Workers at Lloyds Banking Group will soon qualify for private gender reassignment surgery via the bank.
Lloyds will be the first UK-owned employer to provide the treatment. Approximately 830 employees within the group currently do not conform to gender binaries and an estimated 20 staff members are expected to initially take up the offer.
Transgender staff may decide to go through gender reassignment surgery, but the banking Group estimates that 0.025 percent of staff would want to undergo the surgery.
Bupa healthcare will provide the surgery, which will be available to permanent employees subscribed to the Group’s healthcare scheme.
Speaking to PinkNews, Karin Cook, Lloyds Banking Group’s Director of Operations, said:
“[Staff will] be able to access healthcare much quicker than they would on any other health provision. They could have a wait of up to 36 months [using another health provision] but through this private provision they will be able to do it an awful lot quicker.
“We want to be inclusive to all colleagues and we felt that our current healthcare provision was excluding certain conditions which were very important to people, particularly in the support for some of the mental health issues that colleagues suffer. So it was essential that we were able to extend that to cover to people with gender dysphoria.”
Kimberley Bird, Head of Group Risk Systems at Lloyds Banking Group and Deputy Co-Chairwoman of the Rainbow Network, added to PinkNews:
“I think as an organisation we have shown our visible commitment to the trans community. Personally I am proud to work for an organisation that just wants to be inclusive. Having seen and worked in the trans community for some time now I know that the offering that we’re making is ground-breaking and that, as an organisation, and as an individual, I absolutely welcome this. I do think other organisations will follow quite quickly and it will just change lives – that is what it is about for me.”
Netflix and Facebook also offer procedures such as sex-reassignment and hormone therapy, but the schemes have had some criticism.
Rebecca joined the HRreview editorial team in January 2016. After graduating from the University of Sheffield Hallam in 2013 with a BA in English Literature, Rebecca has spent five years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past she has been part of the editorial teams at Sleeper and Dezeen and has founded her own arts collective.
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