Staff wellbeing and benefits

Introduction to Vivup’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

 Please note that Vivup’s Employee Assistance Programme is accessible to School staff, where Shropshire Council is the employer.

From mid-April 2025, we have a new counselling provider – Vivup - who also deliver our employee benefits platform which offers a range of lifestyle savings.  Vivup’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is available to all employees and free of charge.

Vivup’s EAP provides confidential, impartial assistance to help you in times of need, on personal and work-related issues. 

 The EAP includes:

  • 24/7, 365 days a year telephone helpline
  • short-term counselling service 
  • online health and wellbeing platform – Your Care 

Ways to access the EAP 

There are 3 ways you can contact the telephone helpline/counselling service:

  • Telephone: 0330 380 0658 or 0800 023 9324 (free from any standard UK landline or mobile phone)

  • Through Your Care Platform which is accessed through Vivup’s employee benefits platform. You need to register with the employee benefits platform to access.
  • By completing an accessibility form on Your Care requesting the team make contact.

Telephone helpline/counselling service

Vivup’s telephone helpline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can speak to a professional counsellor or information specialist in confidence. 

The telephone helpline is a source of support for information on a wide range of work, family, and personal issues.  There is unlimited access to the telephone helpline for calls that do not require structured counselling sessions.

 Here are some examples of the topics which the helpline and/or the counselling service can support with (this is not an exhaustive list):

Anxiety

Depression

Bereavement and loss

Workplace pressures

Bullying and harassment

Careers

Consumer rights

Childcare information

Debt

Disability and illness

Education

Elder care information

Family issues

Health and wellbeing

Life events

Relationships

 

 

 

Counselling service

The Pathway of support below outlines how telephone calls to the helpline are triaged to determine whether an employee needs ‘in the moment’ support or structured counselling.   

Everyone has very individual needs, so support can sometimes vary but in most cases, it will be along the lines of:

1.Telephone call will be answered by the Triage Team who will ask some questions and carry out an initial risk assessment to ensure they can get you the right type of support.

2. You may end up receiving 'in the moment’ support (ITMS) conducted by an ITMS counsellor who offers advice or information, or sends supportive information, research of local support agencies, or advice in relation to a concern, along with signposting to other Vivup resources, if appropriate, such as online CBT booklets.   

3. Or you may be booked in for your first structured counselling session; this is normally booked in with a counsellor and this first session will include a more detailed core 34 assessment. You will be sent a Statement of Understanding (which sets out details of the counselling provision, confidentiality and attendance) for signing along with the core assessment, both of which are completed before the first appointment and then your counsellor will go through it with you.  If further sessions are required, this may be with the same counsellor or a different one as Vivup will match you with a counsellor best matched to your presenting issue(s).

In the moment support is available 24/7 so this can also support night workers and employees with work/home commitments.   

Your Care Platform

 Your Care is an online health and wellbeing platform delivering effective, evidence-based interventions to help people live healthier lives.  Users have access to their own confidential, personalised dashboard which is specific to their needs.  Health-boosting goals can be set with small sustainable lifestyle changes through personalised gamification, including calls to action, suggestions and prompts in the user’s improvement journey. 

 You can access Your Care via the Vivup employee benefits platform.

  • A suite of assessments to identify the risk of developing any of the five leading lifestyle-related diseased (cancer, diabetes, dementia, lung, cardiovascular), plus mental health and financial wellbeing scores
  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) self-help workbooks (some examples include anxiety; health anxiety; depression and low mood; postnatal depression; stress; sleep problems; eating disorders; and anger management)
  • Connectivity with your health apps to automatically track goal progress
  • Blogs, videos, recipes, and more resources to inspire positive change
  • Domestic abuse support via the Brightsky app
  • Debt advice (via Angel Advance which provides 24/7 online debt advice)

Employee Benefits

We are offering employees a range of staff benefits from our health and wellbeing partner Vivup. These are designed to improve your physical, financial and mental health. To access your staff benefits, you need to register on shropshire.vivup.co.uk. The platform is mobile friendly and can also be accessed on your personal devices.

The exciting range of staff benefits available includes:

Lifestyle Savings 

Access a huge range of discounts across the UK’s major retailers including technology, fashion, supermarkets, travel and much more!

For further details on the Lifestyle Savings please see the following video.