Chiefs deny Welsh job claim

The advert includes a logo based on the flag of St George, with arrows

A Welsh-language pressure group has accused a north Wales health trust of trying to attract staff from England "in preference to local people".

But Conwy and Denbighshire NHS Trust denied Cymuned's claims, and said its advert for a director of nursing was targeted equally at Wales and England.

The offending advert reads: "It's probably time you stretched your search outside of England."

The trust said it had to attract the best candidate wherever they were from.

They need to be working far, far harder to promote the use of Welsh within the service Aran Jones, Cymuned

Cymuned said the logo at the top of the advert was the English flag, and there was no suggestion that applicants should consider learning Welsh.

Aran Jones, the group's chief executive, said it was an "unforgivable example" of the trust failing to consider its patients' needs.

"It is extremely important to be able to communicate in the first language of the patient, and this advertisement gives the impression that there is no reason whatsoever for staff from England to learn Welsh," said Mr Jones.

'Attractive career'

Mr Jones said Cymuned might have to prepare a campaign to highlight the importance of speaking Welsh within the health sector.

"They need to be working far, far harder to promote the use of Welsh within the service," he said.

But trust chief executive Gren Kershaw said the organisation took its obligations to the Welsh language seriously.

"The post was advertised in the Health Service Journal which is widely read in England and Wales," he said.

The post was aimed equally at both nurses in Wales and England Gren Kershaw, Conwy and Denbighshire NHS Trust

"The post was aimed equally at both nurses in Wales and England to show that Wales has very attractive career opportunities.

"There are three vacancies for directors of nursing services in trusts in Wales, and these posts are difficult to fill.

"It is essential that we are able to recruit the best candidates wherever they are from, and indeed in this case we have attracted a good number of applicants from Wales, including Welsh speakers."

Mark Sykes, the trust's director of human resources, said the specification for the post included the ability to speak Welsh as "desirable".

"We do of course support all staff in the trust in learning Welsh, with Welsh language courses arranged at various levels.

"We have had Welsh speaking applicants for the director of nursing post, and learning Welsh will be promoted during the interviews for non-Welsh speakers," he added.