The next item on our agenda this afternoon is a statement by the Minister for Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language on the Welsh language strategy. I call on Alun Davies as Minister to make that statement. Alun Davies.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Welsh Government’s vision is to reach 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050: a clear vision that brings us together as a nation, and that is what drives this new strategy.

The Welsh language is an important part of who we are, whether we speak the language or not, and we need to be proud of our bilingualism. But the time is right to take the next step in our journey as a bilingual nation. If we want to realise our vision, and reach a million, we need to take action and lay the foundations now. There are challenges ahead, but I have no doubt that we can approach them in the knowledge that a firm foundation is already in place.

The Llywydd took the Chair.

The new strategy identifies 10 transformational changes we will need to drive forward. These are: creating new speakers through the education system; use of the language, in the workplace and socially, and through services; and, finally, creating favourable conditions to ensure that we have an infrastructure and context for the Welsh language, such as supporting Welsh-speaking communities and supporting the language through digital technology. And may I be clear? We don’t just want to reach a million people who can speak Welsh. We want to see a million people who can and can choose to use their Welsh language skills.

The strategy focuses, naturally, on plans to significantly increase the number of new Welsh speakers, and a focus is placed on the transition phases between the early years to statutory education in the first instance, but also on supporting a single Welsh language continuum, so that our young people have the best possible opportunity to become confident Welsh speakers.

This will require ambition, support and leadership from local authorities, governors and school headteachers to reach our target of 40 per cent of learners in Welsh-medium education by 2050. Effective delivery of the Welsh in education strategic plans will be essential to drive this work forward, and I will make a further statement regarding the review of the WESPs during the coming weeks. We are, of course, aware that this will be a challenge, but we must face such challenges to achieve our vision. Another obvious challenge will be to ensure that we have a sufficient number in the education workforce to achieve such an expansion. Purposeful action will be needed to ensure that sufficient numbers of young people wish to teach, and to teach through the medium of Welsh.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education announced last week her intention to invest £4.2 million from the education budget to further develop the teaching workforce able to teach Welsh and to introduce teaching through the medium of Welsh. This will include extending the sabbatical scheme and extending the role of the education consortia. We will also need to support our young people on their language journey after they leave school, as they move on to further and higher education, and as they join the workforce. I look forward to reading the report of the review of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol on the next steps that need to be taken in order to make progress in this area.

Similar attention will be given to increasing the use of the Welsh language. For the language to flourish, there need to be more Welsh speakers and those who are able to speak the language need to do so regularly. The traditional Welsh networks have enabled generations of people to use the language socially. They’ve also had success in creating a context for the language beyond the school or work environment, and we have reason to be thankful to them for their valuable contribution. According to 2015 figures, approximately 10 per cent of the population use Welsh regularly at present, and I want to see that increasing to 20 per cent by 2050.

I look forward to publishing a White Paper in August of this year outlining proposals for a new Welsh language Bill, to ensure that we are operating in the most effective way possible for the benefit of the people of Wales. To support efforts to increase the number of Welsh speakers and their use of the language, we need to create favourable conditions for them to do so. The new regional focus on economic development will be key to ensure that all parts of Wales, including Welsh-speaking communities, benefit from an economic perspective. That is key for the future of those communities.

To support that, before the end of this month, technical advice note 20 will be published, along with guidelines and a risk assessment framework for the Welsh language for large developments, to reflect the need to consider the Welsh language in planning policy. And, as the nature of society changes, and as developments continue in digital technology in the future, we will need to transform the Welsh language digital landscape, with particular emphasis on language technologies.

This strategy comes at an important time for the Welsh language. We either roll up our sleeves and respond to this challenge, or we give in. This strategy provides commitment to respond to this long-term and ambitious challenge. I am very clear in my mind that the Welsh Government needs to lead by example and provide leadership if we are to reach our goal. Presiding Officer, this is only the beginning of the journey. We each have a contribution to make—as supporters, learners, and regular Welsh speakers. We can all be one of the million.

Llywydd, nid yw fy natganiad heddiw ar strategaeth y Gymraeg a gyflwynir gan y Llywodraeth, yn ddatganiad i'r rhai hynny ohonom sy'n siarad Cymraeg yn unig. Mae'n ddatganiad ac yn bolisi ar gyfer y wlad gyfan. Rwy’n gobeithio hefyd bod hwn yn bolisi a fydd yn uno'r genedl, ac yn un a fydd hefyd yn ein herio fel cenedl, ac, os byddwn ni’n llwyddo i gyflawni’r her hon, bydd yn newid yn sylfaenol pwy yr ydym ni fel cenedl.

Rwy’n gofyn i ni heddiw gofleidio gweledigaeth a fydd rhoi taw ar ddadleuon y gorffennol. Heddiw, rwyf eisiau symud y tu hwnt i'r gwrthdaro a’r anghytuno a welsom ni yn rhy aml dros ddyfodol yr iaith. Mae'r Gymraeg yn eiddo i bob un ohonom. Ein hetifeddiaeth ni yw hi. Mae hi’n rhan o bob un ohonom ni. Mae hon yn weledigaeth lle mae pob un ohonom ni yn rhannu ein gwlad ac yn rhannu ein diwylliannau gyda’n gilydd. Rwyf eisiau i bob un o'n plant adael yr ysgol yn hyderus o ran nid yn unig deall Cymraeg sylfaenol, ond hefyd y diwylliant y mae hi’n sail iddo a’r hanes a’n gwnaeth ni y bobl yr ydym ni heddiw.

Rwy'n benderfynol, ac mae'r Llywodraeth hon yn benderfynol, y byddwn ni’n llwyddo yn yr ymdrech hon. Mae'n ymrwymiad hanesyddol ac yn un a fydd yn helpu i ddiffinio dyfodol pob un ohonom ni. Byddwn ni’n darparu'r weledigaeth a'r arweinyddiaeth, ond rydym ni hefyd yn gwybod na all yr un Llywodraeth, yr un Gweinidog na’r un Senedd gyflawni'r strategaeth hon a sicrhau ein llwyddiant neu fel arall. Bydd hynny'n cael ei benderfynu gan ein gwlad a'n pobl—y bobl hynny sy'n defnyddio ac yn siarad yr iaith, ac yn dysgu'r iaith, ac yn sicrhau bod eu plant yn hyderus yn yr iaith.

Wrth newid Cymru, byddwn hefyd yn newid y Deyrnas Unedig. Os gallwn ni greu cenedl wirioneddol ddwyieithog yn y teulu hwn o genhedloedd, byddwn yn helpu i wneud y DU yn gyffredinol yn lle gwahanol—yn fan lle mae cydnabyddiaeth i’n hiaith yn rhan hanfodol o’r etifeddiaeth Brydeinig a’r profiad Prydeinig. Yn hynny o beth, mae hefyd yn her i'r DU yn ogystal, ac yn enwedig y cyfryngau Prydeinig sy’n rhy aml yn ceisio naill ai anwybyddu neu wawdio ein diwylliant, a sefydliad Prydeinig nad yw’n dangos unrhyw ddiddordeb mewn realiti hunaniaeth Brydeinig nad yw’n cydymffurfio â'u rhagfarnau.

Llywydd, wrth gloi, rwy’n gobeithio y bydd hyn yn ddatganiad a fydd yn atseinio ar draws yr holl wlad ac yn ddatganiad a fydd yn dechrau taith y byddwn yn cyd-gerdded arni. Dwy iaith, dau ddiwylliant, ond un genedl. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Thank you, Minister, for today’s statement, the first, I assume, in a long series, because the lifespan of the strategy is very lengthy. I have to say, I do like the fundamental message that this strategy is to unite us rather than divide us, because we all know how the language has been used by various people over the past decades, and hopefully we will see an end to that. This is something of an experiment here, Minister. I’ve written my notes in English, and I’m translating them as I speak.

I would like to start with the education workforce. This is important because we have seen a decline in the number of people teaching through the medium of Welsh recently. I note the sabbatical programme, and I appreciate, of course, the Mudiad Meithrin training programme which is also set out in the strategy itself. Perhaps it's too early to ask this question, but I would like to know, how the ideal of having a training programme provided by Mudiad Meithrin is going to work in non-Welsh placements during this current period, because we all look forward to generations of bilingual children who can speak English or Welsh without even thinking about it, but I'm still concerned about this current phase and how that training is going to be provided during this phase because it is important for very young children, particularly in that transition phase, to hear the language as part of their daily lives, even if the main language of the placement is not Welsh. So, if you could tell us something about your short-term commitment in that regard I would be very grateful.

Also, in terms of the sabbatical scheme: that is going to work for those who have an opportunity to take advantage of it, but I'm still concerned about those who can't be released from their schools—or the workplace, if it applies there—in this current phase. How do people currently working in our schools who do want to take advantage of any opportunity to enhance their Welsh language skills—how can they benefit? Because I don't see that this is going to be easy. We all know of the problems with supply teaching, and the question extends to them too, of course.

I agree 100 per cent that, post-16, we don't want to see young people losing those skills that children coming into the system will attain at an early age. We don't want to see the language going back to being just a social thing, or something that is lost entirely in that post-16 sector. So, can you tell us again, in detail, what's going to happen in the FE system, or in apprenticeships, in order to reinforce the value and the purpose of being bilingual? Because you have said at the opening and closing of your address that we are building one nation, but there are a number of ways to approach that and, in this current phase we still have this problem of people who have, perhaps, had a terrible experience of the language if they have come through the English medium sector. So, can you tell us what has been provided in looking at the Welsh language as a core communication skill and an integral part of the vocational courses, particularly in courses such as social care, child care and hospitality? These aren't new questions, I know that, but I would like to know if there hasn't been any progress. I would like to hear about that. Will we hear more of that as we proceed with the strategy?

As I said, I would like to hear more about the workplace. When you talk about creating favourable conditions so that people can choose to use the Welsh language, not only that they have those skills, but they can choose to use them, well, there's a question in terms of standards. They do have a role in the workplace, but, for me, there is a way of creating supply rather than generating demand, and this strategy can only succeed if it actually creates that demand.

I have just mentioned the poor experience of people coming through the English medium sector, and, of course, I am looking here on the new generation of bilingual people. If this works well, they will get to the workplace, but those in the higher positions will have come through a different education system and they have come through with attitudes that aren’t, perhaps, positive towards the language. I would like to hear how the strategy is going to avoid a situation where we have people who enter the workplace being fully bilingual, but then they come across people who are perhaps older than them and have very different attitudes towards the language, and perhaps don’t appreciate the skills that they have developed from the very early stages, if this strategy works well. I would just like to know if there are ways and means of avoiding any culture clashes here. So, could you tell us how you’re going to monitor the success of the Welsh for adults centres that we currently have? I know it’s very early days, but how can we learn lessons from that experience in order to ensure that people can enter the workplace without the tensions for either the employee or the employer, because there is still that disconnect between those starting in that system and those who have been through previous systems, and have taken those old attitudes with them into the workplace. Thank you very much.

I’d like to thank Suzy Davies for her general welcome for the words and the statement and the strategy itself. May I say this in responding to you, Suzy? We are starting on a journey here—a journey over two generations to reach 2050, a journey where we have to make investment very early on, and that’s what I’ve tried to do today, by showing some sort of picture of what I hope to do over the current Assembly and this Government, because I think it is important to set targets not just for 2050, and whoever is Minister at that point, but also targets for the Government here whilst I’m Minister. And we have to create a network or a structure where it’s possible to ensure accountability for this Government—this current Government—too. So, we do hope to do that today and over the coming weeks and months.

Mudiad Meithrin will be one of the most important partners that we have as we move ahead, ensuring that we do have the framework and structure of the ‘meithrin’ groups across Wales. We will continue to collaborate with them.

You’ve asked many questions about developing the workforce. Kirsty Williams has commissioned work by Delyth Evans, and the report of that taskforce will be published over the next few weeks. And that report will start to put together that picture of how we can develop further education through the medium of Welsh by ensuring that we have post-16 courses through the medium of Welsh for those people who want to work with the Mudiad Meithrin, for example, but also to develop skills and new services through the medium of Welsh. Kirsty Williams will have a statement to make on that over the coming weeks.

But we are seeing that the Welsh language—. It is important to see the Welsh language as a communication skill, as you described, but also the Welsh language has to be more than that—more than just a communication skill that you use when you need to in the workplace. The Welsh language is more than that. It’s a vital part of our culture and history as a nation, and we also have to acknowledge the value of the Welsh language because of what it is, and not just because it’s a skill in the workplace. I do want to emphasise the importance of that.

As part of the journey, I will be publishing a White Paper in the Eisteddfod, and we will be starting a process of discussing what kind of legislative structure we need over the coming years. I was clear in my mind—and I hope that Members will agree—that we need to set out the vision first of all, we need the set out the strategy first of all, and then discuss how we implement the strategy and how we achieve that vision. And so, I was clear that I wanted to set out the strategy here, and then have the discussion about the legislation and the new Bill for the Welsh language. We will be starting that process of discussion with regard to the Bill in the Eisteddfod. That will then continue into the autumn, and then when we’ve had that national debate about that, I hope that we will be able to bring forward legislative proposals to this Assembly so that Members can discuss and debate those proposals that we have, and I hope to do that very early in the new year.

When I talk about favourable conditions for the Welsh language, then I’m talking about what kind of rights we need as Welsh speakers, how we demand our rights as Welsh speakers, and how the public services and other services work within a statutory system that will ensure and guarantee our rights as Welsh speakers. We do have to have that discussion, and I look forward to that. But more than that—and I will conclude with this response—I want to shift the emphasis from regulation to promotion and facilitation, and I want to shift the emphasis from discussion to a national debate about the Welsh language that’s positive with regard to how we expand the use of the Welsh language, how we increase achievement with regard to the Welsh language, if you like—we need to move away from these things with regard to conflict, as you’ve suggested, and talk about how we can expand the Welsh language, and do that by including all of us. Very often we discuss strategies with regard to the Welsh language only in Welsh, but this is a strategy for Wales, Welsh speakers and those who don’t speak Welsh, together.

You have published a very important document today, and it is a positive initial step on the journey to reach that target of 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050. The Government has identified key themes that will need to be prioritised in terms of increasing the number of Welsh speakers. Of course, the minutiae, the work programme and the action points, are what will be important as we move forward. We will also need determination to overcome any barriers that may appear, and determination and firm political will over a lengthy period of time.

I start by discussing community and economy, and I am pleased to see that there is an understanding of the relationship between the Welsh language and the economy and our communities in this document. You note that we need more than jobs to keep people in these areas and to attract them back, and you are talking here about those communities with a high percentage of Welsh speakers. You go on to say that we also need high-quality careers to allow people to move from one job to another. In your statement this afternoon, you have said that the Government needs to lead by example and show leadership if we are to achieve the ambition.

Now, seeing clear leadership in terms of jobs and the kinds of quality jobs that we want to see in Welsh-speaking areas would be a clear sign from your Government of your desire to show the way and to set an example. The Welsh Revenue Authority could have been established in west Wales, but that wasn’t done. I suggested at the time, when we had that discussion, that we needed to look again at the Government’s criteria when it comes to decisions on the location of new bodies, if the Government is serious about strengthening those communities where the Welsh language is the language of daily communication. So, my question is: will you take deliberate steps as a Government to create new governmental posts in those areas with a high percentage of Welsh speakers? And will you take action to relocate from the prosperous south-eastern corridors when opportunities arise?

In turning to education, the minutiae here, again, are very important indeed, and you do have certain targets in the work programme—and I’m not talking here of the strategy, but the work programme, which is crucial—for example, an increase in the number of primary schoolteachers who teach through the medium of Welsh from 2,900 to 3,100 by 2021, which is an additional 200; an increase in the number of secondary teachers teaching Welsh from 500 to 600, which is 100 more; and the numbers teaching through the medium of Welsh from 1,800 to 2,200 by 2021, and that’s an increase of 400. Now, to me, that doesn’t sound like a huge increase. Is it sufficient, or am I perhaps not seeing where that fits into the rest of the strategy?

I have a specific question also on education, and that is on the Welsh in education strategic plans. We do need to see these becoming far more ambitious if we’re to reach this target, and at the moment, we haven’t seen a huge amount of progress. I know that you would agree with that. So, how will the twenty-first century schools budget be used in order to support the WESPs and to support the development of new educational facilities?

I note that your work programme runs over four years and that the strategy is to be implemented over a far longer period, but in order to maintain that momentum, you will need to establish an arm’s-length body in order to ensure consistency, have an overview and to maintain direction post 2021. The sector certainly agrees with that, and, as part of the current budget, the agreement was made to establish an arm’s-length body. My final question is: what is the purpose of the planning board that’s been meeting recently? Will that develop into an arm’s-length body—this body that is required—and if that is the case, when will that happen? Thank you.

Again, I’d like to thank the Plaid Cymru spokesperson for her general welcome for the strategy and the work programme. I’m pleased that you focused on the work programme in your questions. You’re right that, when I look around me in this place in Cardiff Bay, when I travel around Wales and when I’m at home in Blaenau Gwent, I see goodwill towards the Welsh language in all places. It’s one thing that does unite us as a nation, and I see goodwill from communities where the Welsh language is an important part of community life, and also goodwill in those communities where the Welsh language isn’t part of the community’s everyday life. I see that as something that I want to see continue and to promote over the coming years.

But you’re right—we are making a clear commitment to ensure that we have an economic plan for all parts of Wales, including those communities where the Welsh language is the community language. The Government needs to ensure that we invest also in those communities. You’ve seen a clear policy from this Government to move jobs outside of Cardiff and to move jobs into different parts of Wales, and that has been an emphasis that this Government has made and it’s been a continuous policy of the current Government. Perhaps the jobs aren’t all going to the places that you would have chosen—that’s probably true—but the development bank has gone to the north, of course, transport has gone to the Valleys, and the Welsh Revenue Authority has also moved. So, we have seen that policy of moving jobs outside of Cardiff—investing in Wales as a nation and not just in the capital city—and I think that that is vitally important. That policy will continue over the period of this current Assembly. I’m sure that that policy will include the west and the north of Wales in their entirety, of course, and you will see that happening over the coming months and coming years.

When it comes to education, are the targets sufficient? I do think that the targets are ambitious and sufficient for now. This is a journey. It’s not a four-year strategy. We’ve published a work programme for four years, for the period of this Assembly, to enable people, and to enable this Government to commit to specific targets whilst we’re in power during this Assembly. It’s the work of the Assembly, the Welsh Parliament indeed, to ensure the accountability of this Government over the coming period.

You’ve asked a specific question about the WESPs, and I spoke about the WESPs in the statement. I will be making a statement over the coming weeks. You’re right. I agree with you with regard to your analysis that we need robust WESPs that reflect the Government’s ambition. You’ll also know that Aled Roberts has been working on this for six months, and I expect to see Aled’s report over the coming weeks. I will be publishing his report and I will be writing to all local authorities over the coming period to ask them to take action in order for us to be able to achieve the targets that we have set out in the different WESPs.

But when you ask about the budget for the twenty-first century schools programme, may I say this? We’ve seen many questions being asked about the budget for the Welsh language and where the funding is. I want to be clear in my mind, and I want Members to be clear too, that we’re not isolating the Welsh language in one department of this Government. The Welsh language is going to be integrated in all departments of Government, and all Government activities, and all of the Government’s programmes. So our ambition for the Welsh language is that it will be a central part of the twenty-first century schools programme. There’s no one budget for English-medium schools and one budget for Welsh-medium schools. There’s one education budget for a system that is implemented in both languages, and we will be taking action in that vein.

You talk about an arm’s-length body, and you say that there’s support for that. I don’t see as much support for the establishment of new public bodies, I have to say, but we do have the current agreement, and I’m going to be setting out clear proposals in the White Paper that will move that policy forward. I look forward to having that kind of discussion and debate on that over the coming weeks and months.

I would like to give a warm welcome to this report as well, and the general approach that the Minister has brought to this. This is a series of measured and practical steps, I think, to go towards achieving the ultimate ambition of 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050, but I’d also like to commend him on the eloquence with which he concluded his statement about the reasons for supporting the Welsh language and embedding it in the culture of the people of Wales, even in those areas where it has long since disappeared as the everyday language of the people. I think that’s exactly the right approach to bring to this, and it’s useful, I think, to have somebody doing this job who didn’t grow up to speak Welsh at home and has learnt the language. It will be the great challenge of the future to convince the English monoglot section of the population, which is by far the greater at the moment, that this is an adventure in which we must all take part.

So, I agree with what the document says, in particular that the Government strategy can’t force individuals to use the language, and for the language to truly flourish, we’re counting on each and every one of us to embrace the idea of a bilingual Wales. So, we have to carry the people with us and go with the grain of public opinion, but also to lead it as well. I would, in this context, also like to commend Plaid Cymru’s contribution, which we debated last week, in this document, ‘Reaching the Million’, and the importance, initially at any rate, of ensuring that we retain a robust social heartland for the Welsh language in the west and in the north. But it is important for us also to have a strategy for breaking out of the traditional areas that are still largely Welsh speaking, because we don’t want to see the Welsh language largely confined to what we might call a ‘laager’ within our own country.

If we are to succeed in our ultimate objective, then we do have to convince people who don’t hear the Welsh language spoken on a daily basis at home or in their communities that this is worth making an effort to engage in. The great challenge now will come of course in WESPs, in areas that pose these greater challenges, and we must certainly do our best to avoid the kind of confrontation that we saw, sadly, in Llangennech in the last year. We must work harder in those circumstances to convince people that it’s not going to set children back to learn through the medium of Welsh.

What Simon Thomas said the other day about the value of learning another language, whether it be Welsh or any other language, is absolutely true. At school, I learned three languages—German, French and Russian—as well as Welsh, although I had to give up Welsh in order to do one of the others. We don’t do that today. I don’t know whether that has made me a more intelligent person as a result, or a more eloquent person, but it has certainly added several dimensions to my life, which I’m pleased to have. And so, there is a value in this beyond the nuts-and-bolts arguments of economics we’ve heard about, which are important, but to be honest, given that English is the lingua franca of the world generally, it’s going to be a problem for all other languages, in a sense, to compete with it in international commerce and the world of the internet. We’ve got to bring reassurance to parents that this is something that is of value to children.

We’ve seen a collapse in the teaching of modern languages generally in the United Kingdom, not just in Wales, in recent years. The British Council did a survey only two years ago that found that only 22 per cent of pupils take GCSEs in languages other than English or Welsh. That, I think, is deplorable, because languages are seen to be difficult. Well, amongst the languages that I’ve studied, Welsh is a rather less complex language to learn. Vocabulary is smaller; words are made to do more things in Welsh than in other languages; we don’t have problems of cases and conjugations and so on; and it should, with a bit of effort, be an easier language to absorb and learn than, say, a language like Russian, which I mentioned earlier on.

So, this is an important step, but what has also been said about the importance of the earliest years can’t be overestimated, and I would like to commend the work done by Mudiad Meithrin in this respect, and the ambition to see 150 new ‘cylchoedd’ for three to four-year-olds is the beacon of hope, I think, for the language, because the other interesting thing that I discovered from the Plaid Cymru report was that 18.8 per cent of three to four-year-olds were Welsh speaking in 2001. That had risen by 5 per cent to 23.3 per cent in 2011. It would be interesting to know, if we could, what the figure is now, and to what extent we’re making progress along this road. The ambition in this document of having 35 per cent is an important intermediate step, I think, and so I commend the approach that the Minister has to that.

If we are to succeed in this objective, it is in embedding the language in the earliest years when we are the most absorbent. I can tell you from my own experience that at the age of 68 it’s much more difficult to recover vocabulary, let alone learn new words, than it used to be. I think it’s important for us to realise that there is an overwhelming consensus in the Assembly behind this approach, but that consensus is not reflected to the same extent outside, and therefore we all have to play our part in bringing people on board this exercise. Certainly on behalf of my own party, I’ll say we will hope to play our part in this as well, because I think we can be useful to the Government in this respect, representing part of the community that isn’t normally associated with the adventure on which we are all now embarked.

I’m grateful to you for your kind remarks and for the welcome you’ve given the statement, and both the approach and the tone that we have used in moving this policy forward. You describe the strategy as an adventure. It’s certainly a journey, and it’s an exciting journey. It’s exciting because it isn’t going to be those of us in this Chamber here who will determine its success. It’s going to be the parents who take individual decisions, it’s going to be the parent who decides to use Welsh with their child to transmit the language through the generations, the parent who decides to send their child through the Welsh-medium system, the parent who helps their children doing their Welsh homework in an English-medium school, the people who change the language that they use when they’re in a rugby club, a pub or whatever it happens to be, or the people who actually make an effort to use the language on a daily basis and to ensure that future generations use the language. I hope that, in doing so, the country itself, which has been on one journey with the language, will go on another journey in a different direction with the language.

My own family moved to Tredegar at the turn of the last century, and they were entirely Welsh speaking when they moved from Aberystwyth to work in the collieries of south Wales. They lost the language and the language died like a fault line in the family before the second world war. Now, we are seeing my children—my parents’ grandchildren—learning and speaking Welsh as a first language and regaining the language. The language is reborn in the family. I hope, in the same way, we’ll be able to see that in many families and in many different parts of Wales. I know that the education Secretary shares a very similar family journey herself. I hope that, in that way, we will not simply see the language as acquiring only a skill, but that we will also win the hearts and minds of people across the country, and that we will move away from the sense of, ‘If you win, I lose’—a zero sum game that we’ve seen all too often in the past—where if we speak Welsh, then we exclude people who speak English, and a bilingual policy is Welsh speakers being forced to speak English. So, we need to move away from those sorts of contradictions, and we need to move away from that approach and that tone of debate.

In doing so, it is a journey that we will embark upon as a country. I have already been speaking, through our officials, to the local authorities across Wales on their own strategic plans for Welsh. As I said in an answer to a previous question, I will be making a statement on that, and making an announcement on that in the next few weeks, but I hope that we will reassure parents, but also inspire parents and inspire people to learn the Welsh language, to enjoy using Welsh, not to worry about getting every mutation right and every issue of grammar correct, but to enjoy using the Welsh language, to feel comfortable using the Welsh language, and to feel comfortable doing it socially as well as professionally. We start that in the early years, and I hope that the experience that parents will have, or the good experience of their child learning two languages early in life, is something that will stay with them and enrich them in their lives in a way that it has enriched me and my family in our lives.

Minister, can I commend you for today’s statement and the ambition behind the policy? We should be in no doubt that this is a radical cultural policy that goes against the grain of language use for a century or more, and this is not going to be an easy task, but I think it’s absolutely right that we’re aspiring to do this.

I want to focus, if I might, on the education system. You set a target of having 70 per cent of learners being able to use the language with confidence in all aspects of their lives by 2050, and you’ve set out a clear ambition for the Welsh-medium sector to be a significant part of achieving that, but it seems to me that the Welsh-medium sector alone is never going to be able to achieve growth of that scale. I also do think it’s morally wrong, if I can use such strong language, that children who are educated in the English-medium sector are denied effective use of the language. My own nine-year-old daughter is a bright kid and can’t speak a word of Welsh. Her teachers don’t speak Welsh, and there are many, many schoolchildren across Wales—. In fact, 68 per cent of seven-year-olds are in English-medium schools, and we are denying them the language of our nation, and I think that is wrong. I think this strategy must address that, not simply address the expansion of the Welsh-medium sector, which is the relatively easy bit to do, but address the much more challenging bit of having the vast majority of schools teach Welsh in a way where they are able to meet that target of using the language with confidence in all aspects of their lives. You say, rightly, in the strategy that success is dependent on developing the skills of the workforce. That is a mammoth task. So, perhaps you can tell us how, in practical terms, you intend to do that, and if you could also tell us a little bit about what the Welsh Government itself intends to do to achieve the objectives of this strategy within the Government. Diolch.

Can I say how much I absolutely agree with the points that have been made by Lee Waters? As a Minister, you tend to visit a number of different schools and institutions. I visited a school in your constituency about six months ago. I visited my old infants school with the education Secretary. It’s always a curious experience to go back to your own school. When I started in Glanhowy infants, I think it was about 1968, 1969, something like that, the only Welsh I heard was once a year on St David’s Day, when we had an eisteddfod, where we were taught how to sing a particular song, and we sang that and then we went back to our daily lives. It was a real joy for me to spend time talking to teachers and talking to people there, where children in the foundation phase were having Welsh words introduced to them. So, they were introducing colours and numbers and introducing the concept of the language to them, in a way that would have been unthinkable when I was growing up in Tredegar. So, I hope that we’ll be able introduce more Welsh into—and the continuum of language acquisition that we’ve debated and discussed as part of the new curriculum in—the English language sector in a way that isn’t confrontational, which doesn’t create the cliff edge, which doesn’t force and compel people to get everything right in every aspect of grammar and of the language, but to be able to feel comfortable listening and learning and speaking the language, and to do so in a way that encourages language use, not discourages people by being overly aggressive on different aspects of it. So, I hope we will be able to do that.

You mentioned the workforce. It’s absolutely critical that we’re able to do that. Something like a third of teachers in Wales at the moment are able to speak Welsh, and not all of them are able to teach through the medium of Welsh or to teach Welsh as a subject. So, we do need to invest in training for teachers, to make teachers feel comfortable and able to both introduce aspects of our language as well as teach the language. But, overall, my concern is absolutely the same as yours. I do not want to create an education system where some people learn and speak and are able to use Welsh fluently and easily, and then the other half of the system is unable to understand even the basics. That tends to be what we have today, and that’s what we have got to move away from. I hope that children and young people, when they leave school at 16, will be able to speak and to use Welsh—some to a greater degree than others—but will be at least able to feel comfortable with the language, and hearing the language around them, and understanding the basics. Some will choose, of course, to go on and study at greater length, and the best of luck to them. Others will chose not to do so, and the best of luck to those as well. But, certainly, what I’m anxious to do is ensure that we have a bilingual education system where everybody is able to have the same opportunity to acquire the language and to understand the culture that underpins as well. So, the English language sector is as important and, as you say, perhaps a bit more difficult than perhaps the Welsh language sector.

The Welsh Government itself has to recognise that you can’t change the world without changing yourself. I hope that the Welsh Government itself recognises this isn’t a policy for Wales, but a policy for us, as well, as a Government. We will need to look again at how we operate as an administration to ensure that we operate bilingually as well, and not simply send missives out from Cardiff Bay or Cathays Park telling the world how they should operate. We need to do that ourselves, and that is something I’m confident that we will do.

We are out of time on this item, but, if I can get some very brief questions, and brief responses, I will extend the session slightly because of its importance. Dai Lloyd.

Thank you, Llywydd. May I thank the Minister for his statement, and congratulate him on his vision? I just wanted to focus on one point in terms of the promotion of the Welsh language as part of this strategy—promoting the language and promoting information about Wales to those who may be new to the concept. You say that, as well as emphasising that the Welsh language is an important inheritance to the 3 million Welsh population, whether they speak it or not, as you say—. But bearing in mind, going back to the seventh century, before everyone else came here, that the indigenous language of the British isles was Old Welsh, it’s an inheritance not just for the people of Wales, but for everyone in England and in parts of Scotland, from Edinburgh down. So, in addition to the need to promote the Welsh language and information about Wales within Wales, may I also emphasise the importance of taking that information about our history as a nation and our language over the border, too? Thank you.

I agree with you, Dai, and I wanted to make that exact same point in my oral statement, when I was talking about the Welsh language as a British language, and our Welsh experience as a British experience. It’s vitally important that we don’t just reach out over the border, but that we understand each other as people of Britain. I think that’s something that’s vital and something that we’ll continue to emphasise.

Well, here we are starting out on our journey with the first piece of the map in our hands. I appreciate the Minister’s tone in talking about the language as a means of uniting our communities, and that we need a national effort, not just Government policy, in order to deliver that. You’ve emphasised in your responses how inherently important the early years are in creating Welsh speakers and Welsh pupils, and enhancing demand for Welsh-medium education. In the Welsh language committee, we had evidence from Mudiad Meithrin that we need to create over 600 ‘cylchoedd meithrin’ over this period to meet the demand for early years Welsh-medium education. In the Government strategy, it mentions 150, so can you explain that disparity, first of all?

And then, generally speaking, we are very fortunate that you are also the Minister responsible for the Valleys taskforce. Can you just explain how the Welsh language strategy will impact upon those discussions?

I saw the evidence from Mudiad Meithrin to the committee, and it was excellent evidence. They, of course, were talking about the target of 2050, and that we’d need 600 ‘cylchoedd meithrin’ by that time. The number that we have is an additional 150 by 2031. So, we have around 450 at present, and that takes us up to 500 by 2031. So, I don’t think that we’re far apart on this, because some ‘cylchoedd’ will merge, some will grow, and so it’s a fluid situation with regard to how it’s developed. The important thing, and I agree with the Mudiad Meithrin on this, is that children have, at the very early stage of their lives, the same opportunity to attend Welsh-medium ‘cylchoedd’ and bilingual ‘cylchoedd’ nationwide, so that they have the opportunity to start learning Welsh as early as possible in their education.

When it comes to the Valleys taskforce, I want to ensure that the Welsh language is part of the daily life of the Valleys once again. It was excellent for me personally to visit a school in my constituency and listen to children speaking Welsh with Tredegar, Brynmawr, and Ebbw Vale accents, and starting to regenerate the Welsh language in areas where it’s been lost for a century. And that’s where we want to see—. I remember meeting you in Tŷ’r Gwrhyd in Pontardawe, where we have another opportunity to revive the Welsh language in communities where it’s lost ground. I very much hope, in the work that we do with the Valleys taskforce—we’re focusing on the economic side at present, but, as we move forward over the coming years, I very much hope that there will be a new emphasis on the Welsh language in the Valleys to ensure that the Valleys are an area where the Welsh language is strong once again.

Finally, Adam Price.

The strategy does emphasise the regional dimension in terms of economic development, and it’s important to the traditional Welsh-speaking heartlands because of economic and demographic similarities. But, again, the Welsh Government is suggesting a map of economic regions that places those Welsh-speaking areas in with majority non-Welsh-speaking areas. Is the Government in favour of the creation of an economic region for Welsh-speaking west Wales so that we can deliver the potential that exists, as highlighted in the strategy?

I think that we do have to invest in the economy of areas where the Welsh language is the community language, but what I don’t want to do is create a Gaeltacht, as it were—create a community or region where it is established that that is the area where it’s spoken. As I mentioned in response to the Member for Neath with regard to promoting the Welsh language in the Valleys, we need to ensure that the Welsh language belongs to all communities in our nation. I do acknowledge that we do have to invest, and I said in response to Sian Gwenllian that we do have to ensure that the Government is responsible to the communities where Welsh is the community language, and to ensure the economic future of those communities. That’s something I’m working on with the Cabinet Secretary for the economy, and, when he makes his statement on the regional economic policy, there will be an integral part for the Welsh language.

Thank you, Minister.