Digital inclusion
Residents are increasingly able to access services and information from the Council digitally. During 2024 to 2025 a total of 570,077 transactions related to Council services were completed through self-service channels, up from 455,612 during 2023 to 2024.
We recognise that not everyone can or wants to interact digitally. The 2024 to 2025 Coventry Household Survey asked several questions of adult residents about their digital skills and confidence and use of services. Across 4 of these questions, using a 4-point scale from ‘Not confident at all’ to ‘Very confident’, 16% of respondents said, ‘Not confident at all’, for at least 1 of these.
While we cannot measure the complexity of digital exclusion with a single statistic, this provides a useful estimate of how many Coventry residents may be at risk of digital exclusion.
#CovConnects
#CovConnects is a city-wide, partnership approach to provide Coventry residents with support and opportunities to access digital technologies, services and support in a way that helps them in their daily lives.
#CovConnects Device Bank
The #CovConnects Device Bank was launched June 2023 to enable voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations and internal council services to access end of corporate life Coventry City Council devices for digital inclusion activity.
A boost was received via the WMCA Connected Services programme, which enabled a range of brand-new devices to be added to the Device Bank. By the end of March 2025, the #CovConnects programme had distributed over 4,100 digital devices to more than 150 local charities, community groups, Council teams, and NHS services.
In partnership with the Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC), we’ve improved how we gather feedback, helping us better understand the long-term impact of the programme. The Digital Reuse and Repair proof of concept is now fully underway, following successful funding from the Virgin Media O2 Time After Time Fund in 2024.
Devices at the end of their corporate life from the NHS ICB Coventry and Warwickshire are now being refurbished and redistributed to digitally excluded residents and communities across the city.
Case study - #CovConnects Device Bank
Migrant Help UK
Migrant Help UK support those in need and least likely to find support elsewhere, whilst aiming to bridge community gaps and bring services and support together.
They received devices from the #CovConnects Device Bank in 2024 to support a wide range of residents. One recipient received a laptop which enabled them to enrol in college, support their English language skills and search for employment, with the support from Migrant Help UK:
“I’m grateful for the support I have received from Migrant Help. They have encouraged me to enrol in College – I am now making really good progress learning English. Most recently as my teacher said she needs to meet us and teach us on teams and I have no way of doing this to progress with my course she was able to support me with a Chromebook also she gave us data, I feel unbelievable blessed and don’t know how I can thank her and Coventry City Council for this kind donation allowing me to learn and look for Jobs, write my CV as I just got Refugee status.”
Community Connectivity
#CovConnects champions the national Good Things Foundation ‘National Databank’, which enables frontline services to gift free sim cards pre-loaded with up to 6 months-worth of data, texts and calls to digitally excluded residents in Coventry.
As of March 2025, there are 69 National Databank hubs in Coventry issuing data. These span council services and VCSE organisations. Over 10,000 SIM cards have been accessed by Coventry residents to date.
We now have a #CovConnects map that shows where digital support, free public access wi-fi, device access and access to sim cards via the National Databank.
In partnership with Jangala, VM02, and Good Things Foundation, we have been able to connect 200 temporary accommodation households.
Collaborating with 12 delivery partners across Coventry, including a mix of charities, community organisations, social housing providers, and specialist health services, households were supported to access up to 12 months of connectivity via ‘Get Box’ connectivity devices, alongside devices.
The full report launched this year identified many and varied outcomes for residents, further demonstrating the importance of focusing on holistic and person-centred digital inclusion initiatives.
Case study: Findings from the #CovConnects and Jangala Get Box Pilot report - ‘Digital lifelines: how Wi-Fi impacts the lives of residents in temporary accommodation’
Meet Pete*
Pete* was recently rough sleeping and is trying to rebuild his life. He went from having a successful career to losing a lot and becoming homeless. He feels digitally excluded and relies on email through public libraries as his main form of communication:
“The cost is always the big thing. I went from a good career and paying my bills to not having any money for a device or the internet. The only place I would know is a library that is free. For someone who has been through a lot, being in a big public library doesn’t help with anxiety.”
In his temporary accommodation, Pete has access to communal computers which use the Get Box Wi-Fi. Pete describes how now he doesn't have to plan how he's going to access the internet, he has internet accessible as and when he needs.
This has been incredibly beneficial for Pete. He's at a point where he's looking up information about future jobs, housing options, areas he might want to live. He says when he's online he's 'part planning, part fantasising' - dreaming about what's possible in the future and building a sense of hope.
Pete has recently found and applied for a drug rehabilitation centre through the internet. He's proud to have been able to have done this himself independently rather than rely on support services:
“Having computers eases that digital poverty a bit. The internet has helped me massively with access to rehab and going to rehab. I’ve researched rehabs, done self-referrals by having the internet and I’ve been accepted into a rehab. Googling and looking at options and doing referrals, it provided me the opportunity to be more proactive.
I use [the internet] to look at how I can get my life back on track. I’d say I use the internet predominantly for a development of a blueprint of how I can get my life back on track. It’s how to keep the flame of hope burning”
*names and key details have been changed to protect anonymity.
Community Skills
The #CovConnects Embedded Digital Champion programme was re-launched in May 2024 to provide Coventry specific digital inclusion awareness training to ensure frontline teams have the knowledge and awareness of the barriers faced by digitally excluded residents. We trained 140 champions by March 2025. #CovConnects has partnered with Digital Unite to continue the work and will now offer to 700 more people.
Finally, #CovConnects facilitate 3 dedicated Digital Inclusion Networks across sectors, with core themes of Older Adults, Homelessness, and more recently, a dedicated English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) digital inclusion network.
These spaces foster opportunity for partners to share best practice, explore funding opportunities, collaborate, but equally explore and understand the often unique and complex barriers to digital inclusion different communities may experience.
Partners and guest speakers are invited periodically to ensure an environment of continuing learning and understanding is created. From March 2024 to April 2025, #CovConnects recorded 180 attendees across the various network meetings.
The Adult Education service, and the Libraries service continue to support residents to gain digital skills. During 2024 to 2025, 509 residents were enrolled on Digital Skills courses, covering a total of 1,389 different courses.
Coventry libraries hosted 653,781 digital sessions involving access to PCs and Wi-Fi, Libraries ran 313 digital events attracting an audience of 2,365 people.
Gigabit internet connectivity coverage
Ninety-nine point eight percent of Coventry households can access good quality fixed internet connectivity, defined as a data service that provides fixed download speeds of at least 10Mbit/s and upload speeds of at least 1Mbit/s.
The telecoms regulator Ofcom measures access to and the performance of fixed internet connectivity and the mobile network in its Connected Nations reports. In terms of gigabit internet connectivity, Coventry is the top-ranked local authority in the West Midlands region and is ranked 5th in the UK.
In December 2024, gigabit availability covered 97.2% of households in Coventry with 95.7% of households able to access Full-Fibre. This is an improvement on the local position in December 2023, where gigabit availability covered 97.0%% of households and 95.4% had full-fibre access.
For context, only 83% of residential premises across England can receive gigabit and only 67% of homes have access to Full-Fibre. Decent internet connectivity can also be accessed through the mobile network using 4G services.
As of December 2024, 95.73% of all premises have a reliable signal for 4G services while indoors from all four network operators (EE, O2, Three & Vodafone), an increase from 95.39% in December 2023.
