Disability Confident Leader – our annual voluntary statement

by Victoria White

Strategic lead for HR and development, Sport England

At Sport England, we are committed to creating a workplace where disabled people and those with long‑term health conditions feel valued, respected and able to thrive.

And as a recognised Disability Confident Leader, we are proud to champion disability inclusion and lead by example across the sport and physical activity sector.

Our work is grounded in the social model of disability – you can read more about that in a blog penned by our colleague Laura.

Our commitment to inclusion

Disability inclusion forms a core part of our wider equality, diversity and inclusion ambitions and supports our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty.

We focus on creating equitable access to opportunities, strengthening representation at all levels and ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities we serve.

This representation helps us better understand and respond to the needs of people across England, supporting our mission to widen participation in sport and physical activity.

Disability confident leader badge, with icons of an unlocked padlock, two ticks, two people and a person with a thought bubble above them

Progress we’ve made

Over the past year, we have continued to enhance our approach to disability inclusion by:

Strengthening accessible recruitment practices, supporting disabled applicants through the Disability Confident Interview Scheme and using specialist advertising.

Increasing awareness and understanding of disability, neurodiversity and long-term health conditions through eLearning, communications and manager guidance.

Enhancing our wellbeing offer through a mental health and wellbeing resource hub, Mental Health First Aiders, Mental Health Champions and a 24/7 employee assistance programme.

Preparing to gather lived experience through the development of our Listening and Valuing Feedback survey to inform action and improvement.

Supporting colleagues with flexible working, timely adjustments and conversations using tools such as This is Me, Inclusion Profile, and Wellness Action Plans to help us understand and meet their individual needs as much as possible.

Carrying out a learning needs analysis to identify knowledge gaps by individuals and teams. The next phase is to launch blended learning across those gaps.

Representation

We recognise that representation across the organisation has grown over the last four years, with the proportion of colleagues sharing a disability increasing year on year.

While representation is stronger at senior and junior levels, we are dedicated to exploring progression barriers in middle grades and improving equitable access to development and career opportunities.

Comparing data from 2021 and 2025, we can see that senior grades have increased from 2% to 11%; middle grades moved from 5% to 9% and junior grades remained unchanged at 14% in this four-year period.

Removing barriers through effective support

Strengthening our workplace adjustments process remains a priority.

We are focused on ensuring that adjustments are timely, effective and focused on removing organisational barriers so colleagues can fully participate and perform in their roles.

Our approach is supported by clear workplace adjustment guidance, increased access to disability and wellbeing resources, and improved confidence and capability among managers to support colleagues thanks to new training and resources.

We have also established a productivity tools task and finish group to better understand the practical challenges colleagues face and identify solutions, including equipment, tools and digital support.

Additionally, the group is completing an Accessibility Maturity Model, provided by the Business Disability Forum – a self-assessment benchmarking tool which enables organisations to drill down to get more information on different levels of IT accessibility.

The tool is designed to be informative and action-orientated, allowing us to see our organisation's current IT accessibility performance and support us in making decisions about future focus.

All this work is helping us streamline processes, build clearer guidance and ensure everyone can access what they need to be successful.

We focus on creating equitable access to opportunities, strengthening representation at all levels, and ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities we serve.

A collaborative approach

Our disability staff network, STRIDE, plays a central role in shaping our culture and approach.

Though the lived experience, insight and leadership of its members, STRIDE helps to inform policy development, decision-making, awareness-raising and organisational improvement.

We are committed to continuing this collaboration and ensuring the voices of disabled colleagues continue to help guide our progress.

Leadership across the sector

As a Disability Confident Leader, we recognise our responsibility to share learning beyond our organisation.

We are intent on promoting good practice, supporting partners and influencing the wider sport and physical activity sector to strengthen disability inclusion, accessibility and equitable participation.

By modelling effective approaches and learning openly, we help drive meaningful change across the system.

A man and a woman sit together looking at a piece of paper in front of a laptop in a work environment.

What’s next?

Building an inclusive workplace is an ongoing journey. Over the coming years, we will continue to:

strengthen representation and progression of disabled colleagues
improve digital, system and communications
hold inclusive meetings – sharing best practice and developing training
remove barriers through adjustments, tools and resources
invest in disability-inclusive learning and training for managers and colleagues to build confidence, strengthen understanding and embed inclusive behaviours across teams
build bespoke disability confidence across the organisation, managers and teams
share our learning and influence sector-wide inclusion.

Thank you for taking the time to read our statement and for being part of this ongoing commitment to inclusion and equity.

Our equality, diversity and inclusion work