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Key takeaway points

  • Use honest, well-designed listening mechanisms to understand how cost-of-living pressures are affecting colleagues.
  • Prioritise the needs of lower-paid colleagues when shaping people policies and interventions.
  • Address financial wellbeing through pay, hours, pensions, savings, and long-term security — not salary alone.
  • Consider practical, preventative support - not just crisis responses - by putting systems in place that prevent financial harm and reduce reliance on emergency support.
  • Embed care, fairness, and lived experience into leadership and culture, recognising the link to performance.