BBC File on 4 Allegations – Outcome

Two years ago, the BBC raised concerns about confidentiality within an EAP provider. The EAPA Board reviewed the matter under our ethical framework.

Following that review, the Board concluded that a few aspects of the actions described did not meet the expected ethical standards within the EAPA Code of Ethics, particularly around confidentiality and informed consent.

While we are aware the provider has already demonstrated the changes they have made since the allegations, including audits with BACP and NCPS, EAPA UK Ltd has requested that the provider undertake a further independent external audit of its clinical governance and operational processes, which will be conducted by an independent EAPA UK Ltd auditor.

To be clear, subject to there being no unexpected findings from the independent review, EAPA UK Ltd does not intend to take any further action regarding this matter – we expect that to be the case.

The provider has worked constructively with EAPA UK Ltd since the allegations were raised to ensure its practices meet the required standards, EAPA UK Ltd would personally like to thank them for the way they have engaged with that process.

EAPA UK will be at the Health & Wellbeing @ Work Conference next week

If you’re at the event too, come and say hello. We’ll be on stand 88b and look forward to talking all things EAPs!

Following the first day, our 2026 AGM will be held at the nearby Hilton Metropole Hotel and we have some incredible guest speakers lined up – if you’d like to join us for that, please contact info@eapa.org.uk

Workplaces weren’t designed for humans

Workplaces continue to be based on ideas from the 19th century and ideas of industrial efficiency, argue researchers from the University of Leicester and the Technical University of Denmark.

They point to how the ideas of the US industrialist Frederick Taylor, focused on using people as part of an organisational machine that can be measured and its performance optimised. As a result, they suggest, organisations are simply using up people’s resources for productivity, in the same way industries have used up other natural resources. While HR is now far more focused on engagement and wellbeing, it has tended to overlook the key issue of what happens when employee’s energy, and motivation and relationships with colleagues are all spent.

Using the circular economy model

As an alternative to the established attitude to the ‘human resource’, the academics propose a shift to a model based on the idea of a circular economy.

The model they call ‘circular work’ would stop employers seeing staff as a resource of time and energy to be ‘used up’ to meet short-term targets and build in opportunities for recovery and regeneration — the “rest, support and learning” that “help employees bounce back”. In this way, they say, work itself becomes something more sustainable and suited for long-term growth rather than constantly running on empty.

Humanising work

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “Work has obviously been transformed by technology, the pace of everyday routines and cycles of performance targets have accelerated. It’s much easier and quicker to have meetings, to get tasks done. And now we’re impressed by the speed and efficiency of what AI can do.

“But maybe our attitudes to the role of people in work have lagged behind. We’ve tried to make people more like machines rather than considering whether that means work itself has become something inhuman. “Wellbeing programmes in themselves can’t just be used as a sticking plaster to cover up much bigger problems. Instead, the important services like EAPs, and their insights into employee health and experiences, need to be used as part of a wider strategy that looks at the design of work and job roles and their impact on wellbeing.”

EAPA UK Ltd Annual General Meeting 2026

The 27th Annual General Meeting of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association UK Ltd will be held on Tuesday 10th March 2026 at 5.30pm.

The AGM will take place in the Surrey Room, Hilton Metropole Hotel, NEC Birmingham, B40 1PP & Online via Teams.

Please register to attend by email to info@eapa.org.uk, stating whether you will be attending in-person or joining online.

Nominations are now open for Officer and Board roles

The following roles are available for a 2-year term:

• Officer: Secretary
• Board role: two positions

Members may nominate themselves by submitting the Board Nominations Form and Board Member Commitment Form to info@eapa.org.uk.  Only one person employed by or representing any organisation can become an Officer or Board Member. Nominations must be received by 5.30pm on 24 February 2026.

The ‘quiet crisis’ of men at work

“We’re told to toughen up, but a bit too much, and it’s toxic. We’re told to soften, but too much of that and it’s weak and unattractive,” writes George Bell in a new book, Be a Man About It: Building A Healthier Idea Of Masculinity.

The handed down version of masculinity, he says, has led to a version that stresses “emotional suppression, rather than expression.” And that’s at the core of reasons why men are three times more likely to take their own life than women — as well as being more likely to have a premature death, and to suffer from addictions, loneliness, homelessness and crime.

Too quick to label things toxic?

A campaigner on men’s mental health, Bell has himself experienced a slide into depression and suicidal thoughts.

“I was willing to trade my own life in order to preserve this notion of masculine pride. To get better, to recover, and to still be here today, I had to not only work through the mental health side but I also had to almost entirely deconstruct and then rebuild my sense of what it means to be a man…this isn’t about criticising or shutting down parts of masculinity that many men find so valuable. I believe we have gone too far in some discourse in recent years, too quick to label things toxic and shut down many parts of masculinity that men enjoy or aspire to have.”

EAPs for opening up

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “All the experience of EAPs over decades backs up the data from the NHS showing how women are more likely to engage with their GP and other health providers and more likely to open up about their health concerns.

“In principle, EAPs are a perfect way to help more men. A professional and confidential service, accessible through their workplace, but independent from it. But more work needs to be done in raising awareness of when and how EAPs can be used, that they aren’t just there for when situations have reached a crisis point. Working together, talking to an EAP about mental health or root issues such as financial and relationship problems can be made to feel more ‘normal’.”

Our EAP: Southeastern Railway

A fresh review of an EAP offering — looking at how it works, who’s being targeted, the kinds of services available — can make a huge difference to usage and impact.

Southeastern Railway was having particular issues with long-term sickness absence. One in three rail workers has a mental health condition (compared with one in six in the UK population more widely), and levels of anxiety are one and a half times higher (according to the industry’s health and wellbeing performance indicators). At the same time, however, the established EAP at Southeastern, set up decades earlier, wasn’t being valued or used.

“When we actually looked at the recent numbers, we found that of the people who were entitled to receive counselling, only 20 had made it through,” said Alex South, Senior HR and Operations Executive.”

In 2025, Southeastern began trials of a new EAP service more suited to the needs of shift-based, frontline workers with 24/7 access to physical, mental health and safety support. “We knew we’d have to pay more than we were already paying,” said Alex, “but we were prepared to do so if we could guarantee getting more of a wraparound and holistic service that could be more easily accessed.”

The new offering has led to much higher levels of access: 21% activation of the app (more than 1,000 staff) and around a 50% conversion rate to counselling, and one on three reaching out to their GP.

How ‘social spending’ can reduce national worry

Dr. Lucía Macchia. City St George’s, University of London:

When governments think about protecting wellbeing, attention often focuses on what happens after people experience hardship — job loss, illness, or financial strain. But new research suggests that social policy also plays a crucial role before these events occur, by shaping how worried people feel about their lives and futures.

Our research examines “national worry” — the average level of worry reported across a country. Using large-scale survey data from Western European and OECD countries over the past decade, we study how worry varies over time and across societies, and how it relates to economic conditions and social spending.

The main finding is clear: countries with higher levels of social spending tend to have lower levels of worry across the population. This relationship holds even after accounting for unemployment and individual characteristics. Importantly, the association is not limited to those who directly receive benefits. Instead, it appears that living in a society with a stronger welfare state reduces feelings of worry.

This matters because worry is closely linked to poorer mental health, lower life satisfaction, and worse physical health outcomes. The study also shows that worry has increased over time in many countries, highlighting a growing challenge for population wellbeing.

The findings challenge the idea that wellbeing depends primarily on individual resilience or personal circumstances. Instead, they point to the psychological value of social spending. Welfare systems function not only as safety nets when things go wrong, but also as a form of collective insurance that provides reassurance and stability.

If policymakers want to improve wellbeing, reducing worry must be part of the conversation. That means recognising that wellbeing is shaped not only by individual choices, but by the social and institutional conditions that allow people to face the future with greater security.

How can EAPs scale support with AI without losing the human connection?

If you’re an EAP provider today, you’re being asked to do something deceptively hard: support more people, more often, on economics that don’t scale in the same direction. When demand rises but capacity and cost-to-serve don’t, it’s hardly surprising that AI starts to look like the only lever left.

The obvious worry is that introducing AI will “dehumanise” care. But if we’re honest, most EAP journeys don’t fail because they lack humanity. They fail because they hit the calendar.

Distress is rarely convenient. Anxiety peaks at 2am. A panic spiral happens after a meeting. The hardest moment to stay sober is Friday at 6pm. Yet the experience many employees have, implicitly or explicitly, is: “we can see you in two weeks.” That isn’t just a logistical delay, it’s an emotional signal: your problem is important, but not urgent. Help that arrives after the moment of need can feel like a fire engine turning up the next day.

This is where AI co-therapy becomes useful, not as a replacement for counsellors, but as the connective tissue between human touchpoints. Done well, it scales the parts of support that don’t require a human nervous system: guided skills practice, psychoeducation, structured reflection, and in-the-moment coping tools. It also helps people articulate what’s happening in real time, so the first human conversation starts further up the hill.

And the human element still matters enormously: trust, judgement, accountability, risk detection, and the experience of being understood by another mind. Co-therapy protects that scarce human resource by keeping clinicians focused on what only humans can do, while making support feel available when it’s needed.

So the answer isn’t “AI or human”. It’s AI for immediacy and continuity, with clinicians for care, meaning, and safety. That’s how EAPs scale without losing the connection that makes support work.

Sam Stern, co-founder, Affiniti AI. Sam will be giving a session and answering questions on AI and co-therapy at the EAPA UK Annual General Meeting on 10 March in Birmingham. Invitations to the event will be circulated in February.

Younger staff burnout on the rise, says research

Mental Health UK’s annual report into workplace stress levels (involving 4,418 adults) has highlighted the growing gap between 18-24 year-olds and other employees when it comes to burnout.

The younger age group are the most likely to be absent due to poor mental health caused by stress. They are also three times more likely to have needed time off due to waiting for NHS appointments than staff aged 55 and over. At the same time, there’s been a notable decline in their likelihood of speaking to their line managers about stress levels and the resulting mental health issues (dropping from 75% to 56%).

‘Often’ or ‘always’ stressed

In terms of the population as a whole, the survey suggests 34% of adults were ‘often’ or ‘always’ suffering from high or extreme levels of pressure and stress. This is down slightly from 35% in the 2024 report. The number of people needing to take time off work because of stress in the past year had stayed the same at 21%.

Staff aged between 18-24 were most likely to report high stress due to having to regularly work unpaid overtime, taking on additional hours due to the increased cost of living and feeling isolated at work. High stress due to high or increased workloads, and fears of redundancy, were most often reported by 25-34 year-olds.

Starting early

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “Earlier conversations about stress and burnout, particularly with younger employees who have less experience of dealing with issues and knowing who to speak to, are becoming essential. 

“Why is burnout happening? What are the particular reasons for stress in specific teams or areas of an organisation, is it workloads, management styles or the wider culture, for example? Working together and sharing information, EAPs can help HR with picking up trends and issues in different areas, among groups like younger people, and also tailor awareness campaigns and the best approaches for encouraging earlier engagement — maybe involving the use of more digital platforms with immediate access etc.”

Revealed: the link between workplace stress and the employment tribunal backlog

A study of recent employment tribunal cases that reached a final judgment by a law firm has shown how 12% related to stress and burnout. In particular, cases involved issues around stress leading to poor performance and claims of unfair dismissal.

Workplace stress is seen as being a significant factor in the challenges being faced by the employment tribunals system. The number of cases between July and September 2025 were up a third on the same time the previous year. The backlog has now gone past the 500,000 mark.

Is stress a disability?

While stress in itself is not automatically considered a disability under the Equality Act, it can be considered to be a symptom of clinical conditions like depression and anxiety which are.

Employers have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments when there is clear evidence of how the individual employee’s day-to-day ability to do their job has been affected. This can include changing their working hours or other routines, how they are managed or supported by colleagues.

Use EAP data

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “This is another example of how important data on usage trends from EAPs can be. HR and EAP partners need to be working together to identify what’s really happening in different areas of an organisation and among groups and types of employee: where are the stress points and what might be the underlying causes?

“As the research indicates, when problems with stress remain undiagnosed and ignored they can accumulate and result in even more disruptive and costly disputes and tribunals.”