One Coventry Plan Annual Performance Report (April 2024 to March 2025)

Workforce Profile

All workforce data is as of 31 March 2025. Whole workforce figures are used, based on headcounts, excluding schools.

Key metrics

Sixty-eight point one percent of Coventry City Council's workforce is female and 31.9% is male, compared to a population of roughly 50/50.

Twenty-four point five percent of the Council’s workforce is from a Minority Ethnic background, which is lower than the 34.9% of Coventry’s population (% of Coventry residents aged 16-67 from 2021 ONS Census). Nine point six percent of the ethnicity of the Council’s workforce is currently unknown, although we are working hard to address this.

Seven percent of the council’s employees have declared a disability compared to 15.5% of Coventry’s population (% of Coventry residents aged 16 to 67 from 2021 ONS Census). For 11.8% of the workforce this is unknown.

Three point six percent of Coventry City Council's workforce is LGB+, compared to 3.8% of all Coventry’s residents (% of Coventry residents LGB+ aged 16 to 64 from 2021 ONS Census). The sexual orientation of 23.2% of the Council's workforce is currently unknown. Currently we have diversity data for 77.4 % of employees.

Change in employee headcount (Full time equivalent (FTE))

The size of the workforce has fluctuated slightly over the last 5 years with a marginal increase in the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) number since 2021 but no significant change from 2024 to 2025. The 2025 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) number of 4,195 covers the whole of the workforce as of 31 March 2025 (excluding schools).

Sickness absence

In the 12 months to 31 March 2025 the average days lost due to sickness absence per employee (FTE) was 13.7 compared to 13.5 last year, in the 12 months to 31 March 2024.

The top 3 reasons for absence in the 12 months to 31 March 2025 were:

1. Stress, depression and anxiety
2. Musculoskeletal problems
3. Infections, cold and flu

This is the same as the previous year.

We continue to support the reduction of absence through targeted interventions utilising the Enabling Attendance Policy, utilising the data we have available and supporting managers with the process.

We aim to support our employees wellbeing in the workplace, focusing on supporting the management of stress, depression, anxiety and musculoskeletal problems, and to continue to build a happy and healthier workforce. We have a number of programmes and initiatives in place including:

• the Mental Wellbeing Support Clinics aimed at supporting employees with mental health issues, addiction and those with neurodiversity, signposting people to access external and internal resources to support their wellbeing
• Healthy Lifestyle clinics, which carry out body metrics and advise on reducing lifestyle-based risk factors
• Menopause Advice Service, supporting those experiencing symptoms to overcome barriers and access the most appropriate treatment and adjustments, including clinics, training and advice to managers, working with the Women’s Network to meet the Menopause Pledge
• the Reasonable Adjustment Programme consisting of webinars for managers, the Personal Adjustment Passport, workplace assessments, case conferences and clear documentation to achieve improved outcomes
• the provision of Occupational Health advice at sickness absence summits to ensure joined up working with managers and the Employee Relations team
• training managers and employees on mental health support, resilience, difficult conversations, preventing suicide and managing stress
• supporting managers with stress risk assessments and stress audits
• the Musculoskeletal (MSK) Programme, including the ergonomic support clinics, early interventions and investigations, pain management service and exercise classes
• neurodiversity training for managers
• work with the Carers Support Network
• 1-to-1 counselling, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), trauma support, and group work for stress and anxiety
• Occupational Health assessments with advice and support for managers and employees

Our Occupational Health and Wellbeing Service has now been awarded the highest status, which is the Gold Award from Thrive.

Workforce equality diversity and inclusion

We are proud of our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion at Coventry.

In April 2024, the Council celebrated the completion of Amplify, a talent development programme specifically for LGBT+ employees and our third positive action programme. A working group was also established to develop our first Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standard action plan, this action plan was submitted to the National SC-WRES network in July 2024.

New Accessible Recruitment pages launched in May 2024. They include a summary of available reasonable adjustments and the option for candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions to be matched with employees with similar disabilities to discuss their experience at the Council.

In June 2024, we achieved Disability Confident Leader status. The Council demonstrated we provide an inclusive environment and support for staff, clients and customers to manage their disabilities or health conditions and that we record and report on disability, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

The Council’s first Allyship group was formed in July 2024, bringing together 50 colleagues from multiple service areas united in their passion to foster safe and inclusive workplaces and become active allies. In July, we also marked the one-year anniversary of our commitment to the Race at Work Charter with a public progress update.

In September 2024, we launched the Inclusive Interview Panels project to diversify the shortlisting, interviewing and assessment process for all interviews for posts Grade 8 and above. We marked National Inclusion Week for the third time, holding events on psychological safety, courageous conversations and sustainable change in challenging times.

We continued the roll out of bespoke Disability Inclusion Training for Council managers, upskilling colleagues to feel confident to have effective and appropriate conversations about disability and reasonable adjustments.

To date, 172 managers have completed the training, this is 20.11% of Council managers and training will continue throughout 2025.

In October 2024, we launched a new Allyship in the Workplace e-learning module. The training is designed to help us understand the meaning of allyship in the workplace and recognise the impact that a culture of allyship can have in fostering a more inclusive environment overall.

In January 2025, the Council’s second accessibility guide was launched, designed to support colleagues, visitors and candidates with navigating the Council House. We also launched a series of engagement workshops introducing over 600 colleagues to our realigned Council values and behaviours.

We continue to the use the Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) calendar to mark a variety of cultural and religious events throughout the year, celebrating events like Disability History Month and International Day of Persons with Disabilities in December 2024, Race Equality Week & LGBT+ History Month in February 2025 and International Women’s Day in March 2025.

Since updating the Council’s Equality Monitoring questions in March 2023, the number of unknowns across Council data has gradually reduced, though there is still work to do to reduce these further and increase the robustness of our workforce data:

The Council’s 6 employee networks also continue to grow, offering support and networking for over 850 employees and providing vital challenge to the organisation as we progress with our D&I aspirations.

Employee recognition

Between April 2024 and March 2025, we received 206 Spire Awards nominations; 159 of which were for individuals and 47 for teams. Based on our One Coventry Values, the Spire Awards acknowledge the hard work and dedication of colleagues who have gone that extra mile to support residents, partners and others within the Council.