Treating everyone we deal with fairly and equally is central to the work we do.
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:
- attracting and developing people from a wide range of backgrounds to reflect the diversity of our customers and the population as a whole
- using policies and guidelines to support our peoples’ needs throughout their career with us
- reporting each year on diversity, inclusion and wellbeing
- sharing information about working at the Financial Ombudsman, our culture and the ways we support our people
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
Our Giving Something Back initiative is how we collectively contribute to the community, develop ourselves and support charity.
Every two years, our people will vote on a charity partner and our employee-led Giving Something Back committee will coordinate a range of activities to raise money.
We’re delighted to have chosen Sands, the UK’s leading pregnancy and baby loss charity, as our charity partner for 2024-26.
Sands’ vision is a world where fewer babies die and when a baby does die, anyone affected receives the best possible care and support for as long as it is needed.
We’re proud to be supporting Sands and raise our own awareness and understanding of the issue.
Kidney Research was our chosen charity partner for 2022-24. We raised over £20,000 to fund further research into kidney disease. Our people took part in a range of challenges and activities including bungee jumps, bake sales, and volunteering at Kidney Research’s flagship events, such as the London Bridges Walk and Glastonbury.
These are some of the memberships and groups we partner with, to align with best practice and continually push ourselves to improve.
Women in Finance Charter
We’re signatories to the Women in Finance Charter. Over 350 organisations have signed to commit to improving gender diversity at senior levels in the financial services sector.
Disability Confident Leader
We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Leader level 3 employer, the highest accreditation. A scheme led by Department for Work and Pension that helps employers recruit and retain great people and draw from the widest possible pool of talent.
Menopause workplace pledge
We’ve signed the Menopause Workplace Pledge, through this initiative, we hope to reduce the stigma and encourage better understanding of the menopause.
Race at Work Charter
We’ve signed the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter, an initiative designed to improve equal opportunities for ethnic minorities in the workplace.
Mindful Employer
We have signed the Charter for Employers Positive about Mental Health, making us a certified Mindful Employer.
Carer Confident
We’re proud to have attained Carer Confident accomplished status, the Employers for Carers benchmarking scheme that supports employers to build a positive and inclusive workplace for staff who are or will become carers.
We have an important job to do for our customers, but we also understand the importance of support networks and social activities for our people.
We want our people to be healthy and motivated, so we help to look after physical and mental wellbeing and promote learning and development.
We’re really pleased to have a wide range of employee-led networks, that play an important role in our diversity and inclusion and help us understand what really matters to our staff.
Here are examples of some the work of our employee networks in the past year:
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The theme of 2023’s Black History Month was Saluting our Sisters. To mark this, our employee-led network, Embrace, organised a calendar of events including an engaging and lively lunchtime session, where colleagues shared powerful stories and perspectives about their career progression as black women.
Embrace came up with actions for every work day throughout October to help us all:
- learn about the experiences of other colleagues
- reflect on our own actions, and
- commit to ongoing action to support a more racially inclusive environment
They also hosted a two-part book club discussion of I'm not your Baby Mother, by critically acclaimed author and journalist, Candice Brathwaite.
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Hundreds of people from across the organisation took part in our Purple Light Up events to demonstrate the economic contribution to the UK made by disabled people. Executive sponsors for Enable, our disability network, joined in the activities, which included:
- forming flash mobs in our London and Coventry office receptions
- a panel event to discuss the different aspects of hybrid working
- fundraising for Kidney Research UK, through a sale of purple merchandise
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November, or ‘Movember’, is Men's Mental Health Awareness Month. To mark the occasion, our Mental Wellbeing network hosted a virtual panel event where senior leaders discussed:
- what mental wellness means to each of them
- how men are impacted by the stigma of mental health, and
- how hybrid working impacts our mental wellbeing
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In November 2023, the Women’s network organised a MenoVest challenge.
Two male colleagues wore the MenoVest for a whole working day to experience the symptoms of menopause while carrying out their normal activities. and documenting how they get on, some of which we’ll capture on video. A third MenoVest was available on the day for other colleagues to try.
In early 2021, we lost our friend and long-time colleague, Juliana Francis. Juliana was our Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing, a hugely experienced Ombudsman, and a driving force for inclusivity across the organisation.
About the award
We launched the Juliana Francis Inclusion and Wellbeing Award in honour of Juliana, her achievements and the ongoing work she inspired.
The award recognises and celebrates the work of colleagues whose contributions help to embed inclusion and wellbeing in the organisation.
The winner receives funding towards an activity or course to support their development or wellbeing. We also showcase their work in this area and celebrate some of the highly commended submissions.
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:
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
