Best Start In Life Strategy 2026 to 2029

Overview of current performance

Coventry has made steady progress in improving early years outcomes, with a clear upward trajectory in Good Level of Development (GLD) since 2022.

 In 2025, 65.3% of children achieved GLD, representing a 4.2 percentage point improvement since 2022. This progress has narrowed the gap with national performance to –3.0pp, the smallest gap achieved since 2022 and has almost closed the gap with Statistical Neighbours (–0.2pp).

While this represents meaningful system improvement, Coventry continues to achieve below national comparators overall. This reinforces the need to sustain and deepen a strong focus on high‑quality early learning, particularly in areas of development critical to later attainment.

Areas of learning: strengths and persistent gaps

Across the seven areas of learning, Coventry has seen broad‑based improvement since 2022, with particularly strong gains in:

• Literacy (+3.1pp)
• Mathematics (+2.3pp)
• Communication and Language (+1.2pp)

These improvements suggest that changes to curriculum, pedagogy and early language approaches are beginning to gain traction across the system. However, outcomes in all 7 areas of learning remain below national averages, with the widest gaps in:

• Communication and language
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world

These areas are foundational to later educational success and closely linked to social and economic mobility. Although Coventry performs more strongly relative to statistical neighbours, outperforming them in 5 areas in 2025, the national gaps underline the need to sharpen focus on early language, literacy and conceptual development.

Prime areas

Coventry’s closest alignment to national performance is seen in:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development

Both Prime Areas perform relatively well and provide a strong base on which to build further academic learning. Strengthening learning‑specific areas must therefore sit alongside continued investment in children’s emotional wellbeing and physical readiness to learn.

Outcome trends for key groups of children

Disadvantaged and non‑disadvantaged children

Outcomes for disadvantaged children have improved from 46.5% achieving GLD in 2022 to 50.1% in 2025. However:

• Coventry remains below national outcomes for disadvantaged children (–1.3pp)
• the rate of improvement is slower than that for non‑disadvantaged children

Non-disadvantaged outcomes increased by +5.0pp over the same period, leading to a widening internal disadvantage gap, from 17.0pp in 2022 to 18.4pp in 2025. This indicates that although overall outcomes are rising, they are not doing so equitably. Universal approaches are not yet closing entrenched disadvantage. Targeted early intervention, particularly around language, parental engagement and attendance is essential.

Boys and girls

Both boys and girls in Coventry have shown improved GLD outcomes since 2022:

• boys: +3.7pp
• girls: +4.7pp

Despite this improvement, Coventry’s gender gap widened from 13.2pp in 2022 to 14.2pp in 2025, exceeding the national gender gap (13.7pp). Boys continue to underperform girls across all comparator groups.

Although Coventry girls now slightly outperform statistical neighbours, boys remain marginally below both national and neighbour benchmarks. Improving outcomes for boys, particularly in communication, literacy and self‑regulation, is a priority.

White Disadvantaged Boys (WDB)

White Disadvantaged Boys represent one of the most vulnerable cohorts within the system and include a significant number of pupils. Outcomes for this group have improved from 36.4% in 2023 to 41.2% in 2025.

Key points include:

• Coventry has reached parity with national outcomes for WDB
• the gap with statistical neighbours has more than halved since 2023

However, White Disadvantaged Boys' outcomes remain significantly below those for boys overall (41.2% vs 58.3%). Given the relatively large size of this cohort compared to other ethnic groups, improving outcomes for White Disadvantaged Boys is critical to raising overall GLD performance and reducing long-term inequality.

English as an Additional Language (EAL)

The proportion of children with EAL in Coventry has increased sharply, from 32.2% in 2022 to 39.2% in 2025. Over the same period:

• GLD outcomes for EAL children have declined slightly in 2025
• the gap to national has widened to –4.5pp
• Coventry has shifted from outperforming statistical neighbours to underperforming them

This trend represents an emerging risk. Lower take‑up of early education among some EAL and minority ethnic families, combined with barriers linked to language, mobility and access to services, requires a renewed focus on inclusive outreach, early nursery engagement and culturally competent provision.

Children with SEND

The SEND cohort has grown rapidly in recent years.

• SEND support:
  • cohort increased from 9.4% (2022) to 12.4% (2025)
  • after declines in 2023 and 2024, outcomes recovered strongly in 2025
  • Coventry now outperforms both national and Statistical Neighbours
• EHCP:
  • Cohort tripled from 1.2% to 3.6% between 2022 and 2025
  • GLD outcomes remain extremely low, with only minimal improvement in 2025
  • The gap with national and neighbours has widened

This picture highlights the success of early identification and targeted support for children at SEND Support level, alongside persistent challenges for those with the highest levels of need. Strengthening early intervention, specialist input and inclusive practice at the earliest point remains essential.

Children Looked After (CLA)

The CLA cohort in Coventry is very small and fluctuates annually, making trends volatile. Despite this:

• Coventry has outperformed national and statistical neighbours in 3 of the last 4 years
• 2025 shows a strong recovery (+9.1pp), with outcomes above national and neighbour averages

Performance varies significantly by gender, SEN status, and placement stability. Where outcomes are strong, they reflect effective Virtual School oversight, stable placements, and trauma informed practice. Embedding consistency remains a key priority.

Place-based variation: Family Hubs and wards

Analysis by Family Hub and geographical ward demonstrates significant geographic variation in outcomes:

• every Family Hub area contains at least one ward below 65% GLD
• Families for All and Harmony hubs show persistently low or declining outcomes
• St Michael’s is a consistently low‑performing ward across multiple hubs

Ward-level analysis identifies St Michael’s, Foleshill, Holbrooks, Binley and Willenhall, Henley, and Longford as priority areas due to a combination of low GLD and large cohort sizes. Improving outcomes in these geographical wards would generate the greatest impact on citywide performance and equity.

Targeted, locality-based investment, aligned to Family Hubs and partner services, will be essential to reducing variation and improving outcomes for children at most risk of falling behind.

Summary of data insights

Overall GLD outcomes are improving but remain below national benchmarks. Coventry’s GLD rose to 65.3% in 2025, narrowing the national gap to –3.0pp, its smallest since 2022. However, Coventry remains consistently below national across all Areas of Learning.

Progress is broad based, but uneven. Literacy, Mathematics and Communication & Language show the strongest gains, yet these remain in the areas with the widest gaps to national and statistical neighbours. These domains underpin later attainment, signalling a continued need for strategic focus.

Disadvantaged children and Boys continue to face entrenched inequalities. Although both groups improved in 2025, the internal Coventry disadvantage gap widened (from 17.0pp to 18.4pp) and the gender gap increased to 14.2pp, which is wider than the national equivalent.

White Disadvantaged Boys (WDB) show improvement but remain highly vulnerable. Coventry has reached national parity for this group, but the gap with Coventry boys overall remains very wide (41.2% vs 58.3%).

EAL outcomes are declining as the cohort grows. The proportion of EAL pupils has risen sharply (from 32.2% to 39.2% between 2022–25), but GLD outcomes have fallen relative to national and statistical Neighbour comparators. Lower take‑up of early nursery places among EAL and minority ethnic families is a key vulnerability.

SEND Support outcomes have recovered strongly, now above national and SN comparators, despite rapid cohort growth. However, EHCP outcomes remain significantly below national, with widening gaps over time.

Locality variation is significant. Every Family Hub contains at least one ward below 65% GLD. Some hubs, particularly Families for All and Harmony, show persistent or worsening outcomes. St. Michael's, Holbrooks, and Longford wards show the lowest GLD levels citywide.

 Strengths and progress to build on

• upward trajectory in overall GLD and across most Areas of Learning, demonstrating that system‑wide improvement work is beginning to take effect
• narrowing gaps with national and SN comparators for several groups, including disadvantaged pupils, girls, and non‑disadvantaged pupils
• children receiving SEND Support outcomes now outperform national and SN, reflecting effective early identification and targeted intervention
• White Disadvantaged Boys have made sustained gains, with the gap to the national average closing over 3 years
• some Family Hubs show improvement, such as Aspire, Mosaic, Park Edge, Pathways, and The Moat, indicating that locality‑based approaches can drive change when well‑targeted
• broad‑based improvement across Areas of Learning since 2022, particularly in Literacy and Mathematics, suggests that curriculum and pedagogy improvements are taking hold