Making your service more inclusive
Source: gov.uk (2025-12-05)

Making sure everyone who needs your service can use it as easily as possible.

There’s usually no alternative to using government services, so they must work for everyone.

Making your service inclusive means designing it so that everyone who needs it can use it as easily as possible.

Understand your legal obligations

When you provide a public service, you have a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equality-act-2010-guidance) not to exclude protected groups.

It’s usually against the law to discriminate against someone because of a protected characteristic (/discrimination-your-rights).

You must also design and run your service in line with your department’s Welsh language scheme, if there is one. See an example of a Welsh language scheme (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/welsh-language-scheme).

Design your service to be inclusive from the start

When you plan user research and design your service, think about all the reasons someone might be excluded from using it.

Inclusive design is more than making your service accessible to disabled users (https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/helping-people-to-use-your-service/making-your-service-accessible-an-introduction) and providing assisted digital support (/service-manual/helping-people-to-use-your-service/assisted-digital-support-introduction). These are important, but are just part of making sure everyone can use a service.

To do this:
- recruit user research participants (https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/user-research/find-user-research-participants) who represent the full range of people using your service
- design for their needs and continually test your service with them
- use research methods that reach all your users (https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2013/11/22/reaching-all-our-users/), even if they’re in hard to reach groups
- identify points in the service that could exclude certain groups and users
Identify points in your service where users are excluded

You need to find and address any points in your service where users experience problems.

The pain points will differ depending on what your service does and who your users are. It’s your responsibility to find these points.

For example, someone pregnant for the first time may already be a parent. They may be in a same-sex relationship where their partner was pregnant with their first child. This could make it hard to answer the question, ‘Is this your first child?’.

Focus on what your service really needs to know. In this example, it may be whether someone has given birth before so the service can calculate how many antenatal checks they need.

Start with work you’ve already done to understand how users interact with your service, such as your experience map (https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/user-research/creating-an-experience-map).

Common problems in services for users

Some problems appear regularly across government services. Check whether any of these appear in your service.

Using only certain channels

Provide the mix of channels that users need for each interaction. Make it easy for users to move between channels.

Setting inflexible deadlines

Users cannot always act quickly, depending on their circumstances. Do not assume users will respond quickly just because you send an email or text, instead of a letter.

For example, homeless users or users without stable accommodation may struggle to charge phones or check email.

Accepting only limited documents and evidence

It can be hard for users to provide documents and evidence. Only ask for what you really need. Accept as many types of evidence as possible.

For example, people born outside the UK may struggle to get hold of some paperwork. Transgender users being asked for certain information may amount to asking them to ‘out’ themselves or lead to harmful gender dysphoria.

Poor signposting or referrals to other services

Ineffective signposting or handovers may exclude users who need support you cannot provide. Marginalised users might feel discouraged to interact with government again if a service has failed them before.

For example, users might not be able to afford travel or phone calls to reach the support you signpost them to.

Measuring service performance in ways that impact users’ experience

Poorly designed targets can have detrimental effects. For example, strict time limits on appointments may increase the total number of appointments needed.

Set performance metrics (/service-manual/measuring-success/how-to-set-performance-metrics-for-your-service) carefully. Make sure they’re user centred and consider all the ways to show the benefits of your service (https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/measuring-success/measuring-service-benefits).

Universal barriers to using a service

Anyone can face barriers to using your service, even if some groups are more likely to be excluded than others. There are many reasons why this might happen.

When you review your service, consider these 11 areas of inclusion. You can read more about how the barriers were identified (https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/26/understanding-all-the-barriers-service-users-might-face/).

Awareness

Users need to know your service exists. Users who do not know about it will be excluded. For example:
- users without internet access may struggle to find your service online
- users who do not easily understand English may find it hard to read information in English
Device and interaction skills

Users may not be able to use devices or communicate with people in your service easily. For example, poor phone connection may make it hard to understand what someone in a call centre is saying.

Time

Users may not have time to use your service. For example, someone juggling a lot of responsibilities in their lives might struggle to find time to gather information, fill in forms, travel to an appointment or wait on the phone.

Enthusiasm

Users could be excluded if the effort to use your service seems greater than the benefits. For example, users familiar with an offline service may find moving to an online service discouraging.

Access

Users might be excluded from your service if they have to use something that’s hard for them to access, like a place, channel or device. For example, they might not have a printer, be able to check emails often or have reliable public transport.

Comprehension skills

Users may be excluded if they need to understand spoken or written English to use your service. For example, users may be non-native English speakers or have low literacy skills (https://defradigital.blog.gov.uk/2022/09/21/recognising-the-power-of-literacy-when-designing-services/).

Evidence

Not all users have the same types of evidence or proof of identity. For example, some may not have a passport, driving licence or fixed address.

Self confidence

Complex services may exclude users who do not believe in their ability to understand a process or complete tasks. For example, users with lower digital skills may not be confident using online services.

Finance

Services requiring users to pay a fee or spend money, such as to make a phone call or get the bus, may exclude people. For example, users may lose income if they have to take time off work for an appointment, or worry about getting a fine.

Trust

Users have to trust that the technology and people in your service are secure and reliable. For example, they might not trust the security of online payments or may have had negative experiences with your organisation before.

Emotional state

Users may be stressed, tired or emotionally unable to complete the task required by your service.

For example, users may be feeling anxious, worried about money, exhausted from caring duties or distressed from previous service interactions (https://publicpolicydesign.blog.gov.uk/2023/11/03/distress-and-design/).

Related guides

You might also find these guides useful:
- Making your service accessible: an introduction (/service-manual/helping-people-to-use-your-service/making-your-service-accessible-an-introduction)
- Designing assisted digital support (/service-manual/helping-people-to-use-your-service/designing-assisted-digital)
- Finding participants for user research (/service-manual/user-research/find-user-research-participants)
- Understanding users who do not use digital services (/service-manual/user-research/understanding-users-who-dont-use-digital-services)
- Writing for user interfaces (/service-manual/design/writing-for-user-interfaces)
- Designing for different browsers and devices (/service-manual/technology/designing-for-different-browsers-and-devices)