Transparency data

UKEF voluntary reporting on disability, mental health and wellbeing

Updated 30 April 2025

1. Working at UK Export Finance

UK Export Finance’s (UKEF) mission is to advance prosperity by ensuring that no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, doing that sustainably and at no net cost to the taxpayer. Internally, we strive to have a highly engaged workforce and our commitment to the Disability Confident scheme sits comfortably with UKEF’s ambition to have a fully inclusive and diverse workforce.

In 2017 when UKEF was first awarded Disability Confident Leaders Status we had just over 300 employees and this number is now over 580 employees.

Promoting and supporting employee health, wellbeing and diversity in the workplace is central to UKEF’s operational plan, business growth and people strategy. The Executive Committee openly acknowledge the importance of valuing everyone in the organisation and are committed to maintaining a strong, diverse and inclusive workforce. Our mission is to make UKEF the best place to work for our people, and this includes sustaining a working environment where  everyone feels able to participate and achieve their full potential.

This commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion and caring for the wellbeing of our existing and new staff is embraced in the four strands of our People Strategy which are all linked and flow through the employee lifecycle:

• We build

• We grow

• We lead

• We are one

The narrative below highlights our journey towards becoming an even more diverse and inclusive workplace, focusing on actions taken since becoming Disability Confident.

2. Recruitment

It is important for UKEF to deliver the right people with the right skills, knowledge and experience into the department whilst maintaining equity, diversity, and inclusion in our recruitment processes. As a function, we review our recruitment framework annually, we continue to maintain our commitment to those with disabilities under the “Disability Confident Scheme” offering all who meet the minimum essential criteria for the role a guaranteed interview and for all candidates the offer of reasonable adjustments regardless of whether they applied through the scheme. We have also developed interview guidelines for our hiring managers on best practice solutions, encourage diverse panels of people for every interview.

Working alongside our staff networks, in particular the D-CAN Network (Disability - Carers and Neurodiversity), we are committed to supporting our staff by providing them with “job application” and “interview skills” training and will be providing a series of workshops scheduled to be rolled out in May 2025.

We constantly review our media advertising strategy, using job boards and varied text to entice more applications from people who may have protected characteristic.  We have also continued to be committed to partaking in the  Autism Exchange Programme, increasing our intake in 2024 and looking to replicate this again in the summer of 2025.

3. Data

Upon commencement of their employment, we ask all employees to provide personal information on our HR Management Information system. This can be updated by employees as and when their situation changes. Information about an individual’s self-certified disability status is included on this system where an employee has the option to declare; Not disabled, Disabled, or Prefer not to say. For those that are disabled there is an optional free text field for them to add further details about their disability.

For new joiners the importance of providing details of their disability status is made known at induction and, throughout the year reminders are put in the Staff Bulletin to encourage those who have not done so, to complete this field. Approximately 22% of employees have not completed this field. However, as of March 2025, the number of employees who have declared a disability on the HR Management Information system stood at 7%, going down from 8% 6 months earlier  .

The annual Civil Service People Survey (CSPS) looks at civil servants’ attitudes to, and experience of, working in government departments, which also includes measures of mental health and wellbeing. Employees at UKEF are invited to complete this survey as part of the Civil Service group. In 2024 UKEF’s response rate was 74% with an employee engagement score of 71%. Highlights from this survey relating to health and wellbeing are detailed below.

3.1 Wellbeing

The four subjective wellbeing questions in the CSPS are the same as those asked by the ONS in the Annual Population Survey as part of their Measuring National Wellbeing programme. These are:

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? (0=not at all satisfied, 10=completely satisfied)
• Overall, to what extent do you think the things you do in your life are worthwhile? (0=not at all worthwhile, 10=completely worthwhile)
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? (0=not at all happy, 10=completely happy)
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday? (0=not at all anxious, 10=completely anxious

In 2024 personal wellbeing as identified in the survey went down by 1% from the previous year with 72% of employees reporting that they were satisfied with their life compared to 73% in the previous year. This remains higher than the Civil Service as a whole, which sits at 71%.

3.2 PERMA index

This index measures the extent to which employees are ‘flourishing’ in the workplace around 5 dimensions: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment (PERMA). The PERMA index score at UKEF was 76% in 2023 and 77% in 2024. This was 3% higher than the median score in 2024 for the Civil Service as a whole.

3.3 Proxy Stress Index

Questions from the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Stress Management Standards are used in the annual CSPS to calculate a stress index score in the survey.

The higher the score the more challenging the workplace environment with, for example, higher workload, lower control over the way the work is done and poor support for managers. The stress index in UKEF has decreased slightly from 24% in 2023 to 22% in 2024. The wider civil service ratings for both those reporting years was higher; 27% in 2023 and 26% in 2024.

4. Supporting attendance  

Our Supporting Attendance policy was last updated in 2024 and now offers more flexibility on deciding whether informal action, as opposed to formal action, is appropriate on a case-by-case basis and adjusted trigger points. It acknowledges that employees will sometimes be unwell and that managers have a pro-active role to play in supporting them if they have gone off sick, to return to the workplace taking account of individual needs.

The policy enforces UKEF’s commitment to supporting people with a disability or long-term health condition. The focus of the policy is to help them to stay at work or return to work by removing disadvantages they may experience. This involves:

• acting early to identify help and support that might be needed

• a greater emphasis on the manager and employee working together to remove barriers at work and aid their return

• promoting a culture that supports the physical and mental health of employees, in which managers can hold productive conversations with employees to find the best ways to support them, and make early interventions

The introduction of the Civil Service Health and Wellbeing Standards and tools such as the 5 step wellbeing conversation template,  and the Workplace Adjustment Passport, are central to this approach.

5. Workplace adjustments

In addition to our Supporting Attendance Policy, we also have a policy on workplace/reasonable adjustments to ensure that we provide quality and timely workplace adjustments to all who need them.

The aim of the Workplace Adjustment Passport is to help employees with a disability or health condition to:

• support a conversation between them and their line manager about their disability or health and any workplace adjustments that might need to be made

• act as a record of that conversation and of the adjustments agreed

• act as a record of any adjustment made for them as supportive measures

The passport is owned by the individual and generally shared with their manager. Anecdotal feedback from those who have completed such a passport has been encouraging.

Employees feel it has given them permission to have an open dialogue with their manager and has given managers a better understanding of their employee’s needs.

As part of our on-boarding process, we look to understand the needs of our new employees and if any workplace adjustments are required, this enables us to fully support them in their new role.  As needed, we provide appropriate software, and/or equipment such as ergonomic chairs or IT peripherals.  As part of our continued approach to ensuring our existing staff are supported, we also ask them to undertake a DSE assessment every two years to identify if further support is required.

6. HR policies and procedures

Since first obtaining our Disability Confident Leader status in 2017, and more recently renewing in 2024, our policies are reviewed and updated, with the needs of disabled employees being a key consideration.

For example, policies such as Probation, Performance Management, Grievance and Disciplinary, all stress the importance of making reasonable adjustments, for instance, when arranging meetings.

7. Continuous development

UKEF’s learning and development offer reinforces our commitment to foster an inclusive working environment. The Learning and Development team has ensured that learning remotely is accessible and easy to use for all and have produced useful guidance for presenters and those delivering learning, highlighting disability awareness. For   example, from April 2020, our in-house developed content provides accurate transcripts and subtitles for training videos such as the Legal Awareness Programme.

8. Networks and support

UKEF offers support to all employees through an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). This includes practical help and advice on a range of issues including bereavement, coping with stress, change, depression and financial wellbeing. This can be accessed via their website and a confidential telephone counselling service which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

8.1 Appropriate Behaviour Champions

The Appropriate Behaviour Champions (ABCs) were set up in 2018 and remain a critical part of UKEF armoury in stamping out bullying and harassment in the workplace: encouraging people to speak up when things are not right and supporting those who feel that they have been bullied, harassed or discriminated against.

8.2 Mental Health First Aiders

The Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) network has been in place since 2019 after a group of employees volunteered to attend training and obtain their MHFA certificates. UKEF has maintained this network through refresher training, and new joiners to the group ever since. They are able to recognise the signs and symptoms of common mental health issues and to provide help signposting colleagues towards support services.

The MHFAs continue to be instrumental in helping to create an environment which shows that UKEF is serious about supporting those with mental health issues. They have been involved in creating a workplace where employees are far more willing to come forward and speak about their condition and seek appropriate help.

This network together with the ABC network have helped to foster a much more open dialogue within the organisation concerning matters of health and wellbeing, and bullying, harassment and discrimination.

8.3 Staff network

Since 2022 staff have had access to D-CAN Network. The Network help to raise awareness and offer support to those who have a disability or long-term health condition. Interested employees can participate in this network and have time within their working day to attend meetings and events as appropriate.

9. COVID-19 pandemic 

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes to ways of working across government. UKEF quickly evolved to a hybrid working environment, following which, in 2024 UKEF employees at all grades who have a designated office as their contractual place of work are expected to attend that location, 40% of their contractual hours, unless there is a formal agreement in place as an exception for this, for example due to reasons of health/disability or caring responsibilities.

UKEF ensures that when working from home, all equipment necessary to work effectively is in place, including any reasonable adjustments.

10. In conclusion

UKEF is fully committed to supporting employees’ wellbeing at all stages of their career.

In the 8 years since UKEF became a Disability Confident employer, the health and wellbeing and the needs of those with disabilities in the organisation has become more integrated into the thinking of managers, as UKEF strives to become a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

Going forward, we will continue our work to break down any stigma in the workplace associated with disability and poor mental health. We will continue to create an environment where employees feel confident to report disability and long-term health conditions.

We hope to achieve this by continuing to encourage employees to talk about their personal experiences at staff events, in webinars and via blogs and providing learning and development opportunities for all to help everyone understand the needs of their disabled colleagues.

We will also seek to ensure that data on disability status, mental health and wellbeing continue to underpin our People Strategy and inform our actions in the future.