Priority 2: Improving outcomes and tackling inequalities within our communities
Focus on improving outcomes for local people and tackle inequalities to build prosperity across the city, protecting the most vulnerable and supporting and valuing the contribution of our residents.
Themes
- Children and young people achieving positive outcomes
- Cleaner, greener neighbourhoods
- Improving education and pathways for young people
- Improving health, wellbeing and independence
- Safer communities and reduced harm
- Tackling homelessness and housing vulnerability
Executive summary
This priority produced some of our strongest results of the year.
Coventry's Children's Services received an ‘outstanding’ rating from Ofsted – a remarkable achievement reflecting the quality of practice, leadership and multi-agency working across the city. Repeat referrals to children's social care fell to 15.6%, well below the national average, and the proportion of children previously in care re-entering the system remains low at 4.5%.
Our recent visit from CQC to assess our Adult Social Care services was acknowledge as "Good" highlighting our commitment to supporting our residents to be more independent and have a good quality of life.
Recorded crime fell by nearly 8%, continuing a positive trend, and homelessness prevention has improved, with 52% of at-risk households successfully helped to retain or secure accommodation.
However, deprivation remains deep and persistent in parts of Coventry. Child poverty levels are above national averages and inequalities in health, education and employment outcomes are stark in some neighbourhoods.
The Pride in Place Programme, bringing £20 million over 10 years to Willenhall, Tile Hill and Hillfields, represents a significant long-term commitment to the communities that need investment most.
Progress here is real, but we measure ourselves against the lives of our most vulnerable residents, and there is more to do.
Background by thematic group
Children and young people achieving positive outcomes
Coventry’s Children’s Services was awarded an ‘outstanding’ rating by Ofsted, announced in May 2026 based on an inspection in March 2026. Coventry is home to relatively many children and Coventry’s child population is growing and becoming increasingly diverse, with an estimated 83,600 children, making up 23% of Coventry’s total population (England 21%).
Between 2021 and 2024 this grew by estimated 9% compared to 7% growth in the total population. According to the latest school census in 2025 to 2026, 61.1% of Coventry’s school children are from a global majority group.
Births increased from 3,948 in 2021 to 4,136 in 2024, following a falling trend over the previous 10 years; but fell again in 2025 to 3,982. Child poverty is a concern in Coventry – the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) 2025 is the aspect of deprivation in which Coventry ranks the worst compared to all other England areas in the Indices of Deprivation.
Forty-six of Coventry’s 203 neighbourhoods (LSOAs) are amongst the most deprived 10% in England, ranking Coventry 29th most deprived local authority out of 296 in this respect.
Cleaner, greener neighbourhoods
Coventry City Council invested additional funding for tackling fly-tipping in 2025 to 2026, implementing new projects including targeting areas, such as Ball Hill. The Council has also won a major grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, securing nearly £1 million to transform our understanding of the city’s green and blue spaces, particularly in areas with limited nature through the ‘Green for All’ scheme.
There are aspects of the living environment in Coventry’s neighbourhoods that could be improved and resident satisfaction with their local area and local green spaces is relatively low. The Community Life Survey 2024 to 2025 found only 64% of residents were satisfied with local green and natural spaces, compared with 75% nationally. From the same survey, only 43% of Coventry residents considered their local area as attractive compared to the national average of 58%.
Improving education and pathways for young people
Last year Coventry City Council was awarded £102.8 million in government education funding - the investment, will be used to "expand school capacity and build sustainable education infrastructure through to 2028". The number of pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in Coventry has continued to rise, reflecting a similar trend across England. In 2024 to 2025, there were 14,062 pupils with SEN in Coventry, representing 22.1% of all pupils, higher than the national average of 19.6% - and an increase from 8,951 in 2015 to 2016.
School attendance rates in Coventry has declined in recent years, following national patterns. Total attendance fell from 95.2% in 2018 to 2019 to 92.8% in 2024 to 2025, with the sharpest drop during the 2021 to 2022 academic year, coinciding with COVID-19 disruptions. Also, both permanent exclusions and suspensions in schools have been increasing over recent years, after a sharp rise after the end of lockdowns.
As is the case nationally, there are inequalities in educational attainment of Coventry pupils. In 2025 at Key Stage 2, 45% of disadvantaged pupils achieved the expected standard, compared with 67% of non-disadvantaged pupils and at Key Stage 4 the average attainment 8 score of disadvantaged pupils was 34.6 compared to 48.5 amongst non-disadvantaged pupils.
Improving health, wellbeing and independence
Healthy life expectancy is a measure of the average number of years a person would expect to live in good health and in contrast to total life expectancy, healthy life expectancy at birth had been falling in Coventry up to 2021 to 2023, similar to national trends. This all means that the number of residents living in good health has fallen since 2018, resulting in increased demand for health and care services.
There are significant health inequalities across Coventry’s neighbourhoods - males living in less deprived areas of the city on average live 11.7 years longer than those living in the most deprived areas of Coventry; for females the gap is 10.6 years.
Coventry is a ‘Marmot city’ - the Council and partners are committed to the approach of tackling health inequalities.
There are an estimated 51,300 Coventry residents aged 65 and over (2024), more of these are female (27,700, 54%). Out of these, 7,300 are aged 85+ (up from 6,700 in 2011 and 7,100 in 2021). While the rate of growth in the population of older people is not yet as fast as the growth amongst younger age groups so in this way the overall population is not yet ‘ageing’; the total number of older residents is increasing, and this is significant for service planning. Moreover, population projections indicate that the rate of growth in older residents will increase.
Safer communities and reduced harm
While recorded crime is now falling, a reduced proportion of residents report feeling safe in Coventry’s neighbourhoods. In the Coventry Household Survey 2024 to 2025 , most Coventry residents reported feeling safe in their local area during the day, 75% - but only 39% saying they feel safe at night. These are lower percentages than previous household surveys.
Total recorded crime, and violent crime specifically, have been on downward trend since 2022 to 2023 following a significant trend of increasing crime before that. Domestic abuse remains a significant challenge. The national Crime Survey of England and Wales found that 7.8% of people aged 16+ said they had experienced any domestic abuse in the year ending March 2025. Applying this prevalence to Coventry’s population indicates around 24,700 domestic abuse incidents each year in the city.
Coventry’s rate of ‘First Time Entrants’ to the youth criminal justice system has been below the average for comparable areas (‘YJS Family Group’) for several years.
Tackling homelessness and housing vulnerability
Statutory homeless rates are relatively high in Coventry. They had been on an increasing trend since 2019 to 2020, however they fell a little in 2024 to 2025 – from a total of 3,656 Coventry households owed a prevention or relief duty under the Homelessness Reduction Act in 2023 to 2024, to 3,133 in 2024 to 2025. This is a rate of 19.8 per 1,000 households compared to 12.5 for West Midlands region and 13.6 for England overall.
Housing in Coventry remains more affordable than the England average, but affordability has steadily worsened over time. Between January 2022 and March 2026 average house prices in Coventry increased by 9.9% (England 8.0%).
Private renting in Coventry has increased significantly whereas other household tenure types haven’t. Average rents levels are increasing at a fast rate, faster than average wages and faster than house prices. Between January 2022 and March 2026 average rent levels in Coventry increased by 27.8% (UK 30.0% increase). The estimated average rent in March 2026 was £1,021 per month, higher than the West Midlands regional average (£964).
Performance summary
We monitor our performance for this priority through a set of 24 performance indicators:
- Progress: out of the 24 performance indicators, there are 3 for which we cannot currently report progress compared to the position last year. Out of the remaining 21 indicators – 71% (15) either improved or stayed the same
- Status: there are 6 indicators for which we cannot report their status against target. Out of the remaining 18 indicators for which we can report status against target, 67% (12) are ‘On-Target’