Why invest in an Employee Assistance Programme for your staff?

The challenges for teachers and education staff aren’t over

The pandemic is not over for teachers and education staff. Many of the pressures on staff created by Covid are still reverberating throughout the sector. In our research, 77% of teachers and education staff told us they had experienced symptoms of poor mental health due to their work. A call to our helpline will provide staff with emotional support in the moment, but sometimes a bit more ongoing help or tailored support and guidance is what’s needed.

Teachers, education staff and school leaders come under a particular range of pressures and often struggle to put themselves first. Our entire mission is about supporting the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and education staff, and our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is a key part of delivering that mission. As the only recognised EAP provider to focus exclusively on the education sector, we understand the challenges that you and your colleagues face. Through our EAP service, we support tens of thousands of teachers and school staff across the country: our service has been designed to provide the right support at the right time to school staff.

A counselling service and much more

The EAP includes a fantastic counselling service, but also much more. It’s a service that is tailored to the individual. Counsellors help staff access a range of help, from mindfulness and CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) sessions, to line management and coaching support. In addition, those who call can benefit from information on a range of common challenges including elder care and financial and legal information.

Sarah, an HR Manager at a Trust that uses our EAP in 22 of their schools put it this way: “Staff can use it for anything from advice on a mortgage, to seeking support when going through a divorce. It doesn’t always have to be something bad; people can access information on such a range of information, it’s just really helpful.” 

Helping leaders help their staff

School leaders may want to help their staff directly with every issue they face, but that usually isn’t practical. Staff might not want to talk about sensitive, personal matters, but may still need help with them. The Employee Assistance Programme gives leaders back-up, so that they can refer staff in the moment to practical services that can really help, and that they can trust to be confidential. The end result is a boost in staff wellbeing and effectiveness. Of course school leaders can, and often do use the service themselves to access support – which is exactly how the service is meant to be used.  

One school leader summed it up for us: “There is a feeling that it’s available for everybody and they can get support for all kinds of daily issues. The real benefit is that it has produced a feeling of wellbeing around the school.”

If you don’t have an EAP at your school, I’d really encourage you to have a look into how it could help you and your colleagues, and get in touch with our friendly team.