We want 2024 to be the year that we really showcase our commitment to making Future Schools Trust 'a great place to be'. As part of this initiative, we want to show you that we take your mental health and wellbeing seriously and have invested in an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), with the Education Support charity Employee Assistance Programme - support for teachers and education staff (educationsupport.org.uk). The EAP provider is an education specialist that truly understands the challenges that schools and colleagues who work within the education sector face on a daily basis. The EAP is an external, impartial, and confidential service, there to provide consistent and equal support for all our colleagues. It offers unlimited self-referral access to education focussed telephone counselling and fast track referral into structured counselling to help resolve both work life or personal issues. 

The EAP is also available to support immediate family and dependents. It can be used to access financial experts who can support anyone facing financial difficulties, alongside many other practical support options.  We are really looking forward to building upon our partnership with the Education Support group and will be engaging with you all at the start of term 4 to promote how you can access all of the brilliant services; we would truly value your feedback and experiences too.

To show our continued commitment to improving staff wellbeing at Future Schools Trust we will be signing the DfE Education Staff Wellbeing Charter to publicly declare our support and commitment to making improvements to the wellbeing and mental health of everyone working in our schools. We will be using the charter to help us to open a conversation with you all about wellbeing and mental health and to create our own FST Staff Wellbeing Charter that will help us to create a wellbeing-focused culture. Again, we look forward to sharing our progress live with you as it happens throughout the year.