5. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the promotion of Welsh-medium education in South Wales West? OAQ(5)0133(EDU)

With the advent of the Welsh Government’s strategy for a million Welsh speakers by 2050, I agree that the promotion of Welsh-medium education across Wales needs to be consistent, focused and strong. We will be launching a national campaign in September.

Thank you for that response, Minister. Following the sweeping success of the Urdd Eisteddfod in Bridgend last month, many are asking why Bridgend council aren’t doing more to promote and develop Welsh-medium education in the county. There are only four Welsh-medium primaries in the county, which is very low as compared to other authorities. Do you agree that the current situation in Bridgend is unsatisfactory? What are you doing to change that situation, particularly through the promotion of Welsh-medium education and increasing the number of young children who receive Welsh-medium education in the county?

I definitely agree that the Urdd Eisteddfod was a sweeping success and we should congratulate all the volunteers that promoted and contributed to the success of the Urdd Eisteddfod. I believe quite a few Members visited the field and enjoyed that visit. I have asked Aled Roberts to undertake a review of all the WESPs, including Bridgend’s, and he will be reporting to me over the ensuing weeks. I will be publishing his full report once I’m able to do so. But may I say this? You were asking about Bridgend. Bridgend does demonstrate that there is ambition and vision for the future. Bridgend demonstrates that, but we must collaborate with them and with each other to ensure that they are able to attain the vision that they have set for themselves.

I welcome the question, but also the answer as well, because we must recognise that Bridgend, like others, are starting from a relatively low base in terms of Welsh provision. Certainly, in the period that I’ve represented that seat in different institutions, it has provided now a secondary education facility in Llangynwyd. There are demands from parents that it should be more central, and I understand those demands. My own children—all three of them—were fortunate to go to one of the best primary schools in the whole constituency, literally walking down their road to Ysgol Cynwyd Sant, a first-class, pure Welsh language provision and embedded in the eisteddfodau and so on. But there is more to do, without a doubt. I was at the turf-laying ceremony the other day for the new Betws primary, which will serve not only the northern valleys but also some of the central areas as well. But I want to ask the Minister: what additional support can be given to local authorities that are starting from a lower base—in advice as well—to move forward? Will he also give encouragement to those authorities that are trying to do the right thing, but they know how far they’ve got to go as well?

I hope we can give encouragement to local authorities. The approach I’ve taken throughout the WESPs process has been to work with people rather than shout at people. I believe it’s incumbent upon all of us here, in this Chamber, to work with our own local authorities. I certainly want to work with my own local authority, in Blaenau Gwent, to ensure that they’re able to grow, and to realise their ambitions as well. I visited the only Welsh language school in Blaenau Gwent some weeks ago in order to discuss how they can improve and develop their provision. What I see, when I travel across the country, is exactly what has been described by the Member for Ogmore, which is great, deep goodwill towards the language and a wish to develop the provision of Welsh-medium education. I think that font of goodwill is something that we must all seek to encourage. The Welsh Government will certainly play its part, both in encouraging provision, encouraging parents to use that provision, and also then ensuring that the local authorities themselves have the support that they need in order to deliver on the vision that most local authorities have outlined in their own plans.

I think there has been a change of officials in the particular area you talk about in Bridgend recently, so hopefully we will see some improvement. But I wanted to ask you about something else. You’ve previously acknowledged the role that Wales’s businesses can play in promoting the Welsh language and, indeed, driving the call for skills, actually, and we often speak positively in this Chamber of collaboration between businesses and schools and colleges, both in influencing and, indeed, facilitating the way that the curriculum is delivered in an engaging way. Do you get any sense that, lately, businesses are perhaps keener to work with Welsh-medium schools because of the aim for 1 million Welsh speakers? Or are these collaborations still very much a local decision—good relationships between business leaders and school or college leaders—where maybe the language isn’t a consideration that’s on their agenda?

What I see, as I’ve said in answer to Huw Irranca-Davies, is a great deal of goodwill from all parts of the community, including business, and what I hope we can do, through the publication of the strategy to achieve a million speakers by 2050, which will be published before we go on recess, is an attempt to ensure that collaboration is made real, is encouraged, is provided with support, and enables people to work together, because I think that is exactly what people want to do, in order to achieve the ambition and vision that we all share for the future of the language.