Police want to hire Welsh speakers to help hit Government targets
South Wales Police want to focus on hiring Welsh speakers in order to “play their part” in the Welsh Government’s target of having a million people speaking Welsh by 2050.
The 2021 Census recorded that 17.8% of the national population is Welsh speaking, to mirror this, South Wales Police say that by 2028, 18% of their organisation will have at least Level three Welsh.
This would mean that 1143 speakers in their force would have at least “partly conversational” speaking ability in Welsh.
To do this, they would need to add 298 Welsh speakers to the South Wales Police force in the next four years.
Police Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan knows that to meet these steep targets he needs to get Welsh speakers on board.
Speaking from the Maes of the National Eisteddfod in Pontypridd last week, Chief Constable Vaughan said: “I would urge members of the public who want a Welsh language service to exercise their right to receive this service.
“In addition, I’m keen for Welsh speakers or those learning Welsh who are interested in a career in policing to apply for roles and help us develop our organisation.”
Long-term
South Wales Police also have an ambition of increasing the Welsh-speaking level of the organisation to 30%, which would be 1845 people.
“I’m passionate about our vision of becoming a truly bilingual police service,” said Chief Constable Vaughan.
They have said that to do so they will create designated jobs, where speaking Welsh is a requirement. Along with offering an internal language training module for their staff.
Chief Constable Vaughan concluded the announcement saying: “I believe it’s important to look confidently to the future and push ourselves to play our role for the benefit of the Welsh language and do all we can to embed and normalise its use within South Wales Police.”
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It’s all very well to recruit Welsh -speakers, but you also need to incentivise them to continue to use their Welsh! It’s not enough to recruit them, and then not ensure ( as with one or two on the Maes in Pontypridd) that they have opportunities, and encouragement, to use the language they may have learnt at school, but not continued to use in the police force
18% may speak Welsh but how many only speak Welsh? I suggest 0%. So, the need for Welsh speaking police is really just a bit Welsh language bullying. I would prefer my police to be the best suited for the job, not whether or not they can speak a bit of Welsh when it is not needed.
Suggest you take your anti-Welsh attitude and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine!
As a speaker of Cymraeg I exercise my right to speak the national language wherever I can, including in the few dealings I’ve had with South Wales Police.
It is those who insist on exclusive English who are the bullies. No one who speaks Cymraeg would seek to impose it on anyone else. How on earth could they? Demanding our rights is a different matter, and is not bullying.