Best Start In Life Strategy 2026 to 2029 - Print version

Glossary of terms and stakeholders

Stakeholders

Families and Parents: throughout this document, references to ‘families’ and ‘parents’ should be read as including carers and other primary caregivers, such as kinship, foster carers and adoptive parents.

This Strategy has been co-developed by stakeholders including Early Years Services, SEND Birth to Five, Health Visiting, Midwifery, Public Health, Families First, Libraries, Therapy Services, Family Health, Lifestyles Service, Family Hubs, and VCFS organisations.

Together, they form a multiagency coalition that respects the distinct roles and cultures of each service, while committing to shared pathways, aligned plans and coordinated delivery. Through this partnership, Coventry will deliver a graduated offer that supports families early, removes barriers quickly, and adapts to distinct levels of need. By working collectively and focusing our resources where they will have the greatest impact, we will ensure every child in the city has a Bold Start to life and the foundations for a Bright Future.

Foreword

Coventry is committed to giving every child a Bold Start and a Bright Future. This ambition sits at the heart of our city’s drive to reduce inequalities and improve long‑term outcomes for all families. In a context of rapid demographic change, increasing diversity, and ongoing social and economic pressures, we must come together as one system to support children and families from pregnancy through to school entry.

The earliest years shape a child’s health, learning, wellbeing and life chances, and while Coventry has seen encouraging improvements, persistent disadvantage gaps, rising linguistic diversity, increased numbers of children with SEND and newly arrived families highlight where greater focus is required. Supporting children’s early communication, language and socio‑emotional development therefore remains a central priority.

Coventry’s Best Start Family Hubs and strong partnership arrangements provide the foundations for a truly integrated early years system. By bringing together health, early education, public health, SEND services, Families First Partnerships and community, voluntary and faith‑based providers, we can ensure families receive timely, coordinated and effective support. Our Marmot commitment reinforces a whole‑system focus on tackling inequalities to ensure all children get the best start in life (BSiL).

The local area is committed to working alongside parents as equal partners, recognising the insight they bring to their child’s development. Through respectful collaboration and shared decision‑making, the BSiL partnership ensures services are responsive, inclusive and aligned with what matters most to families, strengthening relationships and building trust across the system.

This strategy champions equity, inclusion and belonging. Improving outcomes in the earliest years, also means addressing wider determinants of family wellbeing, including housing, income, parental mental health and access to high‑quality early education. Best Start in Life provides the strategic framework that connects early childhood development, family support, public health and education improvement, setting out how we will act collectively as a multi‑agency coalition to ensure every child can thrive from the very beginning.

Executive summary

Bold Start, Bright Futures: giving every child the best start in life

Coventry’s Best Start in Life Strategy sets out a shared, system‑wide ambition to ensure that every child in the city has the strongest possible foundations from pregnancy to age 5. It reflects a clear commitment to reducing inequalities, improving health and development, strengthening school readiness, and enabling all children, regardless of background, neighbourhood or need, to thrive.

Coventry is a young, rapidly growing and highly diverse city. While there have been encouraging improvements in early years outcomes, significant challenges remain. Good Level of Development (GLD) outcomes continue to sit below national averages, and entrenched inequalities persist for disadvantaged children, boys, children learning English as an Additional Language (EAL), and children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

The impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic, rising cost‑of‑living pressures, housing instability and increasing linguistic diversity have further shaped local need, reinforcing the importance of acting early, intervening effectively and targeting resources where they will have the greatest impact.

The Best Start in Life Strategy responds to these challenges through a coordinated, whole‑system approach. It brings together health, early education, public health, SEND services, social care, schools, Family Hubs and the voluntary, community and faith sector into a single, joined‑up partnership. Coventry’s Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies Programme form the backbone of this integrated model, providing a ‘no wrong door’ system where families receive timely, preventative and proportionate support from pregnancy onwards.

The Strategy is underpinned by Coventry’s long‑standing commitment to the Marmot principles, placing equity, inclusion and belonging at its core. It recognises that improving early childhood outcomes depends not only on the quality of services, but also on addressing wider determinants of family wellbeing, including income, housing, parental mental health and access to high‑quality early education. Parents and carers are recognised as equal partners, shaping design and delivery through co‑production, engagement and lived‑experience insight.

Building on this strategic framework, the Best Start in Life Local Area Plan sets out how improvement will be delivered in practice. It translates ambition into action through 6 clear delivery priorities:

1. Reduce early inequalities in health, development and safety
2. Identify need early and strengthen SEND pathways
3. Increase access, engagement and inclusion in early education
4. Strengthen the quality of early education and practice
5. Strengthen the Home Learning Environment and family resilience
6. Use data and locality working to drive equity and impact

Delivery is organised around 6 commitments to children and families, describing what families should experience and how partners will work together to improve outcomes. A strong focus on Communication and Language, high‑quality adult–child interactions, early identification, and targeted locality action underpins all commitments, recognising these as the strongest drivers of improved GLD.

Clear governance arrangements provide shared accountability across the system, with strategic oversight through the Health and Wellbeing Board and operational delivery led by the Best Start in Life Partnership. A shared outcomes framework, robust data and locality intelligence will support continuous learning, improvement and transparent reporting of impact.

Together, the Best Start in Life Strategy and Local Area Plan provide a clear roadmap for collective action over the next three years. By aligning leadership, resources and delivery around shared priorities, Coventry will create a more equitable, responsive and effective early years system, ensuring every child receives a Bold Start in Life and the foundations for a Bright Future.

Vision

Bold Start, Bright Futures: Our plan to improve child development and health outcomes from birth to five

Bold Start, Bright Futures is our commitment to ensuring that every child in Coventry begins life with the strongest possible foundations. Our vision is that every child will be safe, healthy, curious, confident and ready to thrive at school by age 5.

Together with families and local partners across health, education, social care, the voluntary/faith/community sector (VCFS), schools and early years providers, we will build a joined up ‘no wrong door’ system, one that identifies needs early, responds quickly and removes barriers, so that disadvantage does not determine destiny.

This Bold Start, Bright Futures plan sets out how, by 2028, we will reach our statutory target of at least 72.3% of children achieving a Good Level of Development (GLD) at the end of Reception, with a faster rate of improvement for disadvantaged children. This Strategy is aligned to the Governments ‘Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life’ Strategy and includes the five underpinning principles; with the ambition to unite early years and family services, alongside the 10-year Health Plan which sets out a modernised, prevention‑first model of healthcare.

Connection

• Best Start Family Hubs (BSFHs) act as a gateway into wider services
• family navigators and consistent referral pathways connect families to the right help

Relationships

• Delivery is rooted in a whole-family, strengths based approach
• a confident and skilled workforce works as one team to identify needs early and support families well

Access and inclusion

• warm, welcoming spaces that every family can access and feel at ease in
• parent and carer participation is embedded so that every family feels understood and able to engage

Insights

• evidence, community insight and iterative testing (for example, test, learn and grow) helps build a culture of learning experimentation and continuous improvement

Data and digital

• accessible integrated digital tools and data foundations
• shared data standards, interoperable systems and user-centred design

Why do we need this plan now?

A vibrant and diverse city

• Coventry is one of the region’s fastest growing cities, enriched by families from many cultures, languages and backgrounds
• over half of Coventry’s children live in ethnically diverse communities, shaping a bright, global future. However, some families face greater challenges, poverty, limited opportunities and rising living costs mean some families need more support with essentials, routines and early learning at home
• the first 1,001 days shape a child’s future development and so a focus on health and wellbeing needs to begin early. Coventry continues to see variation in life chances across the city with disadvantage in some neighbourhoods continuing to affect children’s health, wellbeing and school readiness, so supporting parents’ wellbeing, relationships and confidence remain essential

This plan responds to:

Learning from COVID-19

• the impact of COVID-19 was significant for young children in Coventry. Whilst the acute phase of COVID-19 is in the past, its legacy effects remain visible in Coventry’s early years outcomes, particularly across the 2021 to 2024 cohorts who were born during or immediately after the pandemic. These children had reduced access to health visiting, fewer developmental checks, disrupted social experiences and higher family stress, all of which continue to shape EYFS patterns today. The Coventry trend GLD data clearly reflects this legacy. Communication & Language remains one of the city’s widest national gaps (4.0pp in 2025), consistent with well-documented post-COVID increases in SLCN and reduced early vocabulary exposure (4.0pp in 2025)
• parent and provider feedback calling for simpler access, quicker support and consistent quality of the help across partners
• achievement data over time, related to the ‘Good Level of Development’ (GLD), progress made to date and current inequalities
• local area data analysis and community insights

Coventry’s multi-agency approach

Bold Start, Bright Futures: A Coalition for Coventry’s Best Start in Life (2026 to 2029)

Bold Start, Bright Futures sets out Coventry’s shared vision, priorities and commitments for supporting every child from conception to age 5. It unites the early childhood system behind one purpose: ensuring every child grows up healthy, safe, nurtured and ready to learn, with strong foundations for a bright future.

Coventry’s ambition is built on a simple truth: no single service can improve early childhood outcomes alone. Children thrive when support is joined up, relationships are strong and families experience a seamless system around them. This Strategy strengthens that approach, bringing together health, education, early years providers, social care, family hubs and the voluntary, faith and community sector into a single, coordinated partnership.

The council’s role as a system leader underpins this collaboration, enabling aligned priorities, shared professional development and collective accountability. Bold Start, Bright Futures draws together the contributions of Health, Local Authority and VCFS partners into an integrated model of early childhood support, aligned to wider ambitions such as the One Coventry Council Plan 2021 to 2030.

Our shared purpose is clear:

• improve outcomes in communication, learning, health, and wellbeing
• reduce inequalities across communities and population groups
• strengthen long-term life chances by acting early and effectively

A coordinated citywide offer of universal, targeted and specialist support is fundamental to this. Families first, strong relationships, responsive caregiving and accessible services are the foundations of healthier communities and a more prosperous future for Coventry.

The universal pathway is aligned with the principles of the Child Friendly Cov initiative [https://www.childfriendlycov.co.uk/the-story-so-far], which was launched in 2024. Through this initiative, Coventry is being shaped into a city where children and young people are valued, supported and enabled to achieve their potential. Working together with local children and young people, a set of key themes has been identified. These themes are being supported by all services, agencies, and businesses in Coventry.

Coventry’s context

Growing up in Coventry in 2026

The city’s headline data provides a clear picture of both the strengths and the challenges that shape early childhood and this narrative draws on those insights to articulate shared priorities for the local area to be owned by all stakeholders.

Coventry is a young, diverse and rapidly growing city. Forty-four point seven per cent of residents are from ethnically diverse groups compared with 25.6% in England and Wales. By mid-2024, its population reached 369,029, an increase of 16.4% since 2011, outpacing national growth. There is a median age of 35, supported by the draw of Coventry’s 2 universities, which attract significant numbers of domestic and international students.

Coventry’s identity as a ‘City of Sanctuary’ continues to shape its demographic profile, with international migration, linguistic diversity and mixed cultural heritage enriching communities while creating increased demand for accessible and culturally competent services. As a growing, youthful and diverse city, Coventry benefits from strong community assets, but faces unequal levels of need. This underscores the value of a well‑connected early years system that can respond with clarity, consistency and speed.

Children in Coventry strongly reflect the city’s rich diversity, which is a significant strength. By January 2025, 61% of school‑aged pupils were from ethnically diverse groups, rising from 39.7% in 2012, with the largest groups including Black African, Other White and Asian Indian communities. Many children are growing up in multilingual households, bringing linguistic, cultural and social assets that enrich early years settings and schools. This diversity creates strong opportunities for inclusive practice, language‑rich learning and community‑based support, underpinned by Coventry’s established partnerships and community networks.

These strengths also bring an important responsibility. Early help, communication approaches and family support must be inclusive, culturally responsive and rooted in trusted community relationships to ensure all children can thrive. While Coventry benefits from vibrant and resilient communities, inequalities remain a defining feature of early childhood. Almost 20% of neighbourhoods fall within the 10% most deprived nationally, equating to 33 lower super output areas.

Families in areas such as Foleshill, Hillfields, Tile Hill, Willenhall and Wood End experience the greatest pressures related to income, housing and wider social factors, which continue to shape children’s early development and outcomes, long before they start school.

Health outcomes tell a mixed story. Smoking in pregnancy has reached record lows, and breastfeeding rates at 6 to 8 weeks are above national levels. However, oral health outcomes for 5‑year‑olds are significantly worse than England’s average and childhood obesity in Year 6 continues to climb. Immunisation uptake, particularly MMR, remains below the 95% herd immunity threshold. Coventry’s infant mortality rate, at 6.4 per 1,000 live births, is significantly higher than England’s (3.8), partly influenced by the city’s tertiary neonatal unit, but still signalling the depth of local inequality.

Safety and wellbeing pressures compound these challenges. Coventry’s children-in-care rate remains above national levels with 685 children looked after as of September 2025, equating to 82 per 10,000), compared to the most recent England rate (March 31, 2025) of 67 per 10,000 significantly above the England rate of around 70. A higher proportion of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children contribute to this pressure.

Domestic abuse accounts for almost 15% of all recorded crime and continues to affect many households. These adversities are not evenly distributed across the city, but they are more prevalent in disadvantaged neighbourhoods where GLD outcomes are also lowest. They disproportionately impact early communication, emotional regulation and readiness to learn, especially in the most deprived communities.

Families are also navigating growing financial pressures. Although the city experienced some economic recovery following the pandemic, this rebound has been uneven. Rising rents, house prices and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis are stretching household resilience. Between 2023 and 2024, average house prices rose by 6.4% and private rents increased by 9%. Even where employment is high, financial instability affects routines, nutrition, mental health, enrichment and engagement with early years services.

Coventry has a well-developed early years sector with 298 open providers, in which 217 who are funded, offering more than 5,400 funded early education places, including 139 operating in IMD areas 1 to 3. Currently, there are 30 outstanding settings and a strong local infrastructure for improvement and safeguarding Coventry’s early years sector is high quality overall, with 97% of providers rated Good or Outstanding.

Take-up of early education for 2-year-olds has fallen sharply (from 72.9% in 2023 to 60% in 2025), a sharper fall than England and statistical neighbours. Three- to 4‑year‑old participation at 86.2% in 2025 sits below national averages. Workforce pressures, including fewer graduate‑led settings (declined from 40% to 34%), affect quality and capacity in areas where children most need strong early language, literacy and maths support.

Service Provision: strong connections

What is in place?

The city’s Best Start Family Hub (BSFH) network is a well‑established and significant asset, recognised nationally for good practice. Eight Family Hubs across Coventry provide a consistent, locality‑based offer of multi‑agency support, including universal and targeted services, evidence‑based parenting programmes, early help, and clear, accessible pathways into health, SEND and family support services. These hubs act as trusted community spaces where families can access help early, receive joined‑up support and build strong relationships with professionals.

Coventry also places strong emphasis on strengthening the Home Learning Environment (HLE) through the ‘Playing and Learning Together’ approach. This recognises the critical role that everyday interactions at home, play in supporting early language development, social‑emotional wellbeing and longer‑term educational outcomes. Families are supported through a blended digital and face‑to‑face offer, with the Coventry Families digital platform providing accessible online information, guidance and resources, alongside in‑person support delivered through Family Hubs and community settings. This flexible approach enables families to engage in ways that best meet their needs.

Despite these strengths, persistent inequalities, reductions in participation in early education and increasing financial pressures continue to limit access for some families. Targeted outreach, culturally competent practice and consistent relationship‑based engagement are therefore essential to ensure that all children benefit fully from Coventry’s early years offer, particularly those living in the most disadvantaged communities.

Strengthening connections across the wider family support system will require continued collective effort. The Local Authority will lead this work, in close partnership with health services, public services, early education and childcare providers, schools and the voluntary, community and faith sector. Together, the aim is to further align services, pathways and resources to create a coherent, integrated local offer that builds on existing strengths and maximises local expertise and trusted relationships.

The voluntary and community sector remains a vital partner in this system, drawing on strong community connections and social infrastructure to engage families who may be less likely to access statutory services. Opportunities within the wider impact economy, including social enterprises and purpose‑driven organisations, will continue to complement public funding and support long‑term sustainability.

Best Start Family Hubs and the Healthy Babies programme sit at the centre of this approach. Together, they strengthen end‑to‑end support from pregnancy to age 5, embed prevention and early intervention, improve school readiness, and support SEND reforms. These services also contribute to the emerging Neighbourhood Health Service, complement Families First Partnerships and support delivery of the Healthy Child Programme.

Through this coordinated and progressive approach, Coventry will continue to build on what already works well—reaching diverse communities, reducing inequalities and ensuring that more babies, children and families receive timely support that makes the greatest difference to their outcomes.

Coventry as a Marmot City

Coventry as a Marmot City

Coventry has been a Marmot City since 2013, committed to reducing health inequalities by addressing the social determinants of health. Through its long‑standing partnership with the UCL Institute of Health Equity, the city has embedded Marmot principles across public services - strengthening early childhood experiences, promoting fair employment, reducing poverty, and improving local environments. This collaboration has supported a place‑based, whole‑system approach to tackling inequality.

Since adopting the Marmot framework, progress has been made in areas such as school readiness, employment, crime reduction in priority neighbourhoods, and wider wellbeing. However, the combined impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic and the cost‑of‑living crisis have slowed these improvements, reinforcing the need for sustained, coordinated action across early years, health, and community systems. Giving children the Best Start in Life remains one of the key strategic priorities within the citywide Marmot Strategy.

A system-wide approach to tackling inequality: access and inclusion

The Coventry Health Inequalities Strategic Plan (2022 to 2027) builds on this commitment by prioritising equity in maternity and neonatal outcomes, particularly for Black, Asian and Mixed ethnicity families and improving access and outcomes for Core20PLUS5 groups. The Integrated Care Board (ICB) also continues to focus on equitable access to physical and mental health support for children and young people, especially those living in deprivation or from minority ethnic communities. These ambitions align closely with Coventry’s Marmot principles and the One Coventry Plan (2022 to 2030), which emphasises:

• ensuring all communities share in economic growth through strong partnerships with employers and education providers
• protecting children and supporting families by implementing Families First, adopting Family Valued approaches, and strengthening safeguarding
• narrowing education gaps for vulnerable groups, particularly those disproportionately affected by pandemic‑related disruption

Together, these commitments reinforce Coventry’s determination to tackle inequality through a connected, multi‑agency, universal system approach, ensuring every child has the foundations for a healthy, safe, and thriving future.

What will Coventry Best Start Family Hubs provide?

What will Coventry Best Start Family Hubs provide?

Best Start Family Hubs will offer:

• parenting and home learning environment support, including stay‑and‑play sessions
• early support for children with additional needs
• preventative and universal Healthy Babies provision including infant feeding, perinatal mental health, parent‑infant relationships, health visiting, maternity, safeguarding and SEND support
• engagement activities that build connections and trust such as coffee mornings, creative sessions and wellbeing activities
• connections to wider services including health and wellbeing support, safeguarding, cost‑of‑living assistance, wider family support and services for children aged 5+ and young people
• help for families to access support through on‑site family navigators and community outreach activity

Each Hub will bring core services together, tailoring support to local needs and making it easier for families to find the right help at the right time.

What will the Healthy Babies Programme provide?   

Healthy Babies services will be at the heart of BSFHs and the wider Best Start network. They will strengthen delivery and integration across health and family services and will form a key part of the emerging Neighbourhood Health architecture. Healthy Babies services encompass the full range of statutory and non‑statutory support available to families from conception to age 2, including:

• infant feeding support
• perinatal mental health
• parent–infant relationship support
• health visiting
• maternity services
• safeguarding
• SEND support

Our wider service offer will include

Services for children aged 5+ and young people

• youth services - universal and targeted
• youth justice services
• school attendance
• Holiday Activities and Food

Health and wellbeing

• Health visiting (0 to 5)
• Public health (0 to 19)
• Mental health
• Maternity, midwifery and neonatal
• Nutrition and healthy growth
• Oral health improvement
• Screen time
• Smoking cessation
• Substance misuse support
• Vaccinations

Financial and other assistance

• Birth registration
• Debt advice, money and welfare advice
• Food support
• Fuel poverty
• Housing
• Parental leave and pay
• Social welfare advice services

Wider family support services

• Armed Forces families
• Children affected by parental imprisonment
• Reducing parental conflict
• Support for adoptive, kinship and foster families
• Support for separated and separating parents and/or carers
• Targeted family support - family help

Safeguarding

• Domestic abuse
• Tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation

Planning the strategy

Together, the Best Start in Life Strategy and the Local Area Plan set out a coherent and aligned programme of work to improve outcomes for babies, young children and their families across Coventry.

The Strategy defines our shared ambition: what we aim to achieve, why early intervention matters, and the principles that guide our approach. It provides a clear framework for improving child development, reducing inequalities and strengthening family wellbeing from conception to age 5.

The Local Area Plan translates this ambition into practice, setting out how priorities will be delivered, how responsibilities will be shared, and how progress and impact will be measured over time.

Underpinned by strong governance, shared accountability and a commitment to continuous learning, partners across Coventry will work together to monitor delivery, review outcomes and respond to emerging need. This approach enables the local system to adapt, learn and strengthen over time, ensuring that improvement activity remains focused, effective and responsive to the needs of children and families.

A data-driven approach

Coventry is a city of vibrant, diverse and resilient communities enriched by cultural heritage, intergenerational family networks and strong local identity. Yet data shows clear differences in early years participation, health and engagement across neighbourhoods, shaped by longstanding inequalities. These patterns highlight the importance of accessible Family Hubs, community-based delivery and meaningful co-design with families, ensuring support reaches those who need it most.

While Coventry is showing signs of steady recovery, particularly visible by 2025, the city continues to experience gaps in areas most sensitive to early language, socialisation and family wellbeing. Patterns consistent with the wider impact of the pandemic on young children.

The Best Start in Life Strategy and local area plan will build on this detailed local insight, and robust data analysis, aiming to ensure that from 2026 to 2028 every family experience a seamless system of proactive responsive help. This includes strengthening the protective factors that enable babies, young children and parents to thrive, and improving both access to early years provision and the quality of early teaching, including in Reception.

The Best Start in Life (BSiL) Strategy is underpinned by a data‑driven approach that uses robust local and national intelligence to shape priorities, target resources and monitor impact. Population‑level data on health, development, deprivation, SEND, early education take‑up and Good Level of Development (GLD) outcomes has been analysed alongside ward‑level and group‑specific insights to identify where inequalities are most pronounced.

This evidence informs both universal provision and targeted action, ensuring that support is focused where it will make the greatest difference, while enabling continuous learning, accountability and refinement of the Strategy over time.

Data summary

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

Governance

Governance arrangements

As the ambitions of this Strategy and the local area action plan rely on the whole‑system approach, strong multiagency governance and coordinated mobilisation are essential.

To ensure clear accountability, collective ownership and sustained focus on improvement, this programme of work will report to the Health and Wellbeing Board. This will provide the strategic oversight needed to drive partnership action, strengthen leadership across agencies and ensure every child experiences a Bold Start and a Bright Future.

The Best Start in Life (BSiL) Lead and Programme Board will provide operational and strategic coordination, overseeing joint commissioning, alignment of budgets, and monitoring of spend against outcomes. This will ensure transparency, shared accountability and effective use of resources across the system.

BSiL Partnership Programme Board

Senior accountable leaders from ICB, Commissioners of Health services, Public Health, Education and Family Hubs will set vision, priorities, and outcomes; aligned with the One Coventry plan and statutory duties and monitor system indicators (GLD and child health).

BSiL Operational stakeholder group

Cochaired by the accountable officers:

• this group leads the implementation of the Best Start in Life Local Area Plan, agreeing shared pathways, data flows and resource alignment. It ensures family and community voices inform decision‑making. This group will feedback on service delivery against the plan and collectively monitor progress and impact across the key performance indicators
• service area accountability: Each partner owns and delivers its actions to agreed timescales, with named strategic and operational leads; crosscutting priorities (e.g., early communication, perinatal mental health, inclusion) have a clear lead and partner contributions

Data, impact, and insights

Data

Coventry’s early years system is strengthened by the citywide Intelligence Hub, which integrates datasets from the ONS, LG Inform+, health, education and local bespoke surveys. This creates a robust foundation for evidence led decision making. We will monitor local area data across population, health, deprivation and children’s outcomes, enabling the Best Start in Life partnership to monitor trends and respond proactively.

The Best Start Family Hubs also have robust data collection processes and established dashboards which provide quality performance management information. These are used to support the planning, implementation and evaluation of services to families.

Timely, lawful and transparent information sharing will enable an integrated ‘no wrong door’ offer. Families tell their story once and receive coordinated support early. This will lead to faster recognition of emerging needs, warm handovers and joint plans across partners

Shared dashboards and aligned reporting will provide a single picture of children’s health, development, education and family wellbeing strengthening joint accountability for Bold Start & Bright Futures.

Impact

A Best Start in Life, Local Area Plan outcomes framework will underpin performance, evaluation, and targeted improvement, identifying inequalities, strengthening early identification and enabling rapid response to emerging needs.

Insights

The Best Start in Life Strategy is informed by learning from practice, evidence and research. It builds on local delivery experience, robust data and evaluation and the best available national and international evidence on early childhood development. By combining what the evidence tells us with what families and practitioners tell us works in practice, the Strategy commits to continuous learning, reflective improvement and the scaling of approaches that have the greatest impact on outcomes for children and families.

Over time, further system learning & improvement will come from population-level insight on outcomes, inequalities and demand to inform future commissioning and evaluation.

Privacy, consent and trust

Partners will operate within existing information sharing agreements, GDPR/UK DPA, safeguarding and consent protocols, using data responsibly and proportionately. Where new arrangements are required to improve data sharing, this will be sought as a part of the Local Area Plan.

Family and community voice

Listening to and acting on the voices of families will be central to how services within the Best Start in Life offer are planned, delivered and continuously improved. Families bring invaluable insight into what works, what needs to change and how support can be made more accessible, culturally competent and responsive to diverse needs.

Through ongoing co‑production, parent and carer forums, lived‑experience panels and routine feedback mechanisms, families will shape priorities, influence design decisions and help test and refine new approaches.

Embedding family voice at every level from strategic planning to frontline delivery this will ensure services remain relevant, trusted and rooted in the real experiences of the communities they serve.

Funding

Coventry LA received a contribution to implement the BSIL actions plans as part of the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme and will support this work through existing resources. There is an expectation of movement towards joint arrangements across LA Early Years budgets, Public Health, NHS, Family Hubs, SEND & Inclusion, VCFS and national grants to help to deploy resources strategically across pathways rather than service silos. The priorities for funding are:

• Prevention first: Prioritise investment in early communication and language, social and emotional development, perinatal and parent mental health, outreach for families facing disadvantage, emerging SEND support and workforce development
• Sustain the Family Hub model: Resource universal, targeted and specialist pathways; strengthen co-location and equitable access across neighbourhoods
• Governance and accountability: The BSiL Lead and Programme Board oversee joint commissioning, aligned budgets and monitoring of spend vs. outcomes; ensure transparency and shared accountability

Local Area Plan Structure

This Local Area Plan sets out how partners across Coventry will work together to improve outcomes for children from birth to 5. It translates strategic ambition into delivery. It provides a clear line of sight from vision to action to impact, ensuring that improvement activity is coherent, targeted and measurable.

The Plan is structured around 6 commitments to children and families. Each commitment describes what children and families should experience in practice and how services across the system will work together to deliver this.

For each commitment, you will find the same consistent structure:

• Our commitment to children and families – what children and families should experience as a result of our work.
• Linked strategic priorities – the data‑led priorities that this commitment supports.
• Delivery pillars – the Best Start in Life pillars that guide how the work will be delivered.
• What we will do – the key actions partners will take together.
• Desired outcomes – the measurable changes we expect to see by 2029.
• How this improves Good Level of Development (GLD) – how the commitment contributes to improved school readiness and reduced inequalities.

This ensures that the Plan is easy to follow, avoids duplication and supports shared accountability. It also makes clear how universal provision is strengthened while targeted support is layered where need is greatest. The Plan is a living document. Progress will be reviewed regularly through partnership governance arrangements, using data, learning and feedback from families to refine delivery and strengthen impact over time.

The six delivery priorities underpin the Best Start in Life Local Area Plan

1. Reduce early inequalities in health, development and safety

Address the earliest drivers of inequality by strengthening maternity, neonatal and early health pathways, improving early identification of vulnerability, and ensuring children are safe, nurtured and protected from harm.

2. Identify need early and strengthen SEND pathways

Ensure early, precise identification of SEND and developmental need through aligned checks, shared pathways and inclusive practice, enabling timely support and smoother transitions.

3. Increase access, engagement and inclusion in early education smoother transitions

Improve take‑up of early education for disadvantaged, EAL, mobile and minority ethnic families by reducing barriers, strengthening outreach and ensuring access to high‑quality provision.

4. Strengthen the quality of early education and practice

Improve outcomes by embedding evidence‑based pedagogy, strengthening adult–child interactions, and building leadership and consistency across the Early Years system.

5. Strengthen the home learning environment and family resilience

Equip parents and carers with practical strategies to support communication, early literacy, maths, self‑regulation and routines, strengthening learning at home and readiness for school.

6. Use data and locality working to drive equity and impact

Use ward, neighbourhood and group‑level data to target resources, prioritise Family Hub areas, and reduce postcode‑linked inequalities in outcomes.

Our commitments to children and families

Delivery of these priorities is organised around 6 clear commitments, which describe what children and families should experience in practice:

• Safe and nurtured – children experience safe, stable and nurturing relationships.
• Healthy and thriving – children’s physical and emotional health is supported early.
• Included, valued and connected – families feel welcomed, supported and able to engage.
• Supported families, strong foundations – parents are confident to support learning at home
• Learning, communicating and developing – children develop strong early communication and learning skills.
• Workforce Development (cross‑cutting) – a skilled, confident workforce underpins all improvement.

Commitment: Safe and nurtured

Children experience safe, stable and nurturing relationships in their homes, early years settings and communities. Safeguarding concerns are identified early and responded to through joined‑up, relational approaches so children are protected and able to thrive.

What we will do

• strengthen early multi‑agency support for families experiencing adversity, including domestic abuse, parental mental health challenges and financial pressures
• improve early identification of vulnerability and developmental risk from birth through aligned checks and shared pathways
• embed relational, trauma‑informed practice across early years, Family Hubs, health and community services
• reduce practical barriers to engagement by delivering support locally, early and without stigma
• use locality data to prioritise wards and families where safeguarding and vulnerability risks are highest

How this improves Good Level of Development (GLD)

• safe, stable environments enable children to communicate, regulate emotions and engage in learning
• early identification of relational or developmental risk prevents gaps widening in areas most predictive of GLD
• reduced family stress improves engagement with early learning and routines that support school readiness

Commitment: Healthy and Thriving

Children have positive physical and emotional health, supported by secure early relationships, responsive caregiving and timely access to maternity, health and SEND pathways.

What we will do

• increased proportion of children meeting age‑expected health and development milestones
• increased percentage of children with emerging SEND needs identified before age 3
• reduced health‑related barriers to participation in early education

How this improves Good Level of Development (GLD)

• early health and secure attachment underpin communication, attention, self‑regulation and learning behaviours
• good physical and emotional health supports consistent participation in early education
• targeted health support reduces inequality‑related barriers that most strongly affect GLD outcomes

Commitment: Included, valued and connected

Children and families feel welcomed, included and connected to early education, Best Start Family Hubs and community services, experiencing a sense of belonging regardless of culture, background or need.

What we will do

• increase early education take‑up in priority wards and among disadvantaged, EAL, mobile and minority ethnic families
• deliver community‑based and outreach activity through Best Start Family Hubs, VCFS and faith settings in trusted local spaces
• reduce language, cultural and practical barriers through culturally responsive and multilingual approaches
• strengthen community connections and peer networks to build trust and sustained engagement
• use local data and insight to target outreach where engagement and GLD outcomes are lowest

How this improves Good Level of Development (GLD)

• earlier and sustained participation in early education improves communication, language, social development and learning routines
• strong community connections help families access support early and engage positively in learning from birth
• reducing barriers for priority groups helps close early gaps and increase the proportion achieving GLD

Commitment: Supported families, strong foundations

Families receive timely, coordinated support that strengthens resilience and wellbeing and reduces inequalities. Parents and carers are equipped with the skills, confidence and tools to support learning at home, helping children build strong early foundations and be ready for school.

What we will do

• expand evidence‑based parenting and Home Learning Environment programmes through Best Start Family Hubs and community venues
• provide parents with practical strategies to support communication, early literacy, early maths, self‑regulation and positive routines
• use data and locality insight to target support in wards and groups with the lowest GLD outcomes
• ensure support is inclusive and culturally responsive, reducing barriers linked to language, poverty, SEND and mobility
• strengthen alignment between early years settings, Family Hubs and community delivery

How this improves Good Level of Development (GLD)

• a strong Home Learning Environment is the biggest driver of early communication and vocabulary growth
• consistent, language‑rich interactions strengthen the prime areas most predictive of GLD
• targeted HLE support closes gaps early, before they widen at school entry

Commitment: Learning, communicating and developing

Children develop strong early communication, language, social, emotional and cognitive skills through high‑quality, inclusive early years practice that nurtures curiosity, builds confidence and enables every child to thrive by age 5.

What we will do

• embed high‑quality, evidence‑informed pedagogy with a strong focus on Communication and Language
• strengthen adult–child interactions and inclusive first teaching approaches
• use ward‑ and group‑level data to target improvement activity where outcomes are lowest
• support early years leaders and practitioners to improve the quality and consistency of teaching and leadership
• prioritise precision approaches for groups and localities with persistent under‑achievement

How this improves Good Level of Development (GLD)

• high‑quality pedagogy and adult–child interactions are the strongest predictors of GLD
• language‑rich practice improves outcomes across literacy, maths and self‑regulation
• targeted improvement reduces postcode‑linked inequalities and raises overall GLD

Commitment: Workforce Development (cross cutting)

Children benefit from a skilled, confident and consistent Early Years workforce that delivers safe, nurturing relationships and high‑quality early learning across all settings and services.

What we will do

• build leadership capacity and specialist expertise across the Early Years system
• improve the quality and consistency of practice, particularly in Communication and Language
• expand access to high‑quality professional development, coaching and training
• support recruitment, retention and confidence, particularly in priority localities
• use data and feedback to target workforce support where outcomes are weakest

How this improves Good Level of Development (GLD)

• skilled practitioners strengthen the adult–child interactions most predictive of GLD
• consistent high‑quality practice improves outcomes across all GLD domains
• a stable, confident workforce enables sustained improvement over time

Delivering our shared ambition

This BSIL Strategy sets out a clear and ambitious framework for strengthening how we support babies, children, young people and their families to thrive. It recognises that improving outcomes requires more than individual services or short‑term initiatives; it depends on a shared commitment to system leadership, strong partnerships and consistent, evidence‑informed practice across the local area.

Through this strategy, partners have agreed a common set of principles to guide decision making, prioritisation and investment. These principles emphasise early support, inclusion, equity and the importance of listening to children, young people and families in shaping how services are designed and delivered. The strategy also underlines the need for transparency, accountability and continuous learning, ensuring that progress is regularly reviewed and that improvement activity is responsive to what the data and lived experience tell us.

Crucially, the BSIL Strategy is intended to be a living document. It provides direction and coherence, but it does not operate in isolation. Its value lies in how it informs action on the ground, shapes behaviours across organisations, and drives collective ownership of outcomes. Sustained impact will depend on how effectively partners translate strategic intent into practical delivery that makes a measurable difference to families’ day to day experiences.