Diversity and inclusion

Treating everyone we deal with fairly and equally is central to the work we do.

Last updated: 18 January 2024

Building one community where everyone can be themselves, to contribute, flourish and succeed.

Our customers

We’re committed to: 

  • making sure that our service is accessible to everyone
  • drawing on our understanding of equality law, where relevant, in our responses
  • sharing our knowledge and expertise with financial businesses and other stakeholders, including how inequalities can impact customers

Our people

Being diverse and inclusive means that we can better understand our customer’s different perspectives and backgrounds, which is fundamental to our job resolving financial complaints.

We’re committed to: 

Our community

We want to reach groups of consumers who are under-represented in their contact with us or may face barriers in bringing complaints to us – for example, because of language difficulties or disabilities.

To do this, we:

  • volunteer with local communities
  • meet businesses, trade associations and consumer groups across the UK
  • educate our staff on people’s different needs, especially if they’re vulnerable
  • learn from the charities and other partners we work with

Find out more about how we work with other organisations.

Our work in more detail

2,268

employees 

55%

women

35%

ethnic minorities

We have received numerous awards for important and valued aspects of our organisation, such as our workplace culture, approach to equality and diversity and the way in which we support our employees. 

  • The Mayor's Good Work Standard – The scheme was launched in 2019 and sets the benchmark for the best employment standards for London businesses. We first became part of the scheme early in 2020, and now we’re proud to have received the highest accreditation. 
  • Rate My Apprenticeship Top 100 employer – For two years in a row, we have appeared in this list. Previous and current apprentices have talked about the support they’ve been given by the service and how they’re learning skills that will benefit them throughout their career.
  • Stonewall Top 100 Employer – We’re delighted to receive a gold award in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index and been named one of the most inclusive employers in Britain by lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality charity Stonewall in its Top 100 Employers list for 2022.
  • The Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion – We’ve been recognised several years with the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion. Most recently, one of our Ombudsman was shortlisted for DEI Influencer of the Year in recognition of the work he’s done setting up a diversity and inclusion workstream at the Financial Ombudsman.

Our inclusion strategy

Our new diversity, inclusion and wellbeing strategy – Together we Thrive – brings together a new set of commitments to foster a culture that goes beyond equality – one that promotes equity and embraces our differences.

You can read more about our four main pillars, our key focus and what we hope to do in the future, to help continue to progress our inclusion strategy: 

  • We want everyone who works with us to feel a sense of belonging.

    So we’re offering our people new training, guidance and resources about diversity and inclusion, exploring things like:

    • assessing equality impact
    • embracing active allyship
    • addressing microaggressions, and
    • understanding mental health.

    This will help them to become better equipped to engage with our diverse population

  • We want to achieve diversity of thought and innovation by retaining our people and attracting from the widest possible pool of talent.

    We’re planning to:

    • increase our focus on socio economic diversity, including signing the social mobility pledge
    • introduce mentoring opportunities and,
    • roll out our diversifying leadership programme to junior members of staff.
  • Fairness is not only about achieving fair outcomes for our customers but embracing equitable ways of working.

    So, we will review our current policies and processes to ensure fairness is embedded into our everyday work. For example:

    • maintain our commitment to the Race at Work Charter, being disability confident and supporting women in finance, and
    • working with suppliers who share similar diversity, inclusion and wellbeing values.
  • Covid-19 showed us the value of being prepared for when something happens. So, we’ve shifted our approach from reactive to proactive support.

    We’re providing more opportunities for early intervention and good wellbeing practices such as:

    • financial education and coaching
    • manager mental health training, and
    • health and wellbeing benefits.

    We’re also introducing a more comprehensive support for our employees returning from long term leave.

    And of course, we support our people to develop professionally throughout their career journey with us.