Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
The Employee Assistance Programme, provided to Cheshire East Council by Vita Health Group, is a completely free to use and confidential assistance service for all employees to help staff manage, reduce and overcome the impact of life issues which they may experience from time to time, both within work and their personal life.
The EAP Services (MS PowerPoint, 23KB) presentation explains in more detail about Vita Health Group and the Employee Assistance Programme offered to staff, including information on the clinicians, how counselling is structured and the support for managers.
How to access the service
This service is available to permanent staff members.
- Phone: 0800 111 6387 (free 24/7 helpline).
- Web: my-eap.com - log-in using organisation code 'Cheshirewell'
- Live web chat - available between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday, and 8am to 5pm Saturday.
Vita Health Group newsletters
Vita Health Group share regular newsletters containing lots of useful information, hints and tips for managing your wellbeing, including topics such as the cost of living and energy saving advice.
Read the Vita Health Group newsletters
Key dates and awareness days 2025
There are so many important initiatives and awareness days that happen throughout the year and participating in these dates can provide a lot of value. It can also create the opportunity to start vital conversations that may otherwise be missed.
Download the key dates calendar for 2025 (PDF, 1.8MB).
Manager referral
The EAP service is strictly confidential, but if you need that little bit of extra support, your manager can request EAP contact you. This will only be provided if you give your consent. Your manager will only receive confirmation of whether contact was made with you, no details of the support you receive or content of the phone call will be provided.
How managers make a referral:
The manager will be asked to provide:
- Referrer details: name, contact number, e-mail
- Confirmation of consent from you that you are happy for contact to be made
- Employee details: contact number, availability, whether a message may be left, date of birth, home address
When EAP make contact, they will ask explore options with you to determine the best support.
What services they provide
The Employee Assistance Programme is provided through an external provider, Vita Health Group, who provide a variety of services to support you in difficult situations. Vita Health Group have a range of trained staff and experts available who provide general support, help and counselling to ensure you get the help and support you need when you need it.
The service isn’t just limited to mental health support, there is a wide range of other support available:
- Financial wellbeing
- Work advice
- Gambling support
- Stress management
- General information and signposting
There are no limits on the number of calls made for advice and support, but the following is limited to one call per employee:
- UK taxation
- Family
- Property disputes
- Education
- Health and social security
- Housing and property
- Employment
- Medical advice
- Custody of children
- Divorce
- Consumer information
Why choose the EAP service
Face to face and telephone counselling
Up to six counselling sessions may be arranged following referral by the telephone counsellor. An appropriate counsellor will be selected from a nationwide network of qualified counsellors and chartered psychologists.
Please note the EAP may offer a variety of support, counselling is not guaranteed.
Anti-bullying helpline
Our Stop Bullying Behaviour (SBB) helpline is available for all staff. All calls and support will be completely confidential. If you need some extra help or information please don’t hesitate to call them on 0800 138 4798. Your wellbeing at work is hugely important to us at Cheshire East and we want you to feel assured you have an outlet for when you feel you need that extra support.
All calls and support will be completely confidential.