Cymraeg 2050: Welsh language strategy action plan 2024 to 2025

We published the Welsh Government's Strategy for the Welsh language, Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers, in July 2017. The strategy's second 'work programme' was published in July 2021 outlining our work from 2021 to 2026. The 'programme for government' and elements of the 'co-operation agreement' with Plaid Cymru will underpin many of our plans until the next Senedd.

Furthermore, Section 78 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 places a duty on Welsh Ministers to publish an annual action plan explaining how they will implement the proposals outlined in their language strategy during each financial year. This is the action plan for the 2024 to 2025 financial year.

We have now had the opportunity to analyse much of the 2021 Census data in terms of the Welsh language. The largest reduction in the percentage of Welsh speakers is seen in the 5 to 15 year old age group. COVID-19 has undoubtedly had an impact on the skills of children and young people, and particularly regarding their confidence in the language. Looking closely at school data from the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans (WESPs), we will work with all local authorities to regain lost ground. We will also look to build on the small increase shown in the percentage of Welsh speakers in the 16 to 44 year old age group. 

The census offers valuable data, but we must look at a number of sources to see the entire picture. As such, we have published a joint work plan with the Office for National Statistics to improve our understanding of the surveys and the main administrative sources of data about the Welsh language.

Therefore, this year we will continue to review our priorities and update our plans as required to progress on our journey towards a million Welsh speakers, as well as doubling the numbers who use Welsh every day.

The ‘Cymraeg 2050’ strategy includes two main targets: 

• The number of Welsh speakers to reach one million by 2050.
• The percentage of the population that speak Welsh daily, and can speak more than just a few words of Welsh, to increase from 10% (in 2013 to 2015) to 20% by 2050.

These targets provide a clear narrative for us all in Wales, in Government, in the public sector and as citizens: the Welsh language belongs to us all, as does the responsibility for its future. In addition, all we do under this Plan embraces both the letter and spirit of the 'Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015', specifically: "A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language".

‘Cymraeg 2050’ is based on three strategic themes:

1. Increasing the number of Welsh speakers
2. Increasing the use of Welsh
3. Creating favourable conditions, infrastructure and context

We’ll continue to focus on these principles as we work across the Government’s policy areas, paying particular attention this year to the following:

• The importance of ensuring that Welsh remains the main language spoken in communities in the west and north-west, where there is a high density of Welsh speakers.
• Continuing to increase access to Welsh-medium education in line with the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans (WESPs).
• Improving the attainment of pupils studying the Welsh language in English-medium schools. 
• Our intention to introduce a Welsh Language Education Bill.
• Creating bilingual citizens by offering opportunities for everyone of all ages to learn Welsh and use it regularly. 
• Analysing a range of data sources to try to better understand the differences we are seeing in the numbers who identify as being able to speak Welsh.
• Preparing the next Welsh language technology action plan.
• Continuing to focus on Welsh language transmission in the home and ensure an increase in Welsh-medium provision for the early years and the Childcare Offer.
• Developing the Welsh-medium workforce, especially in education and the early years. 
• Continuing with the Welsh Language Standards programme.
• Continuing to mainstream ‘Cymraeg 2050’ in all Government portfolios.
• Making a start on the evaluation of the ‘Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan’.
• Continuing to offer grants and support to Welsh-speaking communities, where there is a high density of second homes through the Perthyn scheme.
• Continuing to support partners who host events and create opportunities to use the Welsh language unconditionally.
• The Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities will present its final report and recommendations this summer.
• Continuing to support the Welsh Language Commissioner, in particular with regard to protecting the rights of Welsh speakers and increasing the use of Welsh language services.

Theme 1: increasing the number of Welsh speakers

Creating bilingual citizens who can confidently use their Welsh and English language skills is at the core of ‘Cymraeg 2050’. We want people to have the ability and motivation to use their Welsh in the community, in the workplace and in their daily lives. We will therefore continue to ensure that diverse education provision is available across all learning phases, from the early years, statutory and post-compulsory education, both in the workplace and in the community. In this regard, the white paper on the Welsh Language Education Bill has set a clear and robust direction in relation to how we intend to improve the attainment of children and young people in terms of Welsh language skills in the education system.

The early years

Expanding Welsh-medium nursery provision across Wales in order to provide a route into Welsh-medium education for as many children as possible, remains one of our priorities. We’ll therefore continue to work with our key partner, Mudiad Meithrin, in this area and will continue to work closely with Plaid Cymru via the Co-operation Agreement to further expand on this work.

Mudiad Meithrin has achieved the targets set to date of establishing new Welsh-medium early years provision, as part of the 'Set Up and Succeed (SAS)' programme despite the impact of COVID-19. Despite the budget situation and the cost of living crisis, the programme will continue to work towards the target set in 'Cymraeg 2050' to establish 150 new early years groups by 2026. 

To achieve this, developing the early years workforce through programmes such as Mudiad Meithrin's Cam wrth Gam scheme is essential. As part of the £3.8m funding awarded to Cwlwm to support and grow the number of Welsh-medium practitioners and Welsh-medium provision in Wales, £2.112m was allocated to Mudiad Meithrin for a 24-month period, from September 2022. Mudiad Meithrin will arrange to train 100 practitioners in Welsh-medium Level 3 childcare qualifications, and an additional 50 in Welsh-medium Level 5 childcare qualifications through the Cam wrth Gam scheme. We are currently working with officials across Government to explore how to ensure the continuation of this vital training scheme.

Work to expand and strengthen Welsh-medium early years provision through the Flying Start programme will continue during 2024 to 2025. This work fulfils our ambitious commitment to expand funded childcare for all 2 year olds, as outlined in the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru.

Each local authority's Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) recognises the role of the Flying Start programme as they design Welsh-medium provision, with targets included to increase provision throughout the duration of the WESPs. During Phase 1 of the expansion through the Flying Start programme, Flying Start services were offered to over 3,178 additional children under the age of 4. We expect Phase 2 of the expansion, which began mid-April 2023, to support over 4,500 additional 2-year-olds in accessing high quality Flying Start childcare. During 2024 to 2025, Phase 3 will support approximately 5,200 additional 2 year olds. 

The Cymraeg for Kids programme will continue to support parents to use Welsh with their children during the early years, and choose Welsh-medium childcare and education. 

We will also continue to implement our 'National Policy on Welsh Language Transmission and Use in Families'.

Statutory education

Welsh Language Education Bill

The ‘Cymraeg 2050 Work Programme (2021 to 2026)’ and the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru commits us to introducing a Welsh Language Education Bill during the course of the sixth Senedd. In June 2023, the First Minister announced the intention to introduce a Bill before the Senedd during this legislative year (that is before the summer 2024 recess).

The purpose of the Bill will be to facilitate the work of increasing the number of Welsh speakers to reach the target of a million by 2050. The Bill will introduce the concept of a Welsh language continuum and support all pupils to become independent and confident Welsh speakers by the end of their statutory education, by 2050. This includes laying solid foundations to increase the number of Welsh-medium schools, as well as planning for continued progress to improve the linguistic outcomes of pupils in all schools. 

Welsh in Education Strategic Plans

The Welsh in Education Strategic Plans (WESPs) continue to be a basis for planning Welsh-medium education across Wales. They aim to increase access to Welsh language learning across all school categories in all parts of Wales, regardless of the medium of learning. They support our ambition to see everyone learning in a school or setting in Wales being supported to enjoy using the Welsh language, to make continued progress in learning it, and to have the confidence and skills to be able to choose to use Welsh beyond educational settings.

All WESPs have been in operation since September 2022. They include a clear emphasis on increasing the number of primary school locations across Wales, with commitments to establish 23 new Welsh-medium primary schools and expand 25 Welsh-medium primary schools over the next decade. The first annual review reports on the local authorities' WESPs show that the majority of local authorities have made progress across the seven outcomes of the Plan, with a focus on laying solid foundations to support progress during the lifetime of each WESP. Since the new WESPs were implemented in 2022, seven new Welsh-medium primary schools have opened, with an additional seven having been expanded to increase their capacity. In addition, there has been investment in other improvements to support the provision for additional learning needs (ALN) and childcare in Welsh-medium primary and secondary schools across Wales. These developments were supported through the Welsh-medium capital grant funding and through wider Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme investment. A number of other capital developments are being fulfilled by local authorities in response to their commitments in the WESP. We will monitor the progress of at least 10 of these developments during 2024 to 2025. Our WESP officers will continue to work with the authorities throughout the year to offer guidance and support. 

Along with the local authorities, we will use our 'guidance on school categories according to Welsh-medium provision' as part of this work. This will help to offer more clarity on the expected linguistic progress and outcomes for pupils according to the teaching medium of schools. In turn, it will support parents to make informed decisions about their children’s education. It will also encourage and support schools to increase their Welsh-language provision. The Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) was revised during 2023-24 to reflect the new school categories. Schools will use these categories for the first time during 2024. 

Welsh-medium capital funding will continue to support the efforts of local authorities in implementing their WESPs. Over £128m of Welsh-medium capital funding has been approved to increase Welsh-medium education provision across Wales since 2018, with plans to further expand financial support during 2024 to 2025. The investment will enable more learners to become confident bilingual speakers. 

Late immersion is a crucial part of this picture, and we have committed to invest £6.6m until the end of this Senedd term to support late immersion provision in every local authority in Wales. More than 1,700 learners have benefited from late immersion programmes since the grant was established in 2021. The benefits of late immersion provision have gone beyond a service for latecomers, or newcomers as is often used, with over 790 learners taking advantage of immersion learning methodologies to reinforce their Welsh language skills, particularly post-COVID-19. The funding will continue to support provision already established (centres or units) or will lead to establishing new late immersion provision. We will continue to maintain our network to support Welsh-medium immersion education to give officers the opportunity to liaise with immersion teachers, so that they can raise awareness of the different provisions available, the latest developments and best practice used across Wales.

We will also continue to fund the e-sgol project in line with the 'Welsh in Education Workforce Plan' to 'Increase delivery of e-sgol provision as a solution to providing access to a broader curriculum through the medium of Welsh at GCSE and A level’. We will continue discussions with local authorities to expand provision across Wales so that an even greater number of children can access Carlam Cymru’s study sessions, thanks to this innovative project.

Learning Welsh post-16

In 2023, the Welsh Ministers designated the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to provide advice to the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research on its statutory duties relating to the Welsh language. The new Commission will have responsibility for funding and regulating the tertiary sector and the Coleg will be expected to advise on the range of responsibilities. During 2024 to 2025, the Coleg and the Commission will work together to establish a strong partnership and framework for offering and receiving advice. The Commission will be expected to take account of the Coleg's advice as it prepares its first Strategic Plan during the year

The Coleg will continue to implement its latest Higher Education Academic Plan (2022), as well as collaborate with the providers to ensure that students studying for a degree have access to Welsh-medium learning experiences as part of their course. The Coleg's focus during 2024 to 2025 will be to extend Welsh and bilingual provision to new audiences, including those less confident in using the language. The Coleg will also undertake two initial teacher education projects to support the ‘Welsh in Education Workforce Plan’. 

The Coleg will build on strategic projects already completed to develop provision and capacity in further education colleges, extending opportunities for learners to study through the medium of Welsh and bilingually. In order to achieve this, the Coleg will work with strategic partners and the post-16 sector, establishing a sound infrastructure. 

As part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, the Coleg will continue to receive £2.825m during 2024 to 2025. The purpose of this funding is to maintain the infrastructure developed between 2021 to 2024 with the post-16 education providers, and to extend bespoke support to the apprenticeship sector in partnership with the main providers in the field. In the further education sector, the aim is to continue to strengthen and support provision in the leisure and sport, health and social care, childcare, agriculture, business and the creative industries sectors, as well as expanding provision in the construction sector. 

In the apprenticeships sector, the Coleg will continue to support strategic projects to develop capacity and maintain provision in the health and care, childcare and public services sectors, as well as develop infrastructure to support the growth of the Welsh language across the network of providers. In developing this structure, the intention is to enable more learners to speak Welsh and become confident bilingual speakers in the workplace.

The National Centre for Learning Welsh (the Centre) will continue to build on the growing interest in learning Welsh, providing a wide range of on-line and face to face courses to diverse audiences. The provision will also include specific courses to raise the confidence of Welsh speakers to use the language, and a programme of learner support activities to encourage the use of Welsh, such as the Siarad scheme, which promotes bringing Welsh speakers and learners together. 

As part of our Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, the Centre will continue to receive £1.675m during 2024 to 2025 to fund free Learn Welsh opportunities, specifically for 16 to 25 year olds. The funding will also expand support for the education sector, ensuring that workers can access a Learn Welsh learning programme which offers various courses at all levels free of charge.

The Centre will continue to run the Cymraeg Gwaith/Work Welsh scheme, with provision varying from on-line self-study taster courses to intensive residential courses. It will continue to implement specific plans for different sectors, including a national health and care plan. As well as increasing the number of Welsh speakers and the use of the language, Cymraeg Gwaith also allows organisations to provide better Welsh language services to their users. The scheme will also contribute to our agenda of increasing opportunities for people to use Welsh in the workplace. 

The Centre will continue to run a project to encourage Welsh speakers to return from universities to help teach Welsh in schools or to become Learn Welsh tutors. The Centre will work with partners in the education sector to offer a training course for students at the end of the academic year. The aim is to attract young people into teaching and the Learn Welsh sector, as well as help increase the use of Welsh in schools.

Educational resources

Adnodd, the new resource company, has been operating since 1 April 2023 with the first Chief Executive in post since January 2024. In addition to establishing a staffing structure, work will continue to establish new procedures in order to start commissioning new educational resources.

The company will ensure that Welsh and bilingual educational resources are available to support all areas of learning and experience in the new Curriculum for Wales for 3 to 19 year olds. The work will lead to the creation of quality resources and equality in Welsh and English language provision, as Adnodd works in partnership across different sectors to make the best use of the expertise and budget available in Wales.

Education workforce 

We will continue to implement the 'Welsh in education workforce plan' published in May 2022 to correspond with the 10 year period of the 'Welsh in Education Strategic Plans'. The ‘Welsh in education workforce plan’ includes many actions that involve working in collaboration with a number of key stakeholders to address the four aims:

• Increase the number of teachers who are able to teach Welsh as a subject, and other subjects through the medium of Welsh. 
• Increase the number of practitioners able to work through the medium of Welsh who are supporting learners.
• Develop all practitioners’ Welsh language skills and expertise to teach Welsh and through the medium of Welsh. 
• Develop leadership capacity for Welsh-medium schools and equip all leaders with the skills to strategically plan the development of Welsh within a culture of schools as learning organisations.

We will publish updated data analysis during the summer term, in line with the commitment made when publishing the Plan. The External Operating Group will continue to monitor progress in implementing the scheme.

Theme 2: increasing the use of Welsh

The second main aim of 'Cymraeg 2050', which is to double the numbers who use Welsh every day, is well established. We have made it clear that increasing language use will be at the heart of everything we do in the context of 'Cymraeg 2050'. During 2024 to 2025, we will continue to work across Government and with various partners across Wales to increase the use of our language at home, at a social and community level, on the schoolyard, in workplaces, in businesses, and digitally. In this regard, and in line with the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, we will maintain and create more Welsh-medium spaces to create new speakers and increase daily use of our language.

Grant Scheme to Promote and Facilitate the Use of Welsh

The contribution of our grant recipients to our work in increasing the use of Welsh is absolutely key as we implement 'Cymraeg 2050'. The network of Welsh language initiatives operate as local language planners, by actively responding to the circumstances and linguistic needs of their areas. Since the 2021 Census results were published in terms of the Welsh language, these initiatives have been updating their language profiles. These profiles contain a repository of statistics and local information about the Welsh language, and provide a real opportunity for policy developers to use them to make informed decisions about the Welsh language. We will continue to support the language initiatives in updating and expanding their local evidence base, in order to assist them to develop projects alongside the communities they serve.

The Dyblu'r Defnydd project (mentrauiaith.cymru) recently launched by the language initiatives provides an opportunity for people across Wales and beyond to submit ideas about how to create new opportunities to increase the use of Welsh in our communities. The information collected will be an extremely useful source, and we look forward to collaborating with the language initiatives on this exciting project.

We will continue to work with the National Eisteddfod this year as they prepare to host the festival in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf. The enthusiasm within the county is palpable and we look forward to the special welcome and wide range of activities that will await us again this year. Planning an Eisteddfod is a community project that continues for a period of three years. It brings valuable economic benefit to an area, raising awareness of the Welsh language and increasing opportunities to use the language for some years before the festival arrives, and then it offers a valuable legacy thereafter. 

With the publication of the report 'Review of the Welsh Government Grant Scheme to Promote and Facilitate the Use of the Welsh Language' in June 2023, we will consider the best options for establishing a new grant scheme to support the 'Cymraeg 2050' goals.

Welsh Language transmission and use in families 

Our 'National policy on Welsh language transmission and use in families' focuses on: 

• Inspiring children and young people to speak Welsh with their children in the future.
• Reviving the Welsh language skills of those who may not have used the language since leaving school, or who lack confidence in their language skills, to speak Welsh with their children.
• Supporting and encouraging the use of Welsh within families where not everybody speaks Welsh.
• Supporting Welsh-speaking families to speak Welsh with their children.

In 2023 to 2024, we published the 'Welsh language composition of households in Wales (Census 2021)'. This report shows, among other things, that 80.7% of three to four year olds, who lived in couple households where two or more adults were able to speak Welsh, can speak Welsh. This is broadly consistent with 2011, when the rate was 82.2%. During 2024-25, we will use these statistics to inform interventions to increase Welsh language transmission and its use in families. These will be based on research using behavioural science. Statistics clearly show that using Welsh at home as a child strongly influences the extent to which Welsh is used later in life.

Youth sector

We will be developing a new policy to support children and young people's use of Welsh, with a view to publishing it before the end of the year. Our focus will be on bridging between education, community and family. We will work together extensively across Government and with external stakeholders, including young people, to shape this work. 

The Siarter Iaith/Welsh Language Charter continues to be a key intervention in increasing children and young people's use of Welsh. Since expanding the Charter to a national programme, the world around us has changed. The growth of technology and the digital sphere continues to affect the linguistic habits of our children and young people and the way that they socialise. We believe that all this, including the introduction of the Curriculum for Wales, calls for updating and developing the Charter, and so we recently launched a new national framework for the Charter. We will continue to develop the Charter by working with stakeholders to create a set of national guidelines to ensure it continues to be an effective tool to increase the informal and social language use of children and young people in Wales, in primary and secondary schools of all language mediums. 

As one of our partners, we will continue to work closely with the Urdd over the coming year to ensure that children and young people can continue to access invaluable opportunities to enjoy and use their Welsh. 

We will also continue to fund the Young Farmers' Clubs, amongst other partners, to ensure that we give young people opportunities to use their Welsh in all sorts of contexts across the country. We will be working closely with these partners, and others in the youth sector, in developing our new policy to support children and young people's use of Welsh during this year.

Leading in a Bilingual Nation 

During 2023 to 2024, the third cohort of the Leading in a Bilingual Nation pilot programme came to an end. This is a joint programme between the Cymraeg 2050 Division and Academi Wales. It provides an opportunity for organisation leaders to discuss how the spirit of ‘Cymraeg 2050’ can be embodied within their organisations. During 2024 to 2025, we will actively develop the programme so that more public and voluntary sector leaders can benefit from attending.

Use of Welsh within the Welsh Government

During 2024 to 2025, we will focus on continuing to realise the objectives of the Government's internal use of Welsh strategy, 'Cymraeg. It belongs to us all', to facilitate greater use of Welsh in our workplace. Our aim is to support the organisation to increasingly operate through the medium of Welsh and provide opportunities for our workforce to learn the language, develop their skills and use Welsh at work. 

As the first five years of the strategy draw to an end, we will evaluate our activity against the 10 actions set out in the strategy, along with the extent to which the Welsh Government led by example in promoting and facilitating the use of Welsh for its workforce during this period. We will set a new objective for the 2025 to 2030 period, as well as new actions. We are committed in the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru to lead by example, and to support more sponsored bodies, local authorities and the Welsh civil service to operate through the medium of Welsh.

Welsh Language Standards

We will continue with work to prepare standards to bring new bodies and sectors under the standards regime during 2024 to 2025, in line with the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. We will introduce standards for public bodies that are currently outside the standards regime. Following that, we will consult on draft standards and prepare to introduce standards for housing associations and set about preparing standards for railway companies. 

We will also consider a draft statutory Code of Practice that has been prepared by the Welsh Language Commissioner for the organisations in the health sector that are subject to Welsh language standards. We will look to approve the Code so that the Commissioner can issue it to health organisations, in order to assist them in complying with the standards, as well as improving the Welsh-language services that they provide to users.

Theme 3: creating favourable conditions, infrastructure and context

We’ll continue to work in a variety of areas to build a strong infrastructure that will create favourable conditions for the Welsh language to thrive so that everyone is given the opportunity to learn our language and use it.

Housing, language and employment

We are fully aware of the various factors that can affect the viability of our communities. There are cases where a high number of second homes in a community can adversely affect the sustainability of that community. We see that there is an important correlation between an economic foundation and the availability of affordable housing and the prosperity of the Welsh language. 

The 'Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan', published in October 2022, offers a golden opportunity to pull together polices that relate to housing, the economy, economic development and language planning. It is an opportunity for us to support the sustainability of our Welsh-speaking communities through a wide range of interventions. We will continue to implement it during 2024 to 2025. 

A central element of the ‘Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan’ is to support local people to continue to be able to live in their communities. To this end, we will publish a Fair Chance Scheme which will provide guidance to property owners on how they can support local people as they go about putting their properties on the market. 

The ‘Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan’ will continue to work closely with the Affordability and Second Homes pilot scheme in the Dwyfor area. The pilot has been implemented in an area with high numbers of second homes, and it is also a Welsh language stronghold. As part of the work, the pilot will continue to implement plans in collaboration with other key stakeholders working in the pilot area.

The Perthyn small grant scheme offers initial financial support to help community groups develop into social enterprises or community-led housing co-operatives. The response to this grant fund has been positive, as it is the first step on the path to creating a social enterprise to meet the housing, economy and social needs of the local community. 

The second element of the Perthyn project is the specialist support and advisory service provided by Cwmpas on our behalf. The aim of this project is to identify and collaborate with communities to find new opportunities to establish community-led social enterprises or housing co-operatives. Cwmpas works with stakeholders who are highly experienced in developing capacity and community empowerment.

We will continue to support the Perthyn project during 2024 to 2025, ensuring that the Welsh language is an integral part of the structure and vision of the new initiatives that are being supported. This is in line with the aim in the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, to maintain and create more Welsh-medium spaces to create new speakers and increase daily use of our language. 

We published our Cultural Ambassador Scheme on 1 March 2024 to provide opportunities for individuals and employees in the hospitality and retail industries to qualify to be Ambassadors for the Welsh language and our culture. The Ambassadors' important role is to represent the local community whilst also promoting the Welsh language and its culture. 

In October 2022, the Minister for Economy announced an £11m budget for the second instalment of the ARFOR Programme, a programme that’s part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. The ARFOR Programme will continue to implement a wide range of work streams that address the region's economic challenges. Schemes such as the Challenge Fund, Llwyddo'n Lleol and Cymunedau Mentrus/Enterprising Communities all provide opportunities for individuals to realise their aspirations within the region. A core element of the ARFOR programme is to support the Welsh language, while supporting the evidence base and our understanding of the relationship between economy and language. The current programme will run until March 2025 and it will be evaluated independently.

The Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities will continue its work this year, and will present its final report during the summer. It will provide detailed policy recommendations aimed at trying to maintain our communities that have a high density of Welsh speakers. The Commission will then consider the use of Welsh as a community language in other parts of Wales. 

Digital technology

Our 'Welsh language technology action plan' (2018) expires at the end of this year. During 2024 to 2025, we will set about preparing the next action plan. In publishing the final report of the Action Plan on 20 February 2024, we launched a call for information for the next Action Plan. The aim is to understand more about what type of technology, not currently available, is needed to help people use their Welsh in a wider range of contexts, without them having to ask to do so.   

We anticipate that some of the themes of the original Action Plan will continue to be relevant, such as artificial intelligence (AI). The original Plan envisaged the importance of AI in 2018, and due to funding resources in this field at the time, the Welsh language is better equipped for the developments now taking place in the world of generative artificial intelligence (generative AI). With Welsh Government grant funding, Bangor University is now working with the company behind ChatGPT, namely OpenAI, to improve how their most powerful chatbot, GPT-4 (openai.com) processes the Welsh language. 

We must also ensure that the resources we have created so far are sustainable for the future and can be updated and adapted. For example, Cysgliad (cysgliad.com) will continue to be freely available to organisations with less than ten members of staff, and to the whole education sector and third sector. At the end of 2023, 12,586 people had downloaded it.

We have collaborated with Microsoft to create a simultaneous translation facility for scheduled Teams meetings, which is free to users with a Teams license. We continue to work with Microsoft to improve this facility, with the hope that this will lead to creating more new resources for languages throughout the world that are based on our work in Wales.

We have funded 16 Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) voices for children and young people who rely on technology to communicate. These include north and south Wales Welsh-accented voices for young and teenage boys and girls. These voices will continue to be available through the National Centre for Electronic Assistive Technology (cavuhb.nhs.wales) which works with professionals across Wales to provide equipment to enhance the quality of life and independence of people with conditions that affect their access to everyday activities, including communication.

These, like all language technology components funded by the Welsh Government, are released free of charge under a suitable open licence for anyone to use, reuse and/or include in their products. This philosophy will continue to be crucial as we draft a new Action Plan for Welsh language technology.

Linguistic infrastructure

We will be actively implementing the initial stages of our 'Welsh linguistic infrastructure policy', published last year. The policy outlines how we will develop a more strategic and co-ordinated structure to maintain and develop the Welsh language linguistic infrastructure. The ultimate aim is to make it easier for everyone to know where to access support when using Welsh, giving everyone the confidence to use the language freely.

We will continue the promotion and marketing of existing resources by launching a new website to help people find Welsh words and terms, as well as corpus resources and information on Welsh place names. We will continue to hold meetings of the Welsh Language Standardisation Panel, and will announce the Panel's initial decisions in relation to orthographic matters later this year. We will also continue discussions with partners with a view to finding a way to standardise new terms that are urgently needed.

Welsh place names

We will continue to work extensively in this area across Government and with external stakeholders, in line with our commitments in the Programme for Government and the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. We will continue to implement the initial steps set out in the 'Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan' and that are supported by our Welsh linguistic infrastructure policy. Amongst the most important of these is to act on the basis of the research we commissioned to learn more about how, why and where place names change, to enable us to develop targeted policy interventions.

We will continue to develop the links established through the Local Authority Place Names Forum, which aims to share information and:

• Identify gaps in the way place names are dealt with, and opportunities to collaborate.
• Support each other to try to find practical solutions to prevent Welsh names from being displaced.
• Share good practice, so that examples of what works in one organisation can be adopted, where appropriate, in other organisations.

We will also develop guidance for organisations on how to deal with Welsh place names on social media and in web publications. This guidance will suggest appropriate ways of referring to Welsh place names through the medium of Welsh and English. 

Wales and the wider world                                                 

We’ll continue to promote the Welsh language on the international stage. This will include playing a leading role in international networks on language planning, such as the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD), the British-Irish Council and UNESCO’s Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022 to 2023. It will also mean the continued implementation of various work programmes and Memoranda of Understanding with regions and countries around the world, such as Cornwall, Brittany and Ireland.

We will continue to highlight the importance of the Welsh language and our bilingualism as we promote Wales internationally, as part of our 'international strategy'. We will be involved in organising the Welsh Government's year of 'Wales in India' during 2024 to ensure that the Welsh language is an integral part of the campaign and to encourage connections with the country's minority languages. 

We will also continue to work with the Urdd on its Message of Peace and Goodwill for 2024, this year's theme will be Peace.

The Welsh language and equality

Creating a more equal Wales is a priority for Welsh Government. We will therefore continue to work across Government, and beyond, to realise the actions identified in our various social justice action plans.

The 'Anti Racist Wales Action Plan' published as part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru includes a number of actions to ensure that considerations in relation to race and ethnic are embedded further still in our work, including access to the language. A series of new actions will be set in due course for 2024 to 2025.

We will continue to focus on two categories of work, ensuring that the voices of Welsh speakers belonging to Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority communities are heard, and that those who are not familiar with the language begin to feel that the Welsh language is available to them, whether in the education system, in the workplace or in the community. As part of this, we'll also continue to ensure that the anti-racism agenda is fully adopted by all our partners involved in delivering 'Cymraeg 2050'.

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Sub-group of the Welsh Language Partnership Council will continue to play a key role in our work in this area. Their focus will expand to look at two other equality areas in relation to the Welsh language, namely the LGBTQ+ community and disabled people.

We will continue to work with the National Centre for Learning Welsh to provide opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers to learn Welsh on courses available through their Croeso i Bawb scheme. This will include opportunities to learn Welsh through languages such as Cantonese, Syrian Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and Ukrainian.

The 'LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales' was published in early February 2023. The Plan includes several actions relating to the Welsh language, we are committed to embedding the ethos of the Plan throughout our work. Similarly, we will be ready to respond to other social justice policy developments throughout the year.

Broadcasting

We will take action during 2024 to 2025 in line with the Welsh Government’s response to the recommendations set out in the Broadcasting Expert Panel report, alongside delivery of the wider media commitments set out in the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru.

We will use the Co-operation Agreement budget for broadcasting, for Welsh language content and for the media to support targeted broadcasting and journalism projects during the financial year. We will continue our work to support Welsh language productions and the growth of the language through our Memorandum of Understanding with S4C, building on Creative Wales funded productions such as Creisis, Tŷ Gwyrdd and Cleddau airing this year.

Culture

During 2024 to 2025, we will build on the work that has been undertaken to date to develop our culture strategy which will set out an ambitious and comprehensive vision for the culture sector in Wales, in line with the commitment in the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. The strategy will set a strategic direction for the sector up to 2030.

The cultural arm's-length bodies, including the Arts Council of Wales, Amgueddfa Cymru, National Museum Wales and the National Library of Wales, make an important contribution to supporting the 'Cymraeg 2050' commitments. They will continue to do so during 2024 to 2025 despite the significant financial challenges they face.

Research and statistics 

We will continue to expand our evidence base as a foundation for implementing ‘Cymraeg 2050’. We will use our Research and Evaluation Framework to inform our research and analysis, as well as in relation to liaising with other bodies and organisations conducting research. 

We will continue to work with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Christ's College University of Oxford, and the University of the Highlands and Islands to carry out the Bro survey, which is a comprehensive socio-linguistic survey of the Welsh language in its heartlands. The survey is based on the detailed analysis by Conchúr Ó Giollagáin and others in communities where Scottish Gaelic is a community language. The survey is intended to provide a better evidence base of the position of the Welsh language in our communities to support our understanding of the policy interventions needed to protect those communities.

The University of Wales Trinity Saint David will continue its socio-linguistic analysis of the language in our Welsh-speaking communities, developing a model to support policy makers with matters relating to the viability of the language. 

Following the publication of the initial results of the 2021 Census for the Welsh language in December 2022, we have published further analyses of 2021 Census data, including information about 'Welsh language transmission', and 'ability in Welsh by population characteristics'. 

We have also published a joint work plan with the Office for National Statistics to improve our understanding of the surveys and the main sources of administrative data about the Welsh language. The initial findings from this work plan are now available, and explore differences between estimates of Welsh language ability in Census 2021 and household surveys. We will continue this joint work plan during 2024 to 2025, as well as continue to work with the Office for National Statistics as they transform population statistics to ensure a future for statistics about the Welsh language. We will use 2021 Census data and the latest Welsh population data to update the statistical trajectory to a million Welsh speakers.