VULNERABILITY WEEK
2026
8–12 JUNE 2026 | #VULNERABILITYWEEK2026
A COLLABORATION NETWORK INITIATIVE
Every person matters.
Every sector has a part to play.
This is Vulnerability Week 2026.
Five days. Sixteen sessions. Eight national charity walks. Open to all.
Vulnerability doesn't respect sector boundaries. It touches every organisation, every service, every community. This year, Vulnerability Week brings together regulators, charities, subject matter experts and service providers in an open conversation - sharing what works, challenging what doesn't and collectively raising the bar for how we support the people who need it most.
Free for Members | Passes available for Non-Members
Vulnerability Week 2026 is proudly supported by our headline sponsor
Elephants Don't Forget
NOT YET A MEMBER?
Get your Vulnerability Week Pass
Join us for the full week - 16 sessions, community access and instant entry to the CN-X platform. Purchase your pass and your Membership begins immediately.
OR
Single or Premium (unlimited colleagues) passes available. Auto-renews as Membership after VW. Cancel anytime with 7 working days' notice. Full T&Cs apply.
IS YOUR ORGANISATION A MEMBER?
You may be eligible for free access
If your organisation holds a Collaboration Network Membership but you're not personally set up yet - let us know. We'll get you access to Vulnerability Week at no cost.
A member of our team will reach out and set everything up with you directly.
If you are not sure whether you are a Member or how best to book → Email us at membership@collaborationnetwork.co.uk
WHAT'S HAPPENING
A full week of learning, action and connection
Last year, nearly 1,100 delegates joined us across twelve online sessions. Organisations ran internal activities, hosted colleague panels, and walked fifteen miles along the Thames. This year, we're going further - wider in reach, deeper in impact, and open to every organisation who wants to be part of the movement.
GET INVOLVED
Your organisation can be part of the movement
Vulnerability Week isn't something you watch from a distance - it's something you do. Whether you're a household name or a team of five, there's a place for your organisation this week.
Share your story on LinkedIn
Post about what your organisation is doing during the week. The more organisations that share, the louder the message becomes - and the more others are inspired to act.
THE PROGRAMME
Sixteen sessions. Four formats. Five days.
Each day follows the same intentional structure: a charity-led session, an expert workshop, a real-world case study and a partner-led discussion. All sessions are online and open to everyone registered. Vulnerability Week 2026 is kindly supported by Elephants Don't Forget. Explore each day’s sessions and use the relevant pathway below to complete your registration.
10:00 - 10:45
Consumer Vulnerability Strategy - Progress Update with Ofgem
Session Outline:
One year on from the publication of Ofgem's refreshed Consumer Vulnerability Strategy, this session will provide an update on the first year of Vulnerability Focus Sessions with suppliers. Ofgem will set out key insights from these sessions and explain how they are informing their progress report and shaping their approach to delivery in the coming year.
Learning outcomes:
- What progress has been made under the CVS, and where gaps remain
- What good practice looks like in delivering vulnerability outcomes
- Where inconsistency and consumer risks persist
- How evidence is being used to assess outcomes
- What this means for future expectations and engagement
Speakers:
Lauren Kennedy (Senior Policy Manager) and Caitlin Cameron (Senior Policy Manager), Ofgem
11:00 - 11:45
Employee competence and the role it plays in your customer vulnerability strategy with Elephants Don't Forget
Session Outline:
You have all trained your frontline staff and the whole business knows the importance of getting customer vulnerability right. Yet, according to the FCA, far too many firms are still struggling to move beyond high-level awareness. The regulator has been clear that "few firms are training product and service design staff on vulnerability", and where training does exist, it is often not tailored to the specific role.
In fact, 54% of firms surveyed by the FCA admitted that staff training was not tailored. This lack of specificity means that the majority of firms engaged by the regulator "could not show how they had embedded the needs of customers in vulnerable circumstances into their product and service design processes."
Without role-specific context, vulnerability remains a "frontline issue" rather than a core design principle.
Adrian Harvey, Co-Founder of Elephants Don’t Forget, argues that closing the gap in service delivery starts by fixing the disconnect between training, competence, and confidence.
Bringing over a decade of experience working with hundreds of globally leading brands, Adrian will be connecting improvements in employee competence to measurable customer service outcomes, answering the critical question: how can you empower and support employees to optimally understand, recognise and respond to vulnerability, every time?
13:00 - 13:45
Vulnerability Week with Data on Demand
Session Outline:
More info to follow.
Speakers:
Stuart Murgatroyd, CEO, Data on Demand
14:00 - 14:45
If They Don't Tell us: Identifying Vulnerability in the Real World
Session Outline:
Identifying vulnerable customers is one of the most critical - and most challenging - parts of delivering good outcomes in financial services. Disclosure doesn’t always happen, and vulnerability often emerges subtly, over time, or only once things begin to go wrong.
This session explores the realities of identifying vulnerability beyond customer disclosure, drawing on real examples of behavioural cues, data signals, and customer interactions across the lifecycle. It also reflects on how intermediated journeys can limit early visibility, reinforcing the need for strong collaboration, shared responsibility, and consistent approaches later on. The session focuses on how different teams can work together to spot vulnerability sooner, create safer opportunities for disclosure, and support better outcomes for customers.
Learning outcomes:
- Recognise why reliance on disclosure alone is insufficient and identify common indicators of vulnerability across customer interactions and touchpoints.
- Understand the role collaboration plays in improving identification
- particularly where early customer journeys are intermediated
- and how teams can collectively support better outcomes.
Speaker:
Mandy Edgar, Vulnerable Customer Manager, Close Brothers
FROM VULNERABILITY WEEK 2025
See what organisations did last year - and what it sparked
In 2025, organisations didn't just attend sessions. They brought the week to life inside their own walls - and the results went far deeper than anyone expected.
WORKPLACE ACTIVITIES
Walk a mile in someone else's shoes
One of the most powerful things your organisation can do this week is help colleagues genuinely feel - not just understand - what life is like for vulnerable customers. These ideas are here to inspire you. Last year, Fidelity International built an empathy kit with simulation goggles and arthritis gloves. Royal London ran a live BSL session for over 100 colleagues. Ageas hosted face-to-face workshops with blindfolded Connect 4. The bar has been set - but there's no single right way to do this.
✨ NEW FOR 2026
Host a Watch Party
Why watch alone when you can watch together? Gather your team in the office - or a meeting room, a canteen, wherever works - and tune in to one or more of the week's sessions as a group.
Watch Parties turn a learning moment into a team moment. When a session ends, the conversation doesn't have to. Use the time together to reflect, share reactions and think about what it means for how your organisation works.
You can join a single session or commit to the whole week. However you do it, the act of showing up together sends a message to your colleagues: this matters to us.
🖥️
How to host a Watch Party
Book a session via CN-X or your Zoom link → gather your team → watch together → discuss → share what you noticed on LinkedIn with #VulnerabilityWeek2026
Activity ideas to try with your team
Make it your own
The best activities come from truly knowing your customers. What vulnerabilities do they face most? Design a challenge around that, run it with your team, and share what you discovered.
#VulnerabilityWeek2026
Share what your organisation is doing on LinkedIn during the week. Tag @CollaborationNetwork and use the hashtag - every post adds to the movement. Last year, organisations across the UK showed up publicly for this. Let's make 2026 impossible to ignore.
12 JUNE 2026 - CHARITY WALK
Walking for the 982,000 people living with dementia in the UK
Last year we walked fifteen miles along the Thames. This year, we're walking the length of a nation. On 12th June, eight regional walks will take place simultaneously across the UK - each covering 12.3 miles, each led by a Member of the Collaboration Network, each raising funds for the Alzheimer's Society.
982,000
people living with dementia in the UK
98.2
miles collectively - one for every 10,000 people
8
regions walking together
on the same day
12.3
miles per region on 12 June 2026
Full details - including routes, timings and JustGiving fundraising links - are on the dedicated Charity Walk page. Sign up for your region there and we'll be in touch with everything you need.
Vulnerability Week 2026 is proudly supported by our headline sponsor
Elephants Don't Forget