Since 1883 the Bank Workers Charity (BWC) has supported members of the UK banking community past and present.
Today, there’s a specific focus on supporting the health and wellbeing of current and former bank employees and their dependants.
Therefore, BWC has broadened its support services and can help you across a range of areas. These areas include mental health conditions, caring responsibilities, debt and money management, bereavement, disability and long-term health conditions, relationship matters, housing issues, and in some cases, financial help.
That’s why BWC is working in partnership with Relate to provide access to free relationship support and counselling.
When a relationship goes wrong, you can’t always see the wood for the trees. Relate gave me an outside perspective and time to address our problems before making rash decisions.
What can Relate help with?
Employees working in the banking sector are facing challenges that have a big impact on their lives. These include changes in employment arising through the enhanced regulatory environment, and the digitisation of banking and socio-demographic changes.
Balancing relationships and day-to-day life can be challenging against this backdrop.
Through Relate’s professional counselling service, BWC is offering the UK banking community additional support to explore complex or difficult issues in a safe and confidential environment.
What’s on offer?
Relationship Counselling
Whether you’re facing difficulties in your relationship or you'd just like to get to know your partner better, Relationship Counselling can make a real difference.
Counselling provides a supportive, confidential and caring environment in which you can talk over any problems and think about ways to address them.
BWC will pay for up to six Relationship Counselling sessions.
Family Counselling
Families can be a source of support, encouragement and love. But sometimes relationships within families are put under strain and family members feel isolated or overlooked.
Family Counselling can include nuclear and extended family members, separated parents, children and stepfamilies attending together or at different times. The focus is on the family system and improving the relationships in the family.
Up to six Family Counselling sessions are available.
Sex Therapy
Sex Therapy can help if you're experiencing difficulties in your love life and can help you to improve physical intimacy. Employees of UK banks, past and present, and their partners can access up to six free sessions.
Children and Young People’s Counselling
Children and Young People's (CYP) Counselling is for any child or young person who's having problems. Whether it's depression, anger issues, mental health concerns or issues with parents or people at school.
Children of current and former bank employees can access up to six free sessions.
How is counselling delivered?
All of the available services can be delivered over the phone, by video call or face-to-face, meaning you can get in touch whichever way suits you best.
Who is eligible to access the Support Services?
Relate support services are available to current and former employees of UK banks, including their dependent children. Whether you're married, living together, in a same-sex relationship, separated, divorced or single, we can help.
Are these services confidential?
Relate counselling is a private and confidential form of help. We hold information about each of our clients and the counselling they receive in confidence. This means that we will not normally give your name or any information about you to anyone outside the organisation. However, there are exceptional cases where Relate might ethically or legally have to give information to relevant authorities, for example, if we had reason to believe that someone, especially a child, is at serious risk of harm or to prevent a miscarriage of justice. We will discuss any proposed disclosure with you unless we believe that to do so could increase the level of risk to you or to someone else.
Where Relate are providing the counselling on behalf of an employer/funder, the employer/funder may provide Relate with a unique reference number for each client. This allows Relate to work with the employer/funder, where a client may require further sessions and Relate need to seek permission to do so by providing the unique reference number and a rationale. In all cases, the confidential details of the sessions will not be shared with the employer/funder.
How to access the services
To access Relate’s services, you can contact BWC by calling their Helpline on 0800 0234 834 - they’re open Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm (except bank holidays).
Or head to their website to speak with an adviser via their Live Chat service where they’ll take your details and evidence of your banking service and then put you in touch with a trained Relate consultant.