5. Statement by the Minister for Mental Health, Wellbeing and Welsh Language: Promoting the use of Welsh in families (transmission in families policy)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:23 pm on 26 January 2021.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 4:23, 26 January 2021

(Translated)

Thank you very much. I think you're quite right: the way we ensure that this works is to ensure that those who do speak Welsh feel pride in the fact that they speak Welsh. But we also need to raise the confidence of those people who've been through Welsh-medium education, have stopped using the language for a time, and we need to relight that fire within them, so that when they do have children, they want to ensure that they speak Welsh to those children. And what surprised me was that it's still an issue, for example, in Anglesey, where there was one parent who spoke Welsh, only 38 per cent of those children spoke Welsh at three years of age. And even when there were two Welsh-speaking adults in the family, it was only 76 per cent who were transferring the language to their children. So, there is a problem there, and even if we were to start there, we would already be making progress in terms of increasing numbers. So, this is part of our programme to reach that 2050 target.

Of course, you'll have to wait to hear the details of our manifesto, but you will be aware, in terms of the curriculum, that we are very eager to ensure that awareness of Wales and Welsh history is all very important, and that an awareness of the Welsh language is part of what we hope people will learn in the future.

In terms of the action points, it's a mix of things where there is evidence of what's happening, because we have looked at programmes such as Twf and Cymraeg i Blant and have learned from those, but it is also innovative, and we don't want to apologise for being innovative in this area. Cymraeg i Blant, of course, has been assessed, and as part of that assessment we have looked at the gaps that we believe need to be filled, we've also looked at Twf and we've considered whether we can get the best out of Cymraeg i Blant and this new scheme. Of course, some £700,000 is spent on Cymraeg i Blant, which is quite a fair bit of funding, and that helps with ensuring that midwives speak to parents at those very early stages and so on.

In terms of the pandemic, of course, it is important that we maintain the confidence of children and their parents, particularly those who send their children to Welsh-medium schools, but don't speak the language. We've done a great deal of work with Bangor University to try and ensure that there are blogs available for parents, so that they understand, because we have a great deal of experience here in Wales of reintroducing the language and ensuring that children can learn the language quickly. Those moving to Wales are immersed in the Welsh language when they reach communities, we know how to do this and we know what's possible. Evidence shows that it won't be a problem, but what we must do is to increase those parents' confidence, so that they are aware of that work that has been done already. Of course, we will be doing a great deal of work to ensure that we hasten that process and that we do restore the situation as soon as the children are back in schools.