GOLD
Fair for You & Iceland Foods – Food Club – Tackling Hunger Through Fair Access to Family Food
20m in the UK are financially insecure and 14m have no access to mainstream credit. Many turn to loan sharks to feed their families, or go hungry.
Food Club is a growing partnership between ethical credit provider Fair for You and Iceland supermarket, transforming access to food. It provides a flexible, interest-free micro credit facility enabling families to smooth the cost of food shops during high need periods, reducing reliance on food banks, high-cost lenders and loan sharks.
Since launch, Food Club has supported 40,000 households, with loans totalling £15m. Independent evaluation shows 77% reduce or stop using food banks and 74% stop using illegal money lenders. Food Club is proven to strengthen financial resilience whilst preserving dignity, choice and wellbeing.
Food Club is scaling nationally as a sustainable, dignified alternative to crisis food aid – demonstrating how collaboration can tackle food insecurity at its root, not just its symptoms.
BRONZE
Foresters Financial – Tackling the Investment Advice Gap by Promoting Basic Advice
Foresters Financial is tackling the investment advice gap by championing Basic Advice, a regulated, simplified advice model. Millions of UK adults potentially need regulated support but are excluded by cost and complexity. Since 2005, Foresters has operated the only proven, economically viable Basic Advice model at scale, delivering around 100,000 adviser appointments annually.
Recently, Foresters has shared its 20 years’ experience with policymakers and industry to position Basic Advice as a core solution to the advice gap. This engagement directly contributed to the FCA recognising Basic Advice in its consultation on simplifying pensions and investment advice.
By removing upfront fees and using a scripted, decision tree model, Foresters enables affordable, high quality advice for under-served customers. Market modelling suggests this approach could support 2.4–4.3 million adults if scaled across the industry, significantly improving financial inclusion nationwide.
BRONZE
ESquared (E2) Enterprise and Employability CIC – Signing banks UK
We are celebrating the partnership between ESquared, deafPLUS and Deafax working in collaboration with the financial sector Deaf Inclusion Industry Group (DIIG), set up in 2022 by Kathryn Townsend, then Disability and Access Ambassador for Banking. ESquared created Signing banks UK (SBUK) in 2023 and formed partnerships with deafPLUS and Deafax in 2024. Together we are closing the gap between banking and their deaf customers.
The impact: We have recently co-published our Deaf Equity in Financial Services: 2026 Report- From Provision to Proficiency: Bridging the Financial “Outcome Gap”. This demonstrates a sector-wide uplift with improved inclusive practice and use of inclusive technology almost ubiquitous across DIIG members. Proving what is possible when lived experience, expertise, and a shared commitment come together. However the report provides evidence that deaf customers are still excluded. Banking must go further to embed lived experience into core operations and close the communication gap.
ONE-TO-WATCH
NatWest Group – The National Youth Agency & NatWest Thrive
NatWest Thrive is a nationally scaled financial confidence and future‑skills programme, created through a long‑term partnership between NatWest and the National Youth Agency (NYA) to address two urgent challenges: low financial confidence, particularly among young people in underserved communities, and workforce pressures across the youth sector.
Delivered in youth‑club settings by trusted youth workers, NatWest Thrive combines practical money skills with confidence, mindset and future‑planning, grounding learning in lived experience. The NYA leads programme design, delivery, quality assurance and sector engagement, supported by a dedicated national delivery team, while NatWest provides funding and specialist expertise.
What sets NatWest Thrive apart is its whole‑system impact. Alongside measurable improvements in young people’s financial confidence, understanding and behaviours, the partnership strengthens the youth sector itself. In 2025, NatWest funded one in three degree‑level youth‑work apprenticeships in the UK, demonstrating how cross‑sector collaboration can deliver lasting social change.
ONE-TO-WATCH
NatWest Group – Financial Foundations: money skills and confidence for adults
Financial Foundations is NatWest Group’s rapidly scaling adult financial education programme, delivering free, impartial money guidance in workplaces and communities across the UK. Following a successful 2024 pilot and national rollout in 2025 reaching over 32,000 people, the programme is now expanding to support 50,000 people in 2026, with a clear internal ambition to scale well beyond this level. Delivered by a growing network of trained colleagues, it equips adults with practical skills to budget, save, manage debt and protect themselves from fraud. In 2026, the programme is evolving further, with expanded content (including a new savings and investment workshop), an enhanced facilitator learning journey, and strengthened processes and infrastructure. By leveraging NatWest Group’s unique business relationships, Financial Foundations reaches people where they live and work – driving measurable improvements in money skills, knowledge and behaviour.