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This paper examines the role of language policy and needs assessments in the provision of public services to regional minority and immigrant language speakers in the UK and Finland. Semi-structured interviews with service providers in Helsinki, Rovaniemi, Manchester, and Cardiff revealed how language policy and language needs are conceptualised differently for particular language groups. The paper introduces the Motivations for Service Provision Spectrum, which illustrates the interconnected nature of language policy, practice, and discourse. This model maps how individual service providers may draw from policy and needs assessment data to facilitate or resist multilingual practices within public service provision. The typologies of policy included in the model construct and frame the public sector environments in which local policy providers exercise their agency. The different policy approaches and needs assessment practices are two salient aspects of local policy actor decision-making. By comparing the provision of services to regional minority languages to that of immigrant languages in the UK and Finland, the study reveals how institutional actors interpret, enact, and explain service provision in increasingly diverse and multilingual settings.
