Annual diversity and inclusion report 2025-2026

Executive summary

Our diversity and inclusion annual report for 2025-26 sets out the progress we have made over the last year to create a fair, inclusive and welcoming organisation - one where colleagues feel valued, respected and able to thrive, and where the services we provide reflect the needs of the people and communities of Wales. Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) remain central to delivering our corporate plan, and a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture strengthen our ability to engage communities, make better decisions, and provide services that are accessible to all.

Over the past year, we focused on strengthening the foundations that enable an inclusive workplace. We launched a new e‑recruitment system to improve candidate experience and visibility of data, and we continued to prepare for a new organisation‑wide graduate and apprenticeship programme to broaden access to environmental careers. Updated guidance and a new carers policy are helping colleagues balance work and caring responsibilities, while our active bystander programme has continued to build confidence in challenging poor behaviours and modelling leadership values.

We also continued to improve how we embed equality considerations into our day‑to‑day work. Our strategic equality objectives 2024-2028 have guided progress on inclusive services, community engagement, responsible procurement and workforce diversity. We made significant advances in accessibility, strengthened staff network support, delivered new learning on diversity and inclusion, and developed more consistent approaches to equality impact assessment. Partnership initiatives such as Natur am Byth, Project SIARC and Y Môr a Ni are helping connect a wider range of people with nature, including those traditionally underrepresented in outdoor spaces.

Our data this year shows both progress and areas of concern. The gender pay gap remains comparatively low at 1.7%, though this represents a slight increase and highlights the need for continued focus on representation and working patterns. The proportion of colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds remains low, and self‑disclosure rates have decreased slightly, limiting the insights we can draw. These insights help us reflect honestly on where we must do more to build a truly inclusive culture.

We recognise that while our foundations are strengthening, our progress is not yet consistent across all areas. Increasing workforce diversity, improving data quality, and embedding inclusive behaviours remain core challenges. The forthcoming EDI audit findings, expected in early 2026, will provide further insights for the next stage of our journey and support stronger leadership accountability across the organisation.

Looking ahead, our priorities for the next 12 months include delivering enhancing recruitment insights through the new e‑recruitment platform, improving self‑disclosure rates, staff training, engaging with communities, customers and stakeholders, and expanding access and accessibility of our services and digital platforms.

Our ambition is clear: to be an organisation where everyone feels respected, safe and able to contribute fully. We will continue listening to colleagues and communities across Wales, learning from lived experiences, and taking meaningful action. Through this, we will build a more inclusive NRW - one that better reflects modern Wales and strengthens our ability to deliver for people, places and the natural environment.

Background

The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on public bodies to consider the effect our work, policies and services that we deliver can have on others, including impacts in our own workplace. Public bodies must, in the exercise of their functions, have ‘due regard’ to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against people with a “protected characteristic”, which are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

We are also subject to the devolved public sector equality duties Wales as set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) (Wales) Regulations 2011. The broad aim of the equality duty is to integrate consideration of the advancement of equality, non-discrimination and fostering good relations into everything we do.

Our duties to promote and use the Welsh language are set in the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011. Our Welsh language standards require that the language is considered in all our decision-making processes and is included as a consideration in our equality impact assessment process, ensuring that both languages are treated equally.

Being inclusive is a core part of our values and culture. It brings diversity of thought, diversity of perspective and our understanding and an ability to connect with more people outside of our organisation and the communities we are proud to serve by being:

• Connected: we value our deep-rooted attachment to the land and water, nature and communities of Wales.
• Bold: we use our voice, take action to make a difference and lead by example
• Caring: we listen to understand, care for each other and the communities we serve, and the environment we all depend on.
• Resourceful: we explore new ways of doing things, innovate to accelerate change and use our resources effectively.

This is why we strive to be more diverse, and we actively support one another to feel welcomed and enabled to thrive in our work.

Strategic equality objectives 2024-2028

Our strategic equality objectives were developed in line with recommendations from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Welsh Government. The duty represents an opportunity for public sector bodies in Wales to work together to:

• Increase and improve workforce diversity and inclusion and address pay gaps
• Actively involve communities and stakeholders
• Embed equality into the procurement and commissioning
• Delivering inclusive services

The strategic equality objectives 2024-2028 remain crucial to our work going forward and are centred around 4 key overarching objectives. We are developing a revised strategic equality plan with an additional objective tailored to our organisational priorities to ensure that these commitments are embedded as business as usual in everything we do. In accordance with our Public Sector Equality Duty, we will review and report annually to measure progress, impact and outcomes for EDI within the organisation.

Progress on implementing our strategic equality objectives for 2024-2028 has been an organisational wide and collaborative effort with Directorates.

Some of the highlights are below.

Strategic equality objective 1: increase and improve workforce diversity and inclusion and eliminate pay gaps

• Annual publication of gender pay gap highlights that the gender pay gap has increased slightly this year by 0.1% to 1.7%. This means that females earn 98.3p for every £1 males earn when comparing hourly pay.
• We have a new workforce resourcing strategy and action plan that aims to stimulate diversity within NRW.
• We have streamlined and simplified our application process to encourage applications from diverse candidates. We have also adopted a name-free recruitment process to reduce bias. Applications are anonymised at sifting stage and candidates are only identified after selection for interview. The aim of this streamlined process is to improve workforce diversity and representation.
• We launched our new e-recruitment system in 2025 that also tracks and monitors diversity data for reporting. This will enable us to report annually going forward.
• We are developing and implementing an organisation-wide graduate and apprenticeship scheme for Autumn 2026. These schemes aim to address resourcing challenges across many functions of the organisation and broaden workforce demographics. It builds on current placements we are running including waste regulation, sustainable farming and the successful apprenticeships completed for environmental enforcement.
• Our refreshed placements policy, procedures and template role descriptions ensure consistency, accessibility and inclusivity.
• We have produced workplace carers guidance and a new carers policy. Alongside the carers staff network, we have facilitated carers and line manager sessions.
• Our Employee Resource Groups (ERG) continue to play an integral role supporting the organisation towards improving workplace practices and in raising awareness of protected characteristics.
• This year we have signed up for the Sunflower (hidden disabilities) Pledge, and we retain several memberships and accreditations.

Strategic equality objective 2: engage with the community and stakeholders

• Our managing access to nature on the land in our care 2024-2030 strategy focusses on outdoor recreation. One of the aims is to continue working with the community and stakeholders by supporting ‘access to all’, removing potential barriers where we can, introducing sensory elements to our trails and provision of dementia friendly settings over the coming years.
• Natur am Byth (NaB) is Wales’ flagship Green Recovery project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, bringing together our organisation and nine environmental charities: The NaB partnership is delivering Wales’s largest natural heritage and outreach programme to save species from extinction and reconnect people to nature.
• NaB activities have embraced innovative approaches to wellbeing and nature connection, partnering with community gatekeepers to deliver inclusive activities. Examples include yoga sessions for refugee and asylum-seeking women with the African Community Centre; guided nature walks through Green Prescribing groups; accessible paddle boarding and snorkelling (in collaboration with Windswept Water sports and Pembrokeshire People First). NaB reached previously underrepresented groups: LGBTQ+ youth, home-educator families, people with dementia, and children from deprived communities.
• Our people and places teams work across Wales on community related projects within multi-agency partnerships:
  
  
  • Corsydd Calon Môn is a collaborative, place‑based initiative focused on securing the long‑term future of the Anglesey Fens while celebrating their cultural, historical, and ecological significance, shaped by generations of people, land use, and community connection.
  • We are partners in The Cardiff Nature Prescriptions project led by RSPB, coproducing a leaflet aiming to connect people with nature and bring benefit to their health and wellbeing. We also involved in the programme called Good Ancestors Club: Art and Climate Justice in Action.

Strategic equality objective 3: embed equality into the procurement and commissioning

• We are developing a new Procurement & Contracts Strategy (2026–2031) to set out our ambition to enhance our commercial activities in support of the Corporate Plan to 2030. It will embed socially responsible approaches across all our spending mechanisms - ensuring transparency, compliance, and innovation while enabling nature and people to thrive together.
• We have procured the services of Welsh graduate recruitment specialists who have undertaken market research of a diverse range of students and graduates in Wales, providing us with detailed insights into our placements offer.
• We have procured the services of consultants to support the development and delivery of our Anti-racism plan.
• Procurement follows Welsh Government transparency requirements by openly advertising all contract opportunities. The Open Invitation to Tender template has been updated to incorporate questions on Equal Opportunities and Employment Practices.

Strategic equality objective 4: delivering inclusive services

• We have refreshed a suite of equality, diversity and inclusion related e-modules for colleagues on our Learning Management System (LMS) platform. These include: Bullying and Harassment, Unconscious Bias, Neurodiversity, Gender Awareness and Cultural Awareness
• We have launched an Active Bystander training e-learning module. This follows 9 virtual on-line sessions delivered to 104 attendees, including Board members, senior leaders and managers to develop their confidence to challenge inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour in the workplace and in the wider community. These sessions are also available in Welsh.
• 74 programmes, projects, policies and procedures with potential to impact people and communities with protected characteristics were screened to determine whether an Equality Impact Assessment was required.
• We continue to deliver a programme of ongoing awareness for colleagues including webinars, health and wellbeing awareness sessions, intranet and Viva Engage posts. Events on menopause, caring responsibilities, Islamophobia and Antisemitism have been well attended and articles on International Women’s Day, LGBTQ+, Neurodiversity inclusion posted.
• We are in the process of translating our flood risk advice into the ten commonly spoken other languages within South Wales Central - Arabic, Polish, Bengali, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Urdu, Farsi (Persian), Italian and Malayalam – and are planning our roll out to raise awareness.
• Our ‘Managing Access to Nature on the Land in our Care 2024-2030’ Strategy focusses on outdoor recreation, where we can, and are best placed to, make a difference by enabling others to deliver nature connection and drive positive outcomes.
• We have commissioned videos working with disabled users negotiating our trails and paths. The videos include voice over and subtitles in English and Welsh. The latest additions to these videos is for Nercwys Forest in Northeast Wales and for wheelchair users on Crafnant circular trail following replacement of inaccessible gates.
• Submission to Stonewall for the Proud Employers’ Accreditation for 2025-2026.

NRW's Diversity & Inclusion Strategy 2021-25

In addition to making a commitment to the cross-public sector strategic equality objectives, we delivered actions in Gyda’n Gilydd - All Together Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (January 2022- March 2025) tailored to our particular organisational priorities and values. This was centred around 6 key objectives as follows:

• Bring about a shift in our culture by identifying and implementing initiatives that support everyone to actively listen and model inclusive workplace behaviours.
• Improve the quality of data we capture to enable us to make more informed and better decisions.
• Raise the diversity and inclusion bar through ‘living our values’ and by supporting and celebrating our own diversity as well as the diversity of Wales.
• Review the way we use language in our policies and practices in order to create a more inclusive and diverse culture.
• Ensure anyone in Wales, including our existing and new customers, stakeholders, and service users are able to shape our services and easily access our spaces.
• Ensure our policies align with our diversity and inclusion objectives and develop our people in a meaningful way.

Actions were identified to help us in delivering the aims of these 6 objectives and specific deliverables included:

• Strengthening the EDI training within the Learning Management System, including new courses on EDI for colleague and managers.
• Development and roll out of an EDI Global Objective within the performance management system.
• Data analysis and insights – including improvements to Self-disclosure and Recruitment disclosure data.
• Consultancy work to strategically review EDI delivery and to provide insight for continuous improvement.
• Input to Recruitment - Employer Value Proposition.
• Review of the Equality Impact Assessment and development of a new bilingual training package on the Learning Management Systems.
• Delivery of Welsh language awareness E- learning.

Majority of the actions identified were completed within the timeframe of the strategy, but others will be incorporated into the reviewed Strategic Equality Plan.

Equality, diversity and inclusion forum

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Forum was established to support the delivery, reporting and monitoring of the Strategic Equality Objectives across the organisation. It includes representation from across NRW, including Board, Executive team, from each of our directorates, colleagues from across the organisation, Trade Unions and representation from Employee Resource Groups (ERG). The Forum meets quarterly.

We reviewed the effectiveness of the EDI Forum which included a review of the Terms of Reference (ToR). The findings highlighted that that the EDI forum has been effective in raising awareness, addressing practical workplace challenges, and advocating for inclusive practices. However, lack of leadership visibility and perceived commitment needs to be actioned to maximise its impact. Some forum members do not feel fully enabled to make meaningful change due to leadership gaps. We are considering further changes to the ToR and set up of an EDI working group made up of Staff Network Leads, HR, Recruitment, Wellbeing and EDI representation to improve delivery of actions.

During the last year, EDI Forum members have provided valuable insight and discussions which helps embed inclusive workplace place practices across the organisation.

Some of the work that the EDI Forum members have been involved with:

• Contribute to organisational policies and procedures.
• Contribute to Recruitment processes and practices
• Contributing to Equality Impact Assessments that impact on respective protected characteristics.
• Ongoing discussions on enhancing training requirements for Leadership and Managers around values, workplace practices, behaviours and reasonable adjustments.

Employee resource groups (ERG) - staff networks

Employee resource groups (ERG), also known as employee or staff networks are a supportive and welcoming space for our colleagues to come together to create change in the workplace. Employee resource groups are often centred around an under-represented protected characteristic in the workplace. The networks provide our colleagues with the opportunity to meet with colleagues from across the organisation and get involved with network activities. The networks also contribute to people related policies and procedures, as well as equality impact assessments that are completed by policy or project owner.

We currently have 5 employee resource groups that represent protected characteristic themes, namely disability, sex and gender, sexual orientation, religion and belief. These are:

• Calon - the LGBTQ+ staff network
• Christian fellowship staff network
• Cwtch - the carers network
• Neurodiversity staff network
• The women’s network

Each ERG has a lead or joint leads. These roles are carried out voluntarily with line management permission. We have good practice guidance which outlines the aims and objectives of networks, provide a framework to support their mental health and wellbeing and to balance their day job and role as network Leads, as well as succession planning.

Some of the highlights of the events our networks have delivered over this reporting period have been:-

Christian Fellowship - for Christmas 2025, published an intranet article on “What is Advent and why do people say ‘Xmas’ instead of Christmas?”, along with a Christmas/New year message.

Calon Network - Participated in The “Civil Service responding to Social Change” event in June 2025, which created a safe space for members, non-members and allies to hear and understand from colleagues who are under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, in terms of their lived experiences and fears.

Womens Network - Organised a webinar about the link of animal abuse, coersive control and domestic violence, shared a post about the EU’s Gender Pay Gap Day, aligned to our gender pay gap report, as well as activities to raise awareness of the network with colleagues.

Neurodiversity Network - Were active supporting neurodivergent colleagues during our Case for Change processes, during neurodiversity celebration week to tackle some of the prejudices around neurodiversity and during ADHD awareness month to raise awareness of the network amongst new colleagues.

Carers Cwtch Network - have run monthly “Carers Cuppa” session and a series of sessions between Sept and November with Carers Wales, for managers of carers and for carers themselves, which have led to more people recognising themselves as carers and much greater awareness of the support available in NRW.

Memberships

As an organisation, we are a Living Wage Employer and Menopause Friendly Employer. We are also members of Neurodiversity in the Business since 2023; and Stonewall Cymru since 2021.We are also part of the Women’s Leadership Working Group Wales hosted by CBI.

We also have the following Accreditations: Disability Confident Employer Level 2; and Carer Confident Employer through the Employers for Carers UK scheme, who aim to support employers in supporting employees with caring responsibilities and to create carer-friendly workplaces.

Equality impact assessments

Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) helps to ensure our decisions, practices and policies are fair and do not discriminate against any protected characteristic group. Our assessments also include considerations of the Welsh language, Socio Economic Duty and Human Rights and help us to meet the public sector duty under the Equality Act 2010.

We have a dedicated Equality Impact Assessment page on the intranet to support colleagues in completing the assessments. The page is comprehensive and includes a Stage 1 Screening Tool which has streamlined the process to enable colleagues to assess and make an informed decision on whether an assessment is required for their proposed work. The page also includes guidance to help colleagues in completing the assessment and engage with others to gain feedback.

A new equality impact assessment training module is currently being developed and will be available on our Learning Management System early in 2026. This training will guide colleagues through each step of the process, including monitoring and reviewing, to ensure the assessment remains a live document throughout the lifetime of the proposal.

During this reporting period, 74 proposals were screened using our Stage 1 Screening Tool to determine whether an Equality Impact Assessment was required of which 17 were assessed as requiring an EQIA. The Equalities Team reviewed 24 completed assessments within the same timeframe. This is a decrease from 2024 in which 83 proposals were screened, 28 were assessed as requiring an EQIA with 26 reviewed by the Equalities Team during the reporting period.

Gender pay gap at 31/03/2025

The table below shows the male/female gender split for the last 4 years:

2022

2023

2024

2025

Analysis of gender pay gap

The gender pay gap measures the difference between average (median) hourly earnings of males and females, usually shown by the percentage males earn more than females.

Our gender pay gap information is captured on 31st March each year and reported on the Gender Pay Gap Service on .Gov to comply with The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 methodology.

Analysis for 2320 colleagues show that the mean gender pay gap has increased slightly this year by 0.1% to 1.7%. This means that females earn 98.3p for every £1 males earn when comparing hourly pay.

Our median gender pay gap has reduced from last year by 0.2% to 2.9%. This shows that females earn 97.1p for every £1 males earn when comparing hourly pay.

This gap does not mean that males are paid more than females for carrying out the same type of role, but the analysis does show that female employees, working part-time are in receipt of lowest hourly salary on average.

Whilst the median pay gap shows a difference of 97.1p to every £1, the average does show that, on the whole, the hourly salaries are not too far apart (98.3p to every £1). There are several factors that impact the pay gap, for example:

• 53% (1240) of our workforce are male
• 47% (1080) of our workforce are female
• 92% (1138) of our male workforce work full time with 8% (102) working part time
• 75% (814) of our female workforce work full time with 25% (266) working part time
• 60% of our upper quartile hourly salaries are male
• The upper middle quartile is skewed 60%/40% to male employees
• NRW leadership team is mostly made up of female employees
• There are more males than females in all our quartiles

The percentage of males and females working in the organisation has changed during this reporting year with an increase of 1% females and a decrease of 1% males. The results for this year show that there are 10% more males and 10% less females in upper middle quartile. With 10% less males and 10% more females in upper quartile than the 2024 results. The lower quartile and lower middle quartile results have remained the same from last year.

25% of our female workforce work part time which impacts on the overall annual salary but not the hourly salary which the gender pay gap analyses. Over the coming year, we will look more closely at the annual salary calculations to see how much of an impact working part-time has on the pay gap.

Our working styles policies, and the option for partial retirement for some of our colleagues may, in time, help to reduce the gap further by providing more opportunities for our colleagues to work around personal responsibilities, if they so wish.

The UK pay gap for 2025 published by the Office for National Statistics shows the pay gap continues to decrease for full time employees. In 2025 the gender pay gap is at 6.9%, down from 7.1% in April 2024. The gender pay gap for all employees has decreased to 12.8% in 2025, down from 13.1% in 2024. On that basis, NRWs gender pay gap compares very favourably.

Website accessibility

We continue to champion and improve accessibility to all our services by:

• reviewing content so that it is clear for more people to understand
• publishing most content as web pages for improved accessibility, and only publishing PDFs for some documents such as board papers, evidence reports by exception
• testing new services, application forms and documents to make sure they are compliant with accessibility standards
• implementing a new accessibility audit process to get more people taking ownership and responsibility for accessibility
• continuing to develop and improve guidance to colleagues so that everyone considers accessibility when creating content for people
• Our accessibility statement will continue to be reviewed and updated

Our Assisted User Group - ICT and telephony brings together colleagues from across the organisation who use assistive software. People who use assistive software may have mobility or visual restrictions, hearing loss or other individual needs that require specialist software or adjustments. The group provides a focal point for matters relating to accessibility. and have held two formal meetings during this reporting period.

It helps to ensure that the software and systems colleagues use to carry out their day-to-day work are accessible and inclusive for all, improving the experience our assistive users have when using assistive technology on our applications.

Complaints and commendations

During 2025, we received 3 complaints and 2 commendations in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion. This is an increase from 2024 when we received no complaints:

Complaint 1

Customer provided feedback whilst supporting an elderly lady on behalf of Risca community group on mobility/accessibility issues at Cwmcarn Forest.

Land Management’s response acknowledged the difficulties they encountered, however we explained that although NRW remain the landowner - Caerphilly Council formally manage the activities at Cwmcarn Scenic drive and reassured that concerns re accessibility of the site was a key consideration in NRW’s review and assessment during the Cwmcarn reopening project in 2020.

The complaint was not upheld.

Complaint 2

Customer unhappy with contractor behaviour and language used at Ynyslas car park and requested further training on public relations especially when dealing with disabled and autistic people

Commercial development team response acknowledged how upsetting this must have been for the customer and apologised for this encounter and that it does not reflect the environment we expect of our contractors to uphold and have reiterated the standards expected of them while representing NRW. The customers further requested CCTV footage. This was not addressed further by the complaints team, as the matter had escalated to the business/legal team and was outside our remit to provide additional advice following the complaint response.

The complaint was upheld.

Complaint 3

An applicant alleged failure to follow Guaranteed Interview Policy regarding Higher Education Conservation positions. Customer believes they should have been offered an interview due to this policy.

Our response acknowledged their disappointment and appreciated their time in applying but their application did not meet the minimum criteria to be taken to interview. The Guaranteed Interview Policy was applied correctly. However, the hiring manager offered to provide additional feedback directly,

The complaint was not upheld.

Commendation

Two commendations were received for the Lead Specialist Advisor, Diversity and Inclusion. The first was from Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management for their efforts, dedication, and work in ensuring the values and mission of the Wildlife Countryside Link EDI working groups; and the other from Welsh Government acknowledging their significant contribution, work and excellent support they have provided and collaborated on, relating to the issues and importance of antiracism, diversity and inclusion.

Welsh Government Anti-Racist Wales action plan

As a Welsh Government sponsored body, we support the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan (ARWAP). ARWAP places a strong emphasis on leadership in public bodies being anti-racist, as well as ensuring the environment is safe and inclusive for ethnic minority people.

Welsh Government are also in the process of developing a more comprehensive plan to include work on climate change, rural affairs and environment. Our Lead Specialist Advisor, Diversity & Inclusion has extensive anti-racism and race discrimination related professional experience and has been working closely with Welsh Government on this piece of work.

We are developing a series of facilitated webinars that supports our ambition to become an antiracist organisation. This included Islamophobia Awareness and further sessions in 2026 including Stand up against Antisemitism. The sessions raise awareness and learning to challenge stereotypes and highlight the impact of racism in workplaces and communities in the UK and how to embed inclusive practices.

NRW Interim CEO has identified a champion amongst the Executive team to sponsor antiracism, and the Board and senior leadership teams all have active diversity and inclusion performance objectives.

We have commissioned an external consultant to help develop NRW’s Anti-racist Wales Action Plan. The consultants are holding one-to-one meetings with the Executive Team and colleagues before delivering a series of training events in 2026, followed by an action-planning event and providing support to develop effective colleague engagement and other leadership development opportunities.

Recruitment applications statistics

In 2025, we received 8253 applications from external candidates, and 1329 applications from internal candidates (9582 applications in total).

The statistics show, from those who self-declared, that the highest percentage of applications are:

• 24% aged between 25-34
• 36% were male
• 35% were single
• 54% were heterosexual/straight
• 56% declared they were from white or white mixed ethnicity
• 7% requested an interview under our Disability Confident guaranteed interview scheme

The least percentage of applications were received from:

• 7% from LGBTQ+
• 13% from ethnic minority groups

From statistics gathered there has been an increase of 8% in applications from ethnic minority groups from the last reporting period. This is due to the increase in the volume of vacancies advertised over this reporting period. Whilst the number of applications from ethnic minority groups has increased during this reporting period, the percentage of our workforce who have self-declared their ethnicity from this group remains low at 1.61%.

With our new e-recruitment system in place we will over the next year be able to track the journey of our applicants, from the point of application through to interview and recruitment. This will help us in having a better understanding if there are any barriers in our processes for ethnic minority groups.

During 2024 reporting period we received 218 applications from external candidates, and 103 applications from internal candidates. During this period, we had a recruitment freeze which has impacted in our ability to realistically compare statistics from this last reporting period.

Disability confident employer

We hold a Level 2 accreditation under the Disability Confident Employer scheme until March 2027. We also continue to promote the benefits of our internal Work and Wellbeing Passport around reasonable adjustments in the workplace.

Over the last year, we have received 948 requests for interviews under this scheme’s guaranteed interview process. Of the requests,18 requests were from internal colleagues and 930 from external candidates, with 97 candidates invited to an interview. 851 did not meet the minimum criteria requirement for the roles in questions and were declined an interview on this occasion.

Due to the recruitment freeze in 2024 this has impacted in our ability to realistically compare statistics from this last reporting period in which we received 14 requests for interviews from internal candidates, 14 from external candidates with 3 invited to interview.

Self-disclosure completion rates by directorate December 2025

We ask and encourage colleagues to voluntarily self-disclose as much or as little personal details as they feel comfortable to declare, such as ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, faith, belief or no belief and caring responsibilities, confidentially in our HR and Finance system (MyNRW). This helps us to understand the makeup of our workforce, and to ensure we have the right policies and procedures in place to support our colleagues as well how reflective we are as an organisation of the population and communities we serve in Wales.

The current figures show 72% of our colleagues have self-disclosed some or all information voluntarily. This is a decrease of 2% since last year, with 28% of colleagues who have not self-disclosed or have decided to use the option “Prefer not to say”. The headcount has increased by 69 (2.9%) since last year. We will continue in encouraging all to voluntarily self-disclose information by explaining “what’s in it for them” as well as the organisation.

Analysis of the self-disclosure rates shows that:

• 30.6% (721) - highest percentage and number of our colleagues are aged between 45-55
• 1% (23) - lowest percentage and number of our colleagues are aged under 25
• 21.4% (510) of our colleagues are between ages of 55-65
• 4.7% (110) have declared they have a disability - this is an increase of 0.8% from last year
• 3.1% (73) have self-disclosed they are LGBTQ+
• 65% (1533) have declared they are white
• 1.61% (38) have declared they are of black minority ethnicity
• 24.7% (583) have declared their religion, faith or belief with 31.3% (738) declaring they have no faith or belief
• 66.8% (1576) have declared their race
• 47.8% (1128) have declared they are married or in a civil partnership
• 26.2% (618) declared they have caring responsibilities

The data we gain on full time and part time colleagues does not represent the full range of flexible working options that we have at NRW.

Following Case for Change, new Directorates have been implemented in late December 2025. These statistics are based on the original Directorates for January-December 2025. The changes will make direct comparisons for future years more difficult.

Welsh language speaking skills

We ask all colleagues to self-assess their Welsh language skills and record the information in our HR and Finance system (MyNRW). This is a requirement of our Welsh Language Standards. Line Managers are required to check and complete this with all newly recruited colleagues.

97.8% (2309) have completed this task with 2.2% (51) yet to carry out this requirement. Not all who are yet to complete this task are newly recruited colleagues. We will continue to remind everyone to complete this requirement over the coming year.

Our headcount over this reporting period has increased by 69, with data showing that 23.6% are fluent Welsh speakers. The overall percentage of fluent Welsh speakers has decreased by 1.1% from the last reporting period with an increase of 0.7% who are unable to speak or understand Welsh 107 (4.5%) in total. The majority of colleagues 42.4% (1000) remain with Level 1 language skills - the ability to show linguistic courtesy and unable to speak Welsh.

More detailed information on the self-declaration statistics can be found in Annex 1 of this report. Disclosure includes ‘Prefer not to say’ option.

Annex 1 - NRW colleague self-disclosure statistics

Age analysis

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

Age profile – full time and part time

January 2023

Part-time

Full-time

Total overall: 2369

January 2024

Part-time

Full-time

Total overall: 2492

December 2024

Part-time

Full-time

Total overall: 2291

December 2025

Part-time

Full-time

Total overall: 2360

Working arrangements

January 2023

Of those who disclosed working arrangement:

January 2024

Of those who disclosed working arrangement:

December 2024

Of those who disclosed working arrangement:

December 2025

Of those who disclosed working arrangement:

Disability analysis

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

Gender analysis

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

Sexual orientation analysis

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

Marital status

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

Ethnicity analysis

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

Religion, belief, or non-belief analysis

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

Caring responsibilities

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

Type of caring responsibility

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

National identity analysis

January 2023

Note: data below 10 is shown as a # for data protection purposes

January 2024

Note: data below 10 is shown as a # for data protection purposes

December 2024

Note: data below 10 is shown as a # for data protection purposes

December 2025

Note: Data below 10 is shown as a # for data protection purposes

Welsh language ability of colleagues

January 2023

January 2024

December 2024

December 2025

Welsh language ability by directorate December 2025