A blueprint for disability and neuro-inclusion

At Lloyds Banking Group, we want to be the best-in-class leader in disability and neuro-inclusion. It’s important for us to reflect our customers and the society in which we operate, especially given our scale and reach. With that in mind, we’re committed to creating an inclusive workplace – where our colleagues enjoy coming to work, can be themselves and thrive.  

After all, evidence suggests that a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve leads to better decision making, and ensures our products and services meet the needs of all our customers. 

Reviewing our progress on our 2023 commitments: what have we achieved so far? 

In April 2023, we were the first UK financial services company to make a public commitment for representation of senior colleagues with disabilities. We exceeded our original 12% ambition, reaching 19% representation by end of 2025. 

Driving a disability and neuro-inclusive organisation requires a clear strategy, with multiple initiatives that deliver tangible results. To achieve this ambition, we’re committed to improve the working environment for colleagues with disabilities. This includes making recruitment more accessible and inclusive; supporting career development; improving workspace and technology accessibility; upskilling colleagues to reduce stigma; and championing the disability community beyond our organisation.  

We’re proud to be recognised for our progress in supporting people with disabilities. In 2023, the Business Disability Forum awarded us their Gold Standard Benchmark and we were re-awarded Disability Confident Leader status by the Department for Work and Pensions.  

Our commitment to neurodiversity was also honoured globally at the 2025 Davos Neurodiversity Summit, where we received the Impact Award for Corporate Leadership in Neuro-inclusion.  

While these benchmarks are valuable, we continually strive for excellence by listening to our colleagues and customers with lived experience, helping us to learn and improve.

Helping our colleagues and future talent to thrive  

We’re continuing to provide a development programme to enhance the personal and career capabilities of our colleagues with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions. Due to its success, we’ll also continue our circular mentoring scheme, creating an opportunity for our senior leaders to enhance their understanding, whilst enabling opportunities for colleagues with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions who are confident and ready to advance their careers. 

Creating accessible buildings and workplaces 

Creating an inclusive workplace means ensuring our buildings are welcoming, functional and supportive for all colleagues. In 2022, we became the first bank to open a Changing Places facility, available to our colleagues, customers and the public, at our Old Broad Street office in London. Now we have eight facilities (seven of which are available to the public) and will install these in all our key office locations, wherever possible.

These larger-than-standard toilet facilities provide a hygienic space for colleagues with disabilities and their carers. They are wheelchair accessible and include a height-adjustable changing bench and wash basin, ceiling track hoist, privacy screen, and shower. 

Our new flagship offices in Halifax, Leeds, Manchester, and Old Broad Street (London) represent a major shift in our design and occupancy strategy, aiming to enhance the experience for all colleagues. The innovative spatial strategy, featuring specific acoustic treatments, caters to diverse working styles and needs.

This can be of particular benefit to our colleagues with neurodivergent conditions as well as our d/Deaf colleagues and those with visual impairments, who can now access a choice of workspaces to suit differing work styles, minimising ambient and visual noise, optimising natural light, and ensuring layout and sensory consistency across sites.  

Our employee resource group 

‘Access’ is our network for colleagues with disabilities, long-term health conditions, neurodivergent conditions or allies. Access aims to raise awareness, upskill and support colleagues and line managers as well as reduce stigma.  

Within the Access network, we also have several specific communities to bring together colleagues and allies.   

We have an established neurodiversity community, with several colleague-led squads who have set up multiple regional neurodiversity hubs, dedicated resources to support parents of neurodivergent children, and delivered engagement initiatives, including Neurodiversity Celebration Week.   

We also have an established d/Deaf Culture Club to increase understanding and allyship and bring together d/Deaf colleagues across the Group. By sharing lived experiences and insight about d/Deaf culture, our colleagues are better able to better understand and support our d/Deaf customers and design products and services for their needs. The d/Deaf Culture Club have also supported the design and delivery of a new training module by providing insights on incorporating BSL. 

"A hugely important step on the way to an inclusive workplace is ensuring all our buildings are fit for purpose and are spaces where colleagues feel welcomed, valued and able to thrive." 

Shaping a more inclusive society 

We have an important role in helping shape an economy that is more representative of the society in which we serve and operate in, and we are proud of our work in the community.   

In 2023, in partnership with Small Business Britain, we produced our Disability and Entrepreneurship Report, which reflected the views of 500 disabled entrepreneurs from across the UK. This report revealed that 84% of entrepreneurs with a disability or neurodivergent condition do not feel they have equal access to opportunities and resources. In response, we’ve committed to driving meaningful change to support disabled-led businesses, signified by our Steering Board membership of the government-backed Lilac Review and becoming a founding signatory of the Disability Finance Code for Entrepreneurship.  

The Disability Finance Code for Entrepreneurship (DFCE) is a groundbreaking initiative committed to the principles of inclusive design, comprehensive support for Disabled founders, promoting success stories, and ensuring representation within our workforce. All of which are essential in creating a genuinely inclusive financial environment.

We have been listening and learning from the Lilac Review and the Code, creating tailored initiatives such as our Disabled Entrepreneurs Hub, a mentoring programme, networking opportunities, educational masterclasses and our headline partnership of Naidex. These initiatives are designed to provide the necessary support and resources to help Disabled entrepreneurs succeed. 

Inclusive products and services for our customers 

For our customers, we want to be the trusted market leader in accessible and inclusive products, services, and experiences.  

We are also working in partnership with Signly to roll out British Sign Language translations across all of our web pages. Customers can also request for a page to be prioritised as part of this programme. We’re also expanding our support for building digital literacy, with remote training sessions, that will enable customers who are unable, or find leaving home challenging, to still be able to upskill and utilise our accessible digital solutions.   

In 2024, we were the first UK business to achieve the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute ‘Advanced rating’. This reflects our work to ensure our products and services are accessible for customers with mental health conditions. And we provide bespoke accessible formats tailored to suit the individual needs of a customer. Our Digital Helpline is accessible and provides BSL translation and speech to text services for customers who are d/Deaf.  

Working with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), we’ve been able to provide a broad range of accessible format provisions. We now also work with Citizen’s Advice to directly refer customers to additional advice services.   

Allowing family members read-only access to finances to support a customer who may need reassurance with managing their finances, whilst retaining independence.  

Additionally, we work with not-for-profit organisation, Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC), to check our websites and apps are accessible for all our customers. As a result of this work, we recently incorporated ‘Recite Me’ to our corporate website – an online accessibility tool that allows users with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions to customise our content in a way that works for them, including providing a screen reader, styling and customisation and reading aids. 

As part of our suite of Inclusive Design & Delivery tools, we have created an ‘Inclusive Design Panel’, made up of people with lived experience of a variety of vulnerable circumstances (our ‘lived experts’), alongside experts from charities and support organisations. The panel review, test, critique and provide ideas on different products on a monthly basis.  

Looking ahead  

Whilst we are proud of our work to date, we continue to challenge ourselves and strive for excellence to ensure that disability and neuro-inclusion is core to our ways of working.  

This needs to show up through our behaviours, decision making, language and the way we support our teams. Getting this right is at the heart of helping Britain prosper – a more inclusive society is a more prosperous society, and a diverse business is a better business.