Commenting after the Welsh Language and Education Bill was introduced to the Senedd this afternoon, Laura Doel, national secretary at NAHT Cymru, said:

“It is extremely disappointing that the Welsh Government has put the horse before the cart in introducing this Bill without any recognition or formal assessment of how it will impact the workload of school leaders, teachers and teaching assistants.

“The Welsh Government’s pledge to introduce a tool to assess the workload impact of new legislation on schools was an important part of education unions’ agreement to end our industrial action. Quite simply, this Bill should not have been launched until work to develop this tool, which has begun, has been completed and a workload impact assessment carried out.

“School leaders already work to develop the ability of their staff to speak and teach Welsh, but the support they receive to do so is currently inadequate to deliver on the ambitions of this Bill - especially at a time when schools are struggling not only with heavy workload, but also severe challenges with staff recruitment and retention and the pace of the reform agenda.

"Much more investment and support will be needed if this worthy aspiration is to become a reality.”

The following joint union letter went to cabinet secretary for education, Lynne Neagle, and cabinet secretary for economy, energy and Welsh language Jeremy Miles (prior to his resignation today)

Dear Cabinet Secretaries

We write to express our concern about the introduction today of the Welsh Language and Education Bill without a Workload Impact Assessment.

In November 2023, you Mr Miles as the then Education Minister and Welsh Language Minister published a statement confirming the introduction of Workload Impact Assessments in response to concerns raised by unions. However, the development of such a tool has taken a considerable amount of time and as yet, has not been completed.

This piece of legislation has been introduced, regardless of the commitment to assess how policy and legislation will affect the education workforce. Integrated Impact Assessment that accompanies the Bill is wholly inadequate in our view and falls far short of what we believe to be a true assessment of the impact on leaders, teachers and teaching assistants.

While we are supportive of the aims and aspirations of the Bill, it is deeply disappointing that this commitment has not been delivered on and we view this as a roll back on a promise that was made in a bid to bring industrial action to an end.

We look forward to your joint response.

Yours sincerely

Laura Doel – NAHT Cymru

Eithne Hughes – ASCL Cymru

Nicola Fitzpatrick – NEU

Neil Butler – NASUWT

Ioan Rhys Jones – UCAC

Rosie Lewis - UNISON