I went to the Pride in London Parade last summer with ombudsman colleagues, and I absolutely loved it. As well as being brilliant fun, it made me realise the power of coming together to create change, and being open and proud of who you are.

I thought about why this is important for any organisation, and for us in particular. Our role as the ombudsman, in understanding people and their circumstances to reach decisions that are balanced and fair, fundamentally depends on empathy and openness.

Reporting on this is a chance to see how we’re doing, and see how much progress we’ve made on what we said we’d do in 2018. And it’s a chance to tell those stories beyond the statistics. Some of these are really positive and deserve celebrating, and there are other things we need to work on.

I’m immensely proud of all our networks, and how they combine strengths and insight to create change. I’m proud of the courage of our staff in sharing their experiences and showing others that it’s OK to talk about stuff that matters to them, at work.

We’ve recently implemented reverse mentoring, have been listed by Business in the Community as one of 70 employers recognised for work on race, equality and inclusion, and we’ve strengthened our ties with local organisations to understand the problems people face in their career aspirations and how we can help.

In our last report, we identified BAME senior representation as an issue, and we’ve been working hard on measures to ensure that while results won’t be immediate, we’re moving in the right direction.

In this report, you can read about how we’re breaking down barriers between each other, and working together to make our organisation more accessible to potential employees and people using our service, while preparing for the future and nurturing our culture of openness.

I’m really proud of everyone at the Financial Ombudsman Service who makes a difference every day.

Caroline Wayman, chief executive & chief ombudsman

If the Ombudsman were 100 people...

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What we're proud of

What we need to work on

What's next

Equality, diversity and inclusion’s parameters are shifting every day. As an employer, and an organisation that deals with the public, we must understand these and evolve with the world around us.

Our initiatives are passionately championed by our senior management. They’re willing to understand more about the issues so they can approach them with consistency, thoughtfulness, and open minds.

This filters through the rest of the organisation, and helps fold equality, diversity and inclusion considerations into our decision-making, even right through to processes such as IT and procurement.

Our networks continue to teach us an enormous amount. You can see in this report the influence that they have had in shaping policy and making a difference. This is down to their hard work, and the value we give their expertise.

They’re formed by people who participate in them voluntarily, devoting a lot of their free time. I’m thrilled that the organisation is demonstrating the seriousness of its commitment by supporting additional senior resource to shape and embed our equality, diversity and inclusion, and Wellbeing strategy.

We’re seeing equality, diversity and inclusion issues rise up the wider political agenda. Gender pay gap reporting became mandatory in 2018, and the government is currently consulting on whether to ask companies to report on ethnicity pay. The Gender Recognition Act is being reformed too.

We’ve been gathering diversity data for many years, because we believe it’s the right thing to do. But we can’t sit still. An organisation is always a work in progress, and we know we have more to do to achieve lasting change. We believe we have the right approach to ensuring no-one – whether colleague or customer – gets left behind.

Juliana Francis, senior ombudsman and lead for equality, diversity and inclusion

Reporting