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Our award-winning Vulnerability and Consumer Duty Academy is designed to empower you to put vulnerability at the heart of your customer service, ensuring you meet and exceed FCA expectations, and enhance customer outcomes in vulnerable circumstances.
The overarching goal of the Academy is to help firms:
Join our expert-led programme to strengthen your organisation’s approach to consumer protection. It provides you with real-world case studies, interactive workshops, and actionable tools to help you drive improvements in your business practices and improve outcomes for customers in vulnerable circumstances across your teams. Whether you’re responsible for policy, customer care, or compliance, this Academy is designed to help you meet FCA expectations while prioritising customer needs.
I joined Cohort 15 of the Vulnerability Academy having spent over five years working in this space - from vulnerability complaints root cause to now leading on mental capacity and domestic abuse strategy as a Customer Vulnerability Manager. My role spans strategy, product development, research, data, delivery and comms, so if I’m honest, I questioned how much more there was for me to learn.I’m pleased to say the Academy proved me wrong. I gained fresh insights, challenged my own thinking, and built valuable relationships across the industry. It was a fantastic opportunity to step back, learn from others, and reflect on our own approach.I’d highly recommend the Academy to anyone - regardless of where you are on your vulnerability journey.
Claire AtheyManager – Customer Vulnerability | Group Customer & Communications
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The Vulnerability and Consumer Duty Academy has been rewarded City & Guilds Assured status.
Participants will be invited to attend twelve online sessions over the course of five months, including an induction, ten workshops, and a graduation:
6 October | 09:00 am – 12:00 pm | Introductory session
8 October | 9:30am – 2:30pm | Building our Foundations, session 1
15 October | 9:30am – 2:30pm | Building our Foundations, session 2
5 November | 9:30am – 2:30pm | Identifying Vulnerability and Understanding Customer Needs, session 1
12 November| 9:30am – 2:30pm | Identifying Vulnerability and Understanding Customer Needs, session 2
3 December | 9:30am – 2:30pm | Communication and Engagement, session 1
10 December | 9:30am – 2:30pm | Communication and Engagement, session 2
14 January 2027 | 9:30am – 2:30pm | Design, Support and Partnerships , session 1
21 January 2027 | 9:30am – 2:30pm | Design, Support and Partnerships , session 2
11 February 2027 | 9:30am – 2:30pm | Quality, Monitoring and Evaluation, session 1
18 February 2027 | 9:30am – 2:30pm | Quality, Monitoring and Evaluation, session 2
Graduation date | 17 March 2027
These sessions are supplemented by interactive webinars, podcasts, reading lists, and downloadable resources.
The Vulnerability and Consumer Duty Academy is also available as an in-house programme, which means you can tailor it to exactly what you and your colleagues require. Pricing for in-house will depend on what is required. Enquire about this option by contacting our training team.
The academy will require participants to build a personal ‘gap analysis’/critical appraisal of their organisation’s approach to vulnerability.
The aim of the ‘gap analysis’ coursework is to allow participants to reflect on the specific challenges (and solutions) that they perceive in terms of addressing vulnerability within their own work while being able to share more general challenges and issues that every single firm will encounter at some point.
Lead Trainer, Money Advice Trust
Colin is the lead tutor with the Money Advice Trust on their vulnerability programme, assisting both in the UK and overseas. With Chris Fitch, he co-a...
Colin is the lead tutor with the Money Advice Trust on their vulnerability programme, assisting both in the UK and overseas. With Chris Fitch, he co-authored the Trust’s vulnerability guidance for advice agencies, launched by the charity with the backing of a range of organisations across the advice sector in June 2016.
Vulnerability Lead Consultant, Money Advice Trust
He is Vulnerability Lead at the Money Advice Trust and a Research Fellow at the Personal Finance Research Centre, University of Bristol. Previou...
He is Vulnerability Lead at the Money Advice Trust and a Research Fellow at the Personal Finance Research Centre, University of Bristol. Previously he was Head of Policy and Research Fellow at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
The programme that Chris leads aims to result in outputs which are ‘short on the obvious, and long on the practical’ – and with colleagues, he has written practical guidance for firms and staff on both effectively working with customers who are in vulnerable situations, and also looking after their own wellbeing and working environment following such contact.
In 2017, Chris was named in Credit Strategy’s Top 50 influencers in the creditor sector, and in 2015 he received the Martin Williams award for contribution to the UK credit industry (awarded each year by Credit Today) for the programme’s work on mental health, vulnerability, and financial services.
Vulnerability Consultant, Money Advice Trust
David Atkins is a specialist in consumer vulnerability. Previously Head of Group Customer Inclusion and Head of Group Customer Vulnerability at Lloyds...
David Atkins is a specialist in consumer vulnerability. Previously Head of Group Customer Inclusion and Head of Group Customer Vulnerability at Lloyds Banking Group, he co-led their work programme on vulnerability, inclusive design, accessibility, and outcome assessment, and was a steadfast champion for change and innovation.
Now a key part of the Money Advice Trust’s consultancy team, David continues to focus work to drive better impact, experience, and outcomes for customers and firms alike.
The Vulnerability and Consumer Duty Academy was created by the Money Advice Trust’s Chris Fitch, Colin Trend, and Zoe Medlock. It is built around case studies and presentations from leading practitioners, lived experts, and firms across financial services (and beyond) and is supported by facilitated analysis of approaches already being taken in practice.
The Academy includes a coursework review for participants with the aim of helping participants embed vulnerability throughout the culture, policies, and relevant customer journeys of their organisations.
The content is always evolving to keep it relevant to what is happening in the industry right now. Within this academy, we will include sessions on financial vulnerability, cost of living, financial well-being, economic abuse, disability, addiction, and other areas. We also have specialist sessions on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within financial services and digital channel servicing, and vulnerability.
Vulnerability remains a top priority for the FCA. The regulator reviewed the industry’s progress in the implementation of its guidance on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers and Consumer Duty, and new findings, released 7 March 2025.
2024 also saw the launch of the new ISO Standard on the design and delivery of inclusive services (ISO 22458). The Vulnerability Academy is an extensive training programme that gives participants the knowledge and insight to meet the key requirements of the regulator, as well as the new ISO Standard, giving participants the understanding required to translate the FCA’s expectations into reality.
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