Bilingual Cardiff leads efforts within Cardiff Council and with external partners to develop a capital city where everyone can equally access the services and support they need in either Welsh or English, and where Council staff are also supported to develop any extra skills they need to deliver that vision.
The Bilingual Cardiff team are responsible for the Council's statutory duties to make sure the Welsh language is treated no less favourably than the English language. They also provide an advisory role for other organisations and actively promote and further raise awareness of the Welsh language across the city.
The sections below outline the various strategies and reports that form part of this work.
Bilingual Cardiff's online documents are currently being revised to make sure they are accessible but, in the meantime, if you need a copy, please contact us.
Welsh Language Standards Annual Report
Cardiff Council publishes an annual report that details its compliance with Welsh Language Standards relating to service delivery, policy making and operational matters, as required by its Compliance Notice (see below for details about the Notice).
The 2024 to 2025 annual report was approved by Cabinet on 19 June 2025.
Read the Welsh Language Standards Annual Report 2024 to 2025 (PDF, 742 KB).
Bilingual Cardiff Strategy
This is a strategy for the city as a whole and relies on partnership working between the public, private and education sectors and most importantly of all, with the people of Cardiff.
The current Strategy, which is operational from 2022 to 2027, includes a target to increase the number and percentage of Welsh speakers and learners in Cardiff in order to ensure that Cardiff plays its part in supporting the Welsh Government's vision of a million Welsh speakers by 2050.
The Welsh Language Standards
The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 replaced the Welsh Language Act 1993 and means that in Wales, the Welsh language has equal legal status with English and must not be treated any less favourably. Public bodies must comply with a set of national Welsh Language Standards, and the Welsh Language Commissioner issued local authorities with their Compliance Notices on 30 September 2015.
This document lists which of the 176 Standards (as listed in full in the Welsh Language Standards Regulations (No.1) 2015) an organisation must comply with, along with any exemptions and their implementation dates.
Welsh Language Skills Strategy 2021
The Welsh Language Skills Strategy supports the implementation of the Standards relating to Workforce Planning and Training (Standards 127 to 135), Recruitment and Appointments (Standards 136 to 140) and Promotion of the Welsh Language (Standards 151 to 154).
The purpose of the Strategy is to enable the Council to:
- build on the success of its Bilingual Cardiff strategy
- maintain an overview of staff Welsh language skills and its capacity to provide high quality Welsh language services
- identify and address areas of need, and
- co-ordinate its training and recruitment activities to ensure that the people of Cardiff have equal access to services whether they choose to deal with the Council in English or in Welsh.
The Welsh language in Cardiff
According to the 2021 Census and the latest Annual Population Survey, Cardiff now has the third largest number of Welsh speakers out of all Welsh local authorities, with 4,659 recorded for Canton, which is the ward with the largest number.
As one of only four authority areas to experience any growth in speaker numbers since 2011, and the area that saw the most growth in Wales in that period, the whole of Cardiff is clearly an area of importance to the future of the language.
There has been a growth in the number of Welsh medium schools in the city, due to the demand from parents for Welsh medium education for their children, and perhaps more importantly, a growing desire among the city's Welsh-speaking and non-Welsh speaking parents for their children to have the opportunity to access Welsh medium education.
From having only one Welsh primary school in 1981, Cardiff now has 15 Welsh primary schools, 2 dual stream primary schools (Welsh/English) and since 2023, 1 dual language model primary school (Welsh/English - but with a high degree of Welsh). In addition, there are 3 Welsh secondary schools.
Visit the Ein Dinas Ein Hiaith website to find bilingual education and opportunities for all.
Other related documents
The Council is required to develop and publish a number of policy and guidance documents relating to how Welsh language matters are dealt with internally, and externally with the public and partner organisations.
Some of these are listed below and the list will be added to as other documents are developed.
Third Parties
Organisations commissioned to provide services for Cardiff Council need to comply with the Welsh Language Standards as they relate to that particular service or contract. The Guide to Third Parties summarises the requirements of the standards and aims to assist organisations to comply with those requirements.
Awarding Grants
Although Cardiff Council does not award any grants at present, it is a requirement for the Council to have a policy in place regarding how any grant funding process would have to include a Welsh language consideration. The Policy on Awarding Grants in Compliance with the Welsh Language Standards is the current version of that document.
Policy Development
The purpose of this policy is to assist officers to comply with the requirements of the Welsh Language Standards where they relate to the policy development process, which includes requirements around the consultation process, relevant research and meaningful impact assessments.
The Policy Development and Compliance with the Welsh Language Standards document is the current version of that document.
Contact us
If you have a question about Cardiff Council's Welsh language policies, please contact Bilingual Cardiff.
