Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standard (SC-WRES) Action Plan 2025 to 2026

The strength of social care is in celebrating, valuing, and recognising what makes people unique and supporting them to overcome challenges. To do this it is vital that the social care workforce reflects the society we live in, and that people feel included and treated equally. We are committed to using our data and insight to focus attention on areas and issues where there is more work to do, to ensure diversity is valued and organisational cultures are positive.

The SC-WRES serves to support local authorities in addressing race inequalities by asking them to record and submit annual data based on metrics made up of nine indicators, measuring the experiences of people from minoritised ethnic backgrounds.

The programme is recommended for all local authority social care departments who will be required to produce, publish, and implement action plans to demonstrate their commitment to supporting all staff and developing a culture of inclusion and equality.

Adults and Children’s services in Coventry signed up to join the SC-WRES in 2023. This is our 3rd SC-WRES Action Plan having published our first plan in 2023 to 2024.

Some key facts:

• data as of 24 October 2025 (data submission window between September and October 2025)
• as of 24 October 2025, 958 staff were employed by Adult’s and 955 in Children’s (from 931 and 916 respectively in 2024)
• none reported and missing ethnicity data accounts for 6% of staff group record (5% Adult Social Care and 7% Children’s Social Care). 1% improvement since 2024 to 2025
• in Adults 65% of staff are White (from 69% in 2023 to 2024) and 35% (from 31%) from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background
• in Children’s 64% (from 68% in 2023 to 2024) of staff are White and 36% (from 32%) from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background
• population of Coventry according to 2021 census is that the largest ethnic groups in Coventry are White (65.5%), followed by Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh (18.5%), and Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African (8.9%). Our staff groups are broadly representative of the city population
• data and comparisons are based on staff with known ethnicity
• relative likelihood = percentage (or proportion) of one group experiencing an outcome, divided by percentage (or proportion) of another group experiencing an outcome. The closer a relative likelihood is to 1, the greater equality there is between the 2 ethnic groups. If relative rate is less than 0.80 or more than 1.25 then suggested ongoing monitoring from analysts and priority for policy action could be considered

We have used term Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Staff rather than the B.A.M.E acronym as this is the basis of ethnicity categorisation. However, we recognise the use of Global majority (a shortened version of the term 'people of the global majority'), is preferable to use. It refers to all ethnic groups except White British and other White group, including White minorities. This includes people from Black, Asian, mixed, and other ethnic groups who are often racialised as 'ethnic minorities’.