The Mayor's Action Plan for Deaf and Disabled Londoners

Deaf and Disabled people are crucial to making London a vibrant, bustling and prosperous city. Their leadership, expertise and lived experience shape London's approach to equality, inclusion and community resilience. The Mayor has taken actions that have helped to move things in the right direction: towards supporting and improving the lives of Deaf and Disabled Londoners, to ensure their city is an inclusive, accessible and equitable place to live, irrespective of need.

In November 2023, at City Hall, the Mayor signed the Charter for British Sign Language with the British Deaf Association and over 70 Deaf Londoners, strengthening City Hall's commitment to accessible information and services. In its 2026 assessment of progress against this commitment, the British Deaf Association noted the Greater London Authority (GLA) has "successfully met 10 out of the 10 agreed recommendations, demonstrating sustained commitment to improvement and a strong focus on delivering high-quality, accessible services and employment practices for Deaf Londoners."

However, we know that Deaf and Disabled Londoners continue to face several challenges, with more needing to be done. This is why the Mayor is launching his Action Plan for Deaf and Disabled Londoners – an important step in addressing these barriers. The Plan is a response to calls from Deaf and Disabled Londoners for the Mayor to take more decisive action.

The Mayor has heard the call, and is taking steps on the things that matter most to Deaf and Disabled Londoners – particularly where he has the power to make change. The Action Plan sets out some bold actions the Mayor of London will be taking on:

• housing and planning
• employment and skills
• policing and safety
• transport
• poverty and inequality.

These actions were developed through ongoing engagement with Deaf and Disabled Londoners and our partner, Inclusion London.

We recognise that this Action Plan is not the destination, but the beginning of a sustained commitment to tackling the inequalities and barriers faced by Deaf and Disabled Londoners. While no single plan can address every challenge, this Action Plan lays the foundations for meaningful and lasting change. 

The commitments set out here are designed to deliver tangible improvements now, while also transforming how the GLA works in the future. By embedding the voices, expertise and lived experiences of Deaf and Disabled Londoners more consistently across our policies, programmes and decision-making, we will build a stronger culture of co-production, accountability and inclusion.

This Action Plan provides the platform for continued progress, ensuring that the ambitions outlined here are translated into real-world outcomes and lasting impact. We are committed to learning, evolving and working in partnership with Deaf and Disabled Londoners to create a city where everyone can fully participate, thrive and shape London's future. 

While the Action Plan refers to the work of the GLA, there are some actions where it will work with members of the wider GLA Group (including Transport for London, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, and the London Fire Brigade) to deliver activities in partnership.

As we work to make London fairer, safer and greener, ensuring that Disabled Londoners can fully thrive must be central to this mission. Where barriers continue to exist for Disabled people, they must be replaced with equitable access, inclusion and opportunity.

This means centring Disabled people's perspectives and focusing on key, cross-cutting issues that matter to Disabled Londoners – such as affordability, accessibility and challenging disability discrimination. This ensures that London truly is a place for everyone.

In our engagement with Disabled people, we heard about the key challenges facing communities across London:

• income pressures and poverty
• the lack of accessible and affordable housing
• barriers to using public transport
• safety, hate crime and policing
• support in accessing work and training
• the inaccessibility of the GLA and City Hall.

Disabled Londoners told us money is a big worry – poverty can make health worse, and life harder. At the same time, Disabled Londoners are managing additional living costs, and the pressures of long-term ill-health, while working, volunteering and caring for others. In households with at least one Disabled family member, poverty levels remain higher (31 per cent) compared to households with non-Disabled family members (24 per cent).

In 2025, the Mayor highlighted:

• the importance of protecting the financial safety net that enables Disabled Londoners to participate fully in society
• the risks that changes to Personal Independence Payments and Universal Credit could pose.

Disabled Londoners told us about the urgent need for the Action Plan to ensure that GLA-funded advice services are helping Disabled Londoners to access support.

While Disabled people's participation in the labour market has grown, we heard that Disabled Londoners want fair chances to access work and learning. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation notes that employment among Disabled people has risen from 42 per cent in 2010–2011, to 53 per cent in 2022–2023. Disabled Londoners told us they want employers to understand reasonable adjustments, and the fact that work needs to be flexible. London must ensure that workplaces are genuinely inclusive – enabling Disabled people not only to enter employment, but also to progress and lead.

Disabled Londoners' insights have shaped improvements across the network, and their feedback continues to guide Transport for London's (TfL) priorities. Measures such as step free stations, more public toilets, and concessionary travel systems are all areas where their advocacy has already led to progress. However, Disabled Londoners told us that affordability and accessibility remain core concerns.

Accessible, safe and affordable housing across all tenures is a priority for Disabled Londoners. Currently, 31 per cent of Disabled Londoners live in social housing, compared with 10 per cent of non-disabled residents. Many of the Disabled Londoners we heard from rent privately, due to the shortage of accessible social housing. This leaves them facing significant affordability pressures – given lower-than-average incomes and additional household expenses.

Disabled Londoners play a key leadership role in building safer communities. But they also worry about their safety moving around the city. Their advocacy has brought increased attention to disability hate crime, with 2,245 incidents recorded by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) between February 2022 and January 2026.

The Action Plan seeks to address many of the issues raised here, with clear commitments of actions to be taken using the levers available to the Mayor.

The Action Plan was developed with Disabled Londoners and our key partner, Inclusion London. Throughout the process, there were multiple opportunities for Disabled people with lived experience to shape the Action Plan and to ensure their perspectives informed both the direction and the detail of the commitments. The insights shared were invaluable for helping us to understand what matters most, and where change is genuinely needed. This collaborative approach has strengthened the Action Plan and ensured it reflects the voices and priorities of Disabled people across London.

Stakeholder engagement timeline

The Action Plan has focused on developing actions in areas where the Mayor of London delivers interventions within his remit, such as programmes to address:

• poverty and inequality
• employment and skills
• housing and planning
• strategic policing and safety issues
• transport
• how we work at the GLA.

There are areas impacting Disabled Londoners where the Mayor does not have direct powers, such as:

• funding welfare benefits
• funding for direct healthcare provision, such as adult social care
• the operations of the Metropolitan Police Service, which is operationally independent.

The Mayor of London will use available levers to alleviate poverty among Disabled Londoners, with a focus on improving access to advice services for financial hardship.

Disabled Londoners experience higher rates of poverty than their non-Disabled peers. For example, in 2023–24, 31 per cent of households that included a Disabled person lived in poverty, compared to 24 per cent of households with non-Disabled people.

This discrepancy is due to several factors, including the costs associated with having an impairment or health condition and the barriers that Disabled people face in employment.

We want all Londoners to be living without burdens of poverty and inequality.

Although many of the factors that affect poverty rates for Disabled Londoners are outside the Mayor’s control, all Disabled Londoners should have access to the support they are entitled to. The Mayor will act by drawing on all available levers to address poverty and inequality across London. Together these actions should help alleviate the impacts of poverty and inequality for Disabled Londoners.

We heard concerns from Disabled Londoners about low levels of income from benefits – especially in the context of proposed government reforms to a range of disability benefits, which may change their income.

The Mayor has no direct powers over policies related to welfare benefits. However, he is committed to continue working with Disabled Londoners, to ensure that their voices are amplified in discussions about any proposed changes to their support.

In summer 2025, the Deputy Mayor for Communities and Social Justice, Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard, hosted a roundtable to hear Disabled Londoners' concerns about proposals in the Pathways to Work green paper. The Mayor subsequently opposed reforms that would have reduced Disabled Londoners' incomes.

The Mayor is committed to continuing his work with Disabled Londoners, to ensure that their voices are heard and amplified on these issues.

Advice services are an important way for Londoners to access welfare benefits, financial advice and emergency support. For example, in 2024–25, the Mayor’s Pension Credit awareness-raising campaign supported older Londoners to claim a total of £9.5 million in benefit claims. This builds on the previous year’s £8 million.

Disabled Londoners told us that programmes and services helping low-income Londoners to access their rights and entitlements are often not accessible for Disabled people. This can be due to communication barriers; inaccessible locations; or service-design choices such as short appointments. We also heard that advice funding does not always address the importance and role of Deaf and Disabled people’s organisations (DDPOs) that provide specialist accessible support and advice.

There is a need to make sure advice funding considers and responds to the needs of Disabled Londoners, and the organisations that support them.  

Implementing better practice will start with the GLA’s Family Financial Resilience Partnership (FFRP), which funds expert advice capacity in Family Hubs and Children’s Centres across London. FFRP will work to improve access to advice for Disabled families by identifying and implementing practice that enables effective support.

Staff delivering the FFRP will receive training, to maximise the accessibility and impact of advice provision for Disabled Londoners, by April 2027. The training will be:

• grounded in the social model of disability
• informed by Disabled stakeholders
• delivered by DDPOs.

We will also work with delivery partners to provide venue descriptions for locations with funded advice services, so that people can make informed decisions about accessing funded provision. These steps will improve the accessibility and impact of advice provision for Disabled Londoners.

Disabled Londoners will also be part of the governance of the FFRP. The programme evaluation will prioritise learning related to effective support for Disabled families.

Together, these steps will help embed lived experience in advice provision funded by the GLA, through the FFRP and future programmes.

The Mayor also has a role to play in working with the wider funding sector, to develop and encourage best practice. We will share learning from the FFRP with other advice funders and encourage and support better practice across the sector. This includes via the forthcoming London Advice Strategy.

The GLA will embed best practice on disability inclusion in income-maximisation work, which will help Disabled Londoners to access their rights and entitlements. For example, the GLA's work with Policy in Practice has supported boroughs to pioneer targeted messaging campaigns to residents, to increase the uptake of specific benefits.

The impact of this work has been clear and it is now expanding to cover uptake of disability benefits. This new pilot will help boroughs to reach Disabled residents who are eligible for, but not claiming, Personal Independence Payments and increase incomes in Disabled households. Learning from the pilot will be used to strengthen future campaign phases, including exploring options for the scale-up of the pilot should it prove successful.

This work seeks to ensure that Disabled Londoners are embedded in the design and delivery of more accessible advice services and that applications for disability benefits are made easier. This will contribute to helping alleviate the impacts of inequality and poverty.

The Mayor will work to improve safety for Disabled Londoners, by ensuring better support during emergencies and for hate crime and embedding Disabled people's experiences in decision-making.

Disabled Londoners face barriers when interacting with the policing system. They are more likely to experience crime and to have lower levels of trust and confidence in the police. In the 12 months to March 2026, the overall satisfaction of police responses for Disabled victims was 52%, which was 11 percentage points below the Metropolitan Police Service average, and the largest gap for all victims. Ensuring the safety of Disabled Londoners also extends to fire safety, and having adequate support available during emergencies.

We want all Disabled Londoners to be able to trust that the police will treat them with dignity, respect and fairness. We want all Disabled Londoners to feel safe in their homes. We know that the policing and emergency support services must be made more accessible and inclusive, and that Disabled people should be included in decision-making processes.

We heard that Disabled victims of crime need support that is better tailored to them. We have also received feedback that crime-reporting infrastructure can often be inaccessible, leading to lower levels of reporting. That's why the Mayor is committing to ensuring Disabled Londoners have access to safe and appropriate ways of reporting crime.

To meet this commitment, the GLA will develop a safe-reporting pilot, led by the the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), in partnership with the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) disability co-production group to help tackle disability hate crime.

MOPAC’s new Victims Voice Forum will include a focus on Disabled victims of crime. It will work to learn from the lived experience of Disabled Londoners to inform police responses and victim support in future. This will contribute to ensuring Disabled victims of crime get the support they need. 

Transport for London (TfL) will continue to work with policing partners to explore ways to simplify reporting of hate crime, antisocial behaviour and safety concerns across its network. 

Together, these steps will better support Disabled victims of crime, improve reporting mechanisms, and ensure Disabled voices inform decision-making.

Disabled Londoners’ lived experience will be embedded in MOPAC community scrutiny of the MPS and will inform MOPAC oversight of policing at the pan-London level.

MOPAC will re-establish its disability co-production group to ensure its work is informed by a deeper understanding of Disabled Londoners' experiences. This will also shape future work, enhance its oversight of the MPS, and shape the work in Commitment 1 on hate crime.

Through the MPS Disability Independent Advisory Group (DIAG), the MPS will work with Disabled Londoners to embed better practice.

We will ensure the GLA works with the MPS to follow best practice and embed the perspectives of Disabled Londoners in its engagement. This will be part of a new cross-GLA Group disability engagement and good practice working group.

Beyond this, the MPS will continue its work to prioritise and champion disability inclusion and build trust and confidence among the disabled communities of London, through fair and supportive policing. This includes disability hate crime and smart leadership training, and close consultation with the Business Disability Forum, MPS Disabled Staff Association and the DIAG to embed recommendations and meet obligations of the Disability Confident Employer (Leader) scheme.

Shortcomings in fire evacuation planning and emergency response mean many Disabled Londoners are not adequately protected or supported at home. All Disabled Londoners should be safe in their homes.

The GLA will work across the GLA Group with London Fire Brigade (LFB), public health and resilience teams and local authorities, to ensure best practice and compliance in implementing new national legislation to be introduced on residential personal emergency evacuation plans.

We will also ensure that Disabled Londoners continue to inform and shape London’s emergency response. Through the Resilience Equalities Partnership and LFB's community engagement work, including their Community Forum, the wider GLA Group will ensure that Disabled lived experience is central to London’s emergency response.

The Mayor will use all available levers to improve provision and planning of accessible homes that better meet the needs of Disabled Londoners.

Access to safe, affordable housing is a right for everyone. Unfortunately for many Disabled Londoners, the properties available to them are not suitable for their needs. This can cause problems ranging from people not being able to wash or feed themselves, to stress and mental health issues. Inaccessible housing also reduces people’s independence; and their ability to access work, leisure, community, and other opportunities. This can increase isolation and pre-existing health conditions.

We want all Londoners to have access to safe, affordable homes that are suitable for their needs; and to public space.

The London Plan informs building work across London, so it's vital that we get this right for Disabled Londoners. As well as concerns about inaccessible housing, Disabled Londoners have told us there’s a need to think more holistically, in planning, to meet their needs. This includes, for example, designing accessible entrances to developments, and having accessible units, and ensuring that larger developments are easy to navigate. Although the GLA does not deliver most development in London, we heard that planning guidance should set high accessibility standards for homes and for a wider built environment.

A new draft London Plan is currently being consulted on. Although the final London Plan will not be published until 2028, the Mayor commits to a continued focus on accessibility throughout this process.

The draft London Plan wis due to be adopted in 2028, covering the period to 2047. This will seek to set out the London Plan commitments to accessibility in housing and wider built environment.  

This will include its policies on accessible and adaptable housing. It is also expected to encourage developers to take a holistic, strategic view to accessible urban design, as part of embedding principles of access and inclusion in the built environment.

Connecting housing to transport, active travel, retail and other opportunities helps ensure that Disabled Londoners can participate fully in their communities.

The Consultation on the next London Plan is being made accessible including via a short summary document, an Easy Read version, as well as BSL and Audio engagement material to ensure as many Londoners as possible can contribute their thoughts. 

The Action Plan will be kept under review as the London Plan evolves. It is important we get this right for Disabled Londoners.

We heard concerns about housing and temporary accommodation being difficult for those fleeing domestic abuse to access due to lack of accessible provision. Disabled Londoners raised that they are often let down by the lack of accessible spaces to stay in, such as when they face domestic abuse – putting them at even higher risk. 

We will provide funding to increase the provision of accessible accommodation for victims/survivors of domestic abuse through the Mayor’s Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Homes Programme, which provides funding to address unmet safe accommodation needs for several groups including, but not limited to, Disabled victims survivors. This will expand accessible, safe and high-quality accommodation-based support for Disabled survivors of domestic abuse. This will include targeted capital investment through the programme, so that across London there are more refuge spaces with specialist support attached.

We expect to increase safe and accessible accommodation provision for Disabled survivors of abuse.

As well as continuing to work with boroughs to address gaps and errors, we will introduce new processes, to maintain a higher quality of data moving forward.  

We will have better data from the 2026 to 2036 Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP). Following work to fill gaps in the previous programme, the new SAHP will have mandatory reporting from grantees on accessibility standards. This data will be included in the routine quarterly reporting, to improve transparency and comparability.

However, we know that it's not just about the quality of the data, but about making sure it's understandable and used to improve the accessibility of housing for Disabled Londoners. Alongside the Mayor's commitment to improve the data, we’ll also be working with partners to share the evidence base with Deaf and Disabled people's organisations. This will build capacity to interpret, and enable us to use what we know.

Last summer's Designing with Disabled Experience report, and the newly published Housing Research Note: Housing for Disabled Londoners, are two recent examples of the GLA taking steps to improve the evidence base on accessible housing, and how to do it well.

We will work with partners, such as boroughs and housing providers, to disseminate this work, ensuring it is used to inform future developments. We will also explore opportunities to work with social and affordable housing delivery partners on embedding the social model of disability into their work.

With new statutory requirements for local authorities to produce a Local Supported Housing Strategy by 2027, the GLA will work with boroughs to maximise this opportunity – enabling an improved understanding of supported housing need. This will mean working with boroughs to align data-collection approaches to support a consistent understanding of London’s supported housing need. 

We will work with local authorities and other stakeholders (such as the Association of London Borough Planning Officers) to build capacity on data usage and understanding – helping them to work with developers and maintain high standards.  

We have heard from Disabled Londoners that M4(3)(2a) properties can cause stress and significant costs, due to moving delays that result from the property needing to be adapted after it's built.

We will share information with all boroughs to help them to identify, and record in the Planning London Datahub, M4(3)(2a) wheelchair adaptable and M4(3)(2b) wheelchair accessible homes.

Although these strategic interventions are vital, it will take time for them to have the effect we want. In the meantime, many Disabled Londoners struggle to access the accessible properties they need.

That’s why the Mayor is also committed to ensuring that GLA housing programmes will do their bit to improve the availability of accessible housing – which affects a small percentage of London house building.

In the 2026 to 2036 London Social and Affordable Homes Programme, providers are expected to adhere to London Plan policy regarding the provision of wheelchair-accessible social and affordable homes.

A new workstream will also be scoped to help match Disabled Londoners to the right accessible properties, across a range of tenures. This will likely include exploring options to improve the London-wide Homes for Londoners portal such as including details and filters for accessibility standards to advertise new properties.

The GLA will work with partners (including Deaf and Disabled people’s organisations) to enable the London Housing Panel to consistently integrate the experiences of Disabled Londoners, and so improve housing policy and provision. This includes working with the Chair of the London Housing Panel to explore the possibility of a working group focused on the experiences of Disabled Londoners. This will help the GLA to prioritise housing accessibility. 

The Mayor will use his powers to ensure transport is as accessible and affordable as it can be for Disabled Londoners.

Disabled Londoners have mixed and unpredictable experiences on public transport. They highlighted the fact that their journeys are less accessible and more expensive than for non-Disabled travellers. Barriers to travel have knock-on effects for Disabled Londoners':

• access to, for example, employment, education and healthcare
• ability to enjoy London's cultural heritage.

Transport for London's (TfL) Equity in Motion 2024 plan set out to create a fair, accessible and inclusive transport network. TfL recognised the unfair barriers to travel around lack of accessibility, affordability and concerns about safety.

We want to make sure Disabled Londoners are at the heart of this ongoing work to make public transport more inclusive.

This approach will ensure Disabled Londoners can access the affordable travel options they are entitled to. This will happen through a dedicated community communication and outreach.

We also commit to working with London Councils, who administer and manage Taxicard, and TfL, and other local government partners, who fund Taxicard, to ensure that planned changes to Taxicard - a subsidised service providing black cabs and private hire vehicles to those who can’t access other modes of transport - are shaped by, and for, Disabled Londoners.

We know many people face challenges using Taxicard – such as eligibility criteria, the application processes, or inconsistent service availability across different London boroughs. Disabled Londoners will be engaged in improvements to Taxicard, to ensure their experience and needs shape improvements.

Disabled Londoners told us that bus drivers and other frontline staff lack awareness of Disabled passengers' needs. Disabled people often have poor experiences, and assistance is poor on buses.

TfL will continue the roll-out of new disability equality training to TfL frontline staff – developed with Disabled trainers. This will help ensure that staff provide the support that Disabled customers need.

Additionally, 80 per cent of TfL's senior managers will undertake disability equality training. This will be role-specific, so that accessibility is better embedded by staff throughout the design and delivery of TfL's work.

The Mayor will use his available levers to remove barriers to employment and training, and ensure that Disabled Londoners can benefit from London's growth.

Good work is often key to financial security but many Disabled people face barriers to employment. In 2024, 59 per cent of Disabled Londoners were in work, compared to 80 per cent of non-disabled Londoners. Supporting Disabled Londoners who can work into good employment is necessary to close this gap. It also helps address higher rates of poverty among Disabled Londoners, and ensures all Londoners can benefit from their city's growth.

We want all Disabled Londoners who can work to be able to access and stay in good jobs that are appropriate for their skills. We know that the steps towards work need to be accessible too, including skills and training opportunities, and employment support. We also heard from Disabled Londoners that workplaces need to be more accessible and inclusive.

We’ve worked with Disabled Londoners to develop this Disability Action Plan, and it’s clear that embedding their experience in programme design and development is invaluable in ensuring the best outcomes and key to making the much-needed system change in employment and skills.

That's why the Mayor is committing to embedding Disabled lived experience into work on employment support.

This will be undertaken through the Inclusive Talent Strategy (ITS) and Get London Working plan. This will include strategic oversight of Connect to Work, a UK government-funded programme supporting Disabled people, individuals with health conditions, and those facing complex barriers to enter, remain and progress in employment.

Drawing on proven frameworks, such as Individual Placement and Support and the Supported Employment Quality Framework, Connect to Work is designed to help people secure jobs and sustain employment, by supporting people who are in work to prevent job loss. It includes self-employment, where appropriate. The Mayor has taken over responsibility for the programme from 2026–27, with confirmed funding of over £140 million over three years. This transition will enable a more strategic, London-wide approach to supported employment – reducing fragmentation, and improving outcomes for economically inactive Londoners, including Disabled Londoners. It will also strengthen the focus on good work, job retention and progression, ensuring that individuals are supported not only into employment, but also to thrive within it.

To ensure that lived experience is embedded in the governance and oversight of this work, and the wider agenda, a dedicated disability lived experience position will be established within the Inclusive Talent Delivery Group. A stipend will be offered to cover the time commitment. The role-holder will provide critical insight into the design and delivery of services, ensuring that policies reflect the real barriers and opportunities experienced by Disabled Londoners. They will also support delivery of key actions in the ITS relating to inclusive recruitment and progression pathways.

These actions will strengthen London’s inclusive employment ecosystem by embedding a proven supported employment model and ensuring that Disabled voices shape the system. This will mean that more Londoners can access, retain and progress in good work.

Delivery of the ITS also includes working collaboratively with employers, through the Good Work Standard and the London Anchor Institutions’ Network, to promote inclusive recruitment and progression pathways.

We will prioritise co-designing and ring-fencing opportunities within early-career programmes, such as work experience and apprenticeships for underrepresented groups, including young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. We will also work with providers to actively engage these groups for support.

These steps will bring Disabled Londoners into the heart of decision-making about the future of the new integrated skills and employment system for London.

We will work with London’s sub-regional partnerships and others to help ensure that Disabled Londoners receive appropriate, targeted support into work. This will occur through delivery of Connect to Work, and the Mayor's Get Britain Working Trailblazers, and through the No Wrong Door programme.

London is delivering five Get Britain Working Trailblazers, helping economically inactive and young Londoners to access employment, education and training. As a part of this, we are testing approaches to more joined-up health and employment support.

Through London’s No Wrong Door funding, we are supporting sub-regions to take forward activity to help their local residents engage with effective employment support. This includes targeted activity for disabled Londoners – for example, Central London Forward’s disability network; and their exploration of a health and disability passport to support collaboration between employers and health providers.

The Keep Britain Working programme is driving change among employers to improve the support they provide for those with health barriers and disabilities. The GLA will explore how this best practice can be expanded and shared with others – including through the London Anchor Institutions’ Network.

Work delivered as part of the Good Work Standard, the Workforce Integration Network and the London Anchor Institutions’ Network will focus on collaboration with employers to develop and share insight and resources on accessible employment. This will strengthen the focus on accessibility for the next phases of their work. Learnings on what works will also be shared.

The next detailed review of the Good Work Standard will focus more on accessible employment, informed by engagement with Disabled Londoners. This will ensure that Disabled lived experience is reflected in, and continues to influence, our work.

Disabled Londoners also told us that a more intersectional understanding is needed. Often people are seen as ‘only’ Disabled, which can overlook the impact of their other identities and experiences; and reduce the value of work on accessible employment.

We will embed deeper intersectional understanding across our work on employment. This will start with research to develop the understanding of Black Disabled Londoners' experiences of the labour market. Subsequent work will embed this learning into programme delivery and expand our understanding on how to meet Black Disabled Londoners' needs.

We also heard that employment support services, training and skills provision are often inaccessible. This can be due to physical or geographic factors, service design, or staff's lack of understanding around disability. It may also be because learners do not have the information they need to access skills opportunities.

We will take steps to ensure that skills provision is more accessible for Londoners moving forward. The next round of the Community Outreach Programme will continue to support Disabled Londoners, alongside other Londoners facing barriers to learning and employment, improving equitable access to appropriate adult skills provision.

We’ll also work with our skills providers to explore how we can support them in ensuring that Disabled learners can make informed decisions about accessing skills provision, and any support they may need to do so.

The Mayor will ensure that Disabled people are better able to shape the work of the GLA, and access its services and support.

Disabled Londoners report facing some barriers when working with the GLA, and in trying to access its support and services. Key concerns include inaccessible consultations, events and services. There was also concern about how existing engagement leads to improved outcomes for Disabled Londoners.

The Action Plan sets out measures to strengthen the voice of Disabled Londoners in the GLA's work, and to bolster accountability, by overhauling current engagement methods. There is a focus on improving overall standards around accessibility and inclusivity across all the GLA's work, engagement and communications.

The GLA became a Disability Confident Employer in 2024, and has continued to strengthen disability inclusion across the organisation, resulting in increased disability disclosure rates, improved employee experiences and record levels of disabled representation within its workforce. The introduction of dedicated Disability Advisers and Workplace Adjustment Implementation Advisers has been instrumental in ensuring disabled employees are supported more effectively and that their experiences help shape continuous improvement across the organisation.

Disabled Londoners feel existing engagement with the GLA is inconsistent, and can lack clear outcomes and impact. People reported they were not always listened to, and wanted to see greater representation of Disabled Londoners' voices in the GLA's work.

The GLA will strengthen the Deaf and Disabled people’s organisations Forum through work with its members. This includes learning from best practice in other organisations, and providing more consistent feedback on how DDPO comments have helped to shape priorities.

We will appoint a lived experience co-chair to jointly lead and drive the work of its Disabled Londoner engagement forum. They will work alongside the Deputy Mayor for Communities and Social Justice.

We will strengthen the Mayor’s DDPO forum by appointing disability commissioners to sit as part of the forum, providing additional resource to support delivery of the Action Plan for Disabled Londoners.

GLA services, consultations and events are often inaccessible, complex processes. Disabled Londoners often have poor experiences of being involved in GLA work or consultations – or struggle to be involved at all.

GLA officers will work with colleagues across the GLA group (which includes TFL, LFB, MOPAC and more) to establish ways of working to improve accessibility and engagement with Disabled Londoners and standardise good practice across the group.

GLA staff who interact with Londoners will continue to be trained on accessibility; the social model of disability; and clear standards for events, including quiet spaces and BSL interpreters as standard. For formal London Assembly meetings, subtitles are available via a dedicated YouTube channel. Officers will assess ways to enhance the subtitle functionality. Teams that offer engagement support have refreshed the tools, guidance and resources to help staff build skills, knowledge and expertise in community engagement, and will be disseminating these over the coming year. This includes the second edition of the Engagement Handbook, as well as an online course on community engagement at the GLA.

The GLA already offers disability training for all managers, delivered by a DDPO, and will continue to deliver this over coming years. The GLA will explore whether any of the disability training courses needs revision. Together, these steps should ensure the GLA is accessible and inclusive in its work; and enable Disabled Londoners to participate in shaping its work. 

DDPOs can face barriers when accessing funding. The GLA will work with Disabled Londoners, and Disabled-led organisations, to identify changes to enable them to better access GLA programmes, including grant funding and procurement processes.

From 2026, the GLA will begin to adopt the DEI Data Standard from Funders Collaborative Hub, to help identify and address barriers to accessing our funding.

Through the Central Responsible Procurement Team (CRPT) the GLA will continue to engage with the Business Disability Forum, and Small Business Britain, to identify, understand and address the challenges faced by Disabled entrepreneurs in accessing and participating in our supply chain.

The GLA will continue to work in the delivery of the GLA Group's Responsible Procurement and Social Value Policy, with a focus on identifying and removing barriers that prevent diverse-led businesses, including disabled-led enterprises, from entering our supply chain.

We will continue to encourage our relevant suppliers to be Disability Confident employers via the Good Work Standard.

The GLA will identify relevant contracts in key sectors to promote the Workforce Integration Network 'Inclusive Employers Toolkit' via supplier engagement and early market interventions.

The GLA will continue to engage with the Business Disability Forum to advance inclusive procurement practices.