our learners are based across Wales with the majority learning as follows:

• 32 (23%) - Ceredigion/Powys
• 29 (21%) - Gwent
• 27 (19%) - North West Wales
• 18 (13%) - North East Wales

Nant Gwrtheyrn provide intensive residential courses at all levels and continue to be very popular with 13 colleagues attending over this reporting year. Some of these were fully funded through the Work Welsh scheme provided by National Centre for Learning Welsh.

Colleagues continue to provide very positive feedback for these courses, with interest already being shown and some colleagues already on a waiting list for courses.

More information on our Welsh Language Training programme can be found in Appendix 2 of this report.

Clwb Clebran (Chatter Club)

Clwb Clebran was launched in February 2026 to encourage the use of Welsh in the workplace through a relaxed, informal approach. While most Welsh‑language learning traditionally takes place in formal classroom settings, Clwb Clebran offers short, friendly sessions designed to build confidence and normalise everyday Welsh at work.

The sessions run for 30-45 minutes on Microsoft Teams and include quizzes, discussions, and activities focused on Welsh language history, workplace vocabulary, and everyday phrases relevant to our work. To date, around 100 colleagues have either attended sessions, expressed interest, or joined the group chat.

These light‑touch, engaging activities are designed to support learners at all levels. They include:

• Short, practical initiatives to encourage everyday Welsh
• Printable office resources, such as themed crosswords
• Short surveys to help identify barriers and motivators for learners
• Live sessions exploring idioms, Welsh at home, and using Welsh in the community (phrases, directions, place names)

The overall aim of Clwb Clebran is to increase visibility, enthusiasm, and confidence in using Welsh naturally in the workplace. At the end of the session, we will ask for feedback from attendees and evaluate its effectiveness.

Record keeping standards

The number of employees who have Welsh language skills at the end of the year in question on the basis of the records kept in accordance with standard 145.

Over this reporting year our headcount has increased by 109, with the latest data showing that the percentage of fluent Welsh speakers at Levels 4 and 5 has remained at 23% (564), despite our data showing a decrease of 1% from last year, due to the increase in our headcount the number of Welsh speakers at this level has increased slightly by 8 (7%) of the increased headcount.

The highest percentage of our Welsh speakers remain fluent in both written and spoken Welsh are at Level 5 14% (352). Most of our fluent Welsh speakers (353) continue to be in our Operations Directorate. Overall, 766 (31%) of our colleagues can discuss matters in Welsh at Levels, 3, 4 and 5, this is an increase of 18 from the last reporting year. 94% of our colleagues can show linguistic courtesy when meeting and greeting others. This percentage has remained the same as the previous reporting year.

Colleagues are asked to self-assess their language skills and record in MyNRW. The Welsh language skills of our colleagues in March 2025 can be found below:

• Level 5 = 352 (14%)
• Level 4 = 212 (9%)
• Level 3 = 202 (8%)
• Level 2 = 503 (20%)
• Level 1 = 1052 (43%)
• No skills = 98 (4%)
• 47 (2%) are yet to self-assess their language skills

Analysis of our fluent Welsh speakers show that:

• The majority are aged between 36-45 (164)
• 138 are aged between 46-55
• 119 are aged 56+
• 314 are male and 249 are females
• 89 work part-time
• The highest numbers are in Grades 5 and 6 (279) with the lowest numbers (26) at our more senior Grades of 9 and above.
• 149 new starters are fluent in both Welsh speakers
• 38 fluent Welsh speakers have left the organisation during this reporting year

Although 23% (564) of our colleagues are fluent Welsh speakers, not all are in roles which require Welsh language skills as essential to fulfil their duties. To support future planning, resilience and compliance with our legal duties, there is a need to carry out a skills gap assessment to identify gaps in Welsh language capacity across teams and directorates, with a plan to address these gaps and ensure sufficient capacity and capability across the organisation.

Our colleagues who have been supported to develop their language skills and successfully moved up a language level during the reporting year were reminded to update their Welsh language skills record in MyNRW. This helps us in providing more accurate figures on the language levels in the organisation when reporting.

We are in the process of updating MyNRW to incorporate the CEFR framework, this will bring our internal records in line with our recruitment records which have already adopted the framework. Following this update all colleagues will be asked to re-assess their language levels and record in MyNRW. This request will be monitored and is a requirement of standard 123.

More information on the Welsh language skills of colleagues can be found in Appendix 3 of this report.

The number of colleagues who attended training courses offered in Welsh during the year on the basis of the records kept in accordance with standard 146. If a Welsh version of a course was offered during the year, the percentage of the total number of colleagues attending the course who attended the Welsh version on the basis of the records kept in accordance with standard 124.

Our LMS system allows users to switch language at any point during a course, due to this functionality it is currently not possible to record the number of colleagues who have completed courses in Welsh which makes us non-compliant with Standard 146. To try and address this issue we are exploring the functionality of the system to include a question for colleagues to confirm the language used, which would enable us to be compliant with Standard 146.

Courses in accordance with Standard 124 are available for colleagues to complete in Welsh/English or switch language as preferred:

During this reporting year:

• recruitment and interviewing – 57 completed the e-learning course
• performance management – 134 completed the e-learning course
• complaints and disciplinary procedures – 6 completed the e-learning course
• dealing with the public – 0 have completed the e-learning courses available
• health and safety – 37 completed manual handling e-learning course with 407 completing First Aid courses.

The majority of our health and safety courses are technical courses and are carried out face to face and are conducted in English. We advertise that our face to face First Aid course is available in Welsh; to date we have not received a booking for the Welsh medium course.

Induction

Our Induction training consists of a number of virtual and live sessions over a period of 9 months as follows:

Workshops and Webinars

 A live virtual Induction welcome session, with input from our Chief Executive and various members of ET. This session is delivered via English with incidental Welsh used throughout.

e-Learning

 Wellbeing, Health and Safety – e-learning module available in Welsh and English. You, Me and the Future of Wales - e-learning module available in Welsh and English.

Live Sessions

 Public Law – 2 live sessions were run in Welsh : 10 attendees (4%), 234 attended English session.
Sgwrs (performance management) – 1 live session was run in Welsh: 9 attendees (6%), 124 attended English sessions.
Brand Awareness – 1 live session was run in Welsh: 13 attendees (6%), 207 attended English sessions.

The number of new and vacant posts advertised during the year which were categorised as requiring Welsh language skills as essential, desirable, needed to be learnt when appointed to the post, or not necessary on the basis of the records kept in accordance with standard 148.

Over this reporting year, recruitment activity increased significantly from last year following a recruitment freeze. A total of 1,145 vacancies advertised during the period in comparison to 40 last year.

Some vacancies were advertised both internally and externally simultaneously, 401 were appointed from internal candidates, 376 from external candidates 777 in total.

All posts are advertised requiring Level 1 as the minimum language; training is given to colleagues who need to attain this level of understanding to show linguistic courtesy.

Number of posts advertised during this reporting year were as follows:

Language Level	Essential	Desirable	Welsh to be learnt
C2 – fluency in spoken and written Welsh	37	0	0
C1 – fluency in spoken Welsh	52	0	4
B2 - The ability to communicate in Welsh with confidence in some work situations	29	0	4
B1	13	-	-
A2	8	-	-
A1– The ability to pronounce basic Welsh names, phrases, and greetings	998	0	0

 

Analysis of the above stats and language abilities of colleagues who have secured roles through our recruitment process, both internally and externally during this reporting year are as follows:

• 80 (10.5%) are Welsh speakers at C2
• 69 (9%) are Welsh speakers at C1
• 25 (3%) are Welsh speakers at B2
• 49 (6.5%) are Welsh speakers at B1
• 110 (14%) are Welsh speakers at A2
• 412 (53%) are Welsh speakers at A1
• 32 (4%) had no Welsh language skills

The 32 who do not meet the Level 1 minimum language level required will be expected to complete the 10-hour online course provided by the National Centre for Learning Welsh. This course will need to be completed within the probationary period to help achieve this level.