A team will find out why you are calling and choose the best person for you to speak to. Depending on your needs they might:

• deal with your call personally and offer emotional support straight away
• transfer you to one of our trained and accredited counsellors for counselling
• connect you to one of our other services such as grants or information
• assist with referral for long term treatment (for example, to your GP)

08000 numbers are free from UK landlines and mobiles.

Our qualified counsellor will ask some questions to find out more about your situation and might help you set some short term goals to find a way forward.

If you need counselling, you’ll be speaking to one of our qualified British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) counsellors.

If you call between the hours of 8pm and 8am you’ll receive support from outside the UK.

Yes. We’ll only break confidentiality if:

• there’s a risk to your own health and safety, or to that of others; or
• if you’ve been involved in a crime

Yes, you can access our services by email or live chat.

Any serving, former or retired member of staff who has worked in any part of the education sector including but not limited to Early Years, Primary, Secondary, Further, Higher, Adult and/or Prison education sector.

We support over one hundred additional languages through active translation. A full list is available to read.

Yes. We have an alternative number for callers who don't have access to 08000 numbers. Use 020 8987 6212 instead.

Yes. You can talk to an advisor through our email or live chat. 

If your school or organisation has purchased an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) please call the numbers provided on your leaflets and wallet cards to access the full range of additional services offered.

If you don't have the number contact servicedelivery@edsupport.org.uk with the name of your organisation and postcode.

When you create an application you are asked for your email and to create a password  - if you want to take a break please click log out before closing your browser – this ensure all of the information you have entered in saved. 

We understand that our form is quite long and that we ask for a lot of information, we have tried to keep the information we ask for to a minimum but there are some thing we need to know about your circumstances.

There are a number of ways to do this; we would recommend that you look at this website, as they have instructions on how to do this for all UK banks. You can also use Google Chrome to create PDF’s if your bank is not listed. You can find instructions here.

If you are still having, difficulties please do get in touch with the grants team and they can talk you through this. 

We need applicants to provide bank statements covering two calendar months, that’s a lot of screenshots! We have a very small team and it takes us time to read all of the documents we need, we frequently find that the resolution of photographs are very poor.

However, the main reason is that Word, Excel documents and photographs can be edited – we do not believe anyone would edit their documents, but as this has happened in the past we made a team decision not to accept documents in these formats. 

We can award funds for school uniform grants but there is a maximum we can award per child.  We would anticipate that you had approached your local authority to determine if you qualify for a uniform voucher first. You can find more information here.

We are unable to refund or reimburse any funds, the majority of our grants are paid directly to organisations, retailers or service companies.

We are able to pay the DVLA direct, should an award be made to you for your vehicle, the team would request your vehicle tax reminder letter (V11) and make a payment directly to the DVLA. We can also make payments direct to your utility company.

In the assessment phase of your application, it is more important that we have a quote for the cost of the work of repairs of your vehicle, than it is to have bank details, in the event of an award we would make a payment direct to the garage either by credit card (over the phone) or via BACS.

We only award cash grants for limited items, these cash awards are capped according to our internal guidelines and an applicant’s circumstances. With the exception of the following grants: school uniforms, food grant and petrol costs; all awards are made payable to an organisation or third party. We are not able to award retrospective grants – e.g. we will not consider awarding funds for items or costs already paid for by an applicant.

We do not reveal our maximum grant amount. All applications are assessed on an application-by-application basis. 

We are is unable to distribute loans; all of our awards are grants that are not repayable.

There is no entitlement to a grant; all awards are at the charities discretion.

We are able to award funds for arrears, we would need to have very detailed information as to why your arrears accrued, for example we would want to know why an applicant did not make part payments, does an applicant have a repayment plan in place, is the applicant facing pressure from their mortgage provider, landlord, housing association. Has the applicant in receipt of statutory benefits or has an applicant been furloughed?

All applications are assessed according to our criteria and an applicant’s circumstances. We are therefore able to award, back date rental/mortgage payments (arrears), but it would depend entirely upon the reasons for the arrears, our internal guidelines and our current budget.  

With the Education Support Employee Assistance Programme, school staff can access a range of emotional and practical support including:

• A range of counselling options including telephone, online or face-to-face sessions
• A dedicated coaching service for line managers, aimed at developing soft skills and building confidence for handling challenging situations
• Financial, legal and practical support from qualified professionals on a range of personal issues
• Access to online health and wellbeing resources and a specialist information service

The Education Support Employee Assistance Programme provides your staff with the reassurance that their wellbeing is important and that they are valued by your organisation. It will help to improve your organisational efficiency and enhance your management capacity. 

Our charitable helpline is available free 24/7 to all staff working in education. It offers immediate support to an individual. If appropriate, callers may be referred to telephone or online counselling. 

If your school or organisation has purchased the Education Support Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) please call the numbers supplied to you on your leaflets and wallet cards to access the full range of additional services offered. If you don't have the number to hand, please contact servicedelivery@edsupport.org.uk with the name of your organisation and postcode and we will send it to you. 

We do not list the prices for the Education Support Employee Assistance Programme because we try to be as flexible as possible to cover every need, and because we base our prices around the number of staff within an organisation. Our dedicated regional staff will work with you to determine the best possible solution for your needs. To contact your regional specialist, please fill out an enquiry form.

Unfortunately the Education Support Employee Assistance Programme benefits are only available to employees of the school or organisation who have purchased the service. The only exception to this is couples counselling, if the couple’s relationship is having an effect on an employee’s ability to do their job.

In many cases, problems and issues can be resolved during an initial call to the Employee Assistance Programme.

If appropriate, further counselling sessions will be offered, scheduled at a convenient time. Usually, a maximum of six sessions is provided. You may find that you do not require all six sessions.

It is not usually appropriate for counselling to be delivered by multiple therapists for different issues. This means that you may not be referred for counselling by our Employee Assistance Programme if you are already receiving therapy for a different issue.

The Employee Assistance Programme is unable to support long term counselling. If it is clear from the initial call that the issue is one that will require many months of counselling, you will be referred to services that can provide this long term, ongoing support.

A member of our friendly support team will find out why you are calling and will identify the most suitable person for you to talk to.

If you need counselling, you will speak to one of our British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) accredited counsellors.

If you call between the hours or 8am and 8 pm, your call may be taken by our teams from outside the UK. They work to the same high standards as our UK teams, and enable us to be there for you and your staff whenever they need support.

Thank you. It means so much to us and those working in education who need a little extra support. There are so many ways you can fundraise for us - go to our fundraising pages for more information and inspiration.

You can also call the fundraising team on 020 7697 2766, or email us at fundraising@edsupport.org.uk and we can give you more information, ideas and personalised support. 

Thank you! We’d love to hear more about your reasons for supporting us. You can give us a call and have a chat with the fundraising team on 020 7697 2750, or you can email us at fundraising@edsupport.org.uk. If you donate online, there is a comment box on the donation for that you can use to tell us more about why you chose to donate to us. 

Please give us a call on 020 7697 2750 or email us at fundraising@edsupport.org.uk. Please let us know both your previous address and new address when emailing.`

If you give to us via your pension or through your payroll, you will need to contact them directly to change your address or contact details as well.

We don't use telephone fundraising very often, but it can be one of the most effective ways of communicating with donors, particularly when it comes to things like Gift Aid. We do work with other agencies to help us, but we do a lot of checking beforehand, so that we are confident that they will act according to our guidance and regulations. We will also agree very strict guidelines about who can and who cannot be contacted and the time of day that we will contact you. We will check our donors details and will do our best to make sure that if you have already told us you do not wish to be contacted by phone, that you are not included in the telephone campaign.

That’s no problem at all. You can restrict your donation by calling us on 020 7697 2750 and telling us more about what you would prefer for your gift to be spent on. Alternatively, you can email us at fundraising@edsupport.org.uk and tell us your preferences.

Donations will be used to support those people working in education who are struggling to find their strength. Your support will help us to provide our 24/7 free and confidential helpline, or help us to provide a financial grant to someone in need.