From 21 November 2016, public bodies are under a duty to ensure that staff in customer-facing roles can speak fluent English (or Welsh, in Wales). The government intends to use this development to ensure that the relevant members of staff have a command of spoken English which is sufficient to enable the effective performance of their role.
The new duty applies to existing staff and new recruits of bodies that carry out functions of a public nature. This includes (but is not limited to) the NHS, local governmental bodies, central government departments, state education and public corporations.
The responsibility for ensuring that the relevant individuals meet the required levels of fluency lies with the public authorities. Employers may decide to measure this formally (by setting a test) or informally (perhaps through conversation during the interview). The government has also published a code of practice to help employers meet the correct standard. The code suggests that the levels of fluency required by employers, will depend on various considerations, such as:
- the frequency of any spoken communication with the public;
- the topic and length of the spoken interaction;
- whether the communication is likely to include technical, profession-specific or specialist vocabulary; and
- how significant the spoken interaction is to deliver the service.
Employers should note that they must also operate a complaints procedure in line with this development. Members of the public will be able to use this procedure to complain about a staff member who they consider cannot speak English competently. Therefore, maintaining the necessary levels of fluency will help an employer to protect its reputation by limiting the number of complaints it receives from the public.
We encourage all public authorities to make existing staff aware of the new requirement and the consequences of a failure to meet the necessary levels of spoken English. Where appropriate, employers may also wish to amend employment contracts to make the relevant roles conditional upon the individual meeting the required standard of fluency. As a matter of best practice, employers should update recruitment processes so that job adverts clearly set out the standard of English required for a particular role and adhere to that standard when assessing a candidate’s suitability for it.
We recommend that where existing staff fail to meet the necessary threshold, employers should provide relevant training and monitor staff development. If an employer does not consider there has been sufficient improvement in the spoken English of any member of its customer-facing staff within a reasonable period of time, employers might try to identify alternative measures (for example, whether there is a suitable alternative position available for that member of staff or whether they can adjust that role so that they are not in a customer-facing position). However, employers should exercise caution against imposing any unilateral changes. Further, employers should only consider dismissal as a last resort, and we recommend that any employer exploring this option seeks legal advice first.
