Confidential 1-to-1 support for your team. Prompt counselling access. Straightforward registration. Delivered by a trusted Cambridge charity.
UK employers lose millions of working days to stress and poor mental health each year. Investing in support pays back.
Workplace Mental Health Statistics
HSE’s latest statistics show that in 2023/24:
776,000 workers experienced stress, depression or anxiety caused by work
This led to 16.4 million working days lost
Each person affected took an average of 21.1 days off
Deloitte’s latest research (2024) finds that poor mental health now costs UK employers £51 billion a year.
Presenteeism (working while unwell) is now the biggest hidden cost to employers, reducing productivity and overall performance.
Effects of Workplace Support
Employers who invest in mental-health support see an average return of nearly £5 for every £1 spent.
Mental health affects attendance, performance, and retention.
Happy, well-supported employees are around 13% more productive on average.
When people get timely support, they cope better, come back sooner, and stay longer.
Investing in employees wellbeing can:
Reduce absence and presenteeism
Improve team morale and resilience
Save money
Show staff you care (and strengthen your organisational ethos)
- Reduce staff turn over
Organisational Health Check Quiz
Take our 2-minute Organisational Health Check.
Answer a few quick questions to see how your organisation is doing on staff wellbeing. You’ll get instant feedback and practical tips.
Results
Your organisation already has strong support in place for staff wellbeing. Keep building on this by making sure support remains visible, accessible, and part of everyday culture.
You’re taking steps towards supporting staff, but there are gaps. Strengthening access to confidential, professional support could help employees feel more secure and valued and improve your workplace culture.
👉 Our Employee Counselling Service (ECS) is designed for organisations who want to offer support but don’t already have in-house or external wellbeing provision. It’s affordable, confidential, and makes a real difference to staff and community. Learn more below.
Your organisation may be leaving staff without the support they need. Stress, depression and anxiety remain leading causes of lost working days in the UK. Now is a good time to explore structured options for workplace wellbeing.
👉 Our Employee Counselling Service (ECS) is designed for organisations who want to offer support but don’t already have in-house or external wellbeing provision. It’s affordable, confidential, and makes a real difference to staff and community. Learn more below.
#1. Does your organisation have a clear wellbeing policy or strategy in place?
#2. How important is employee wellbeing in your business priorities?
#3. Do employees have access to confidential mental health support (e.g. counselling)?
#4. In the past 12 months, have staff taken time off due to stress, anxiety or depression?
#5. Do you feel confident your organisation can support staff if a mental health crisis arises?
How can Cogwheel help your organisation?
Employee Counselling Service (ECS) is designed especially for small and medium organisations or charities who want to support their staff (or service users) but don’t have in-house wellbeing provision. By signing up to the ECS you can look after your employees and clients wellbeing, and improve your work culture without costly overheads.
By partnering with Cogwheel, organisations not only give their employees access to affordable, confidential support, they also help us continue providing reduced-cost counselling for people on low incomes across Cambridgeshire.
Who is Employee Counselling Service For?
Benefits of Employee Counselling Service
How does employee counselling service add value to your organisation?
- Accessible mental health support
- Prompt counselling access
- Confidential & independent from HR teams
- Qualified counsellors with local knowledge
- Choice of in-person or online counselling
- Clear goals: focused support over 6–10 counselling sessions
- Predictable cost: simple per-session pricing (£69 per session), no hidden fees
- Quick access: prompt counselling access
- Low admin: we handle referrals, scheduling and confidentiality
- 20-minute check-in once a year: this is a light, culture-focused review to figure out how we can best support your organisation
- Optional ‘benefits of counselling’ workshop: delivered by our Head of Services
- Responsive partner: real people you can speak to about mental health and wellbeing concerns
- Community impact: income from the ECS also supports affordable counselling in the Cambridgeshire Community.
- Cogwheel Counselling is trusted Cambridge Charity serving the local community for over 35 years
- When your organisation uses Cogwheel employee counselling service, you’re not only supporting your team. You’re helping Cogwheel keep counselling affordable for people in the local community on low incomes who might otherwise go without support
- Every session with ECS contributes to our mission as a charity
How does Employee Counselling Service (ECS) Work?
All sessions are delivered by qualified counsellors to BPAC standards
Registration: The organisation registers for the ECS for free by completing the form below and providing a dedicated point of contact.
Tell your team: Once registered, we will send an information pack including all the resources you need to inform employees/ service users of the service.
Employee Self-referral: Employees accessing the service will be directly emailed by Cogwheel’s Head of Services. On initial contact, the employee will be directed to a dedicated, fully qualified counsellor, without the delay of a long waiting list.
Start Counselling: Counselling can be delivered either in-person in Cambridge or online.
Invoicing: Counselling fees are paid after the agreed number of sessions have been delivered to an individual.
Additional Information:
Client confidentiality: Cogwheel is a confidential service.
Conflicts of interest: Sessions delivered by the same Cogwheel counsellor to more than one employee will be avoided as far as possible.
Number of sessions: Options for either six or ten sessions are available funded by the organisation, which would include an assessment in the first session.
Session length: Sessions are 50 minutes.
Extending beyond six or ten sessions: This can be arranged, and would be at the personal cost of the employee or the business or organisation, should it decide to fund additional sessions.
What's Included in Employee Counselling Service (ECS) Registration?
- Fast tracked counselling.
- Initial assessment and risk screen
- Matching with a suitably available counsellor
- 6–10 weekly sessions using a variety of counselling approaches.
- Clinical governance and supervision
- Signposting if more suitable support is needed
- Sign posting to ECS provided (posters, emails, info packs)
- Annual 20-minute wellbeing check-in with your ECS lead (high-level culture review to learn more about how Cogwheel can support your organisational wellbeing and mental health challenges, no clinical details shared)
- Occasional updates on specific work based wellbeing issues
- Responsive mental health partner
- Real people to speak to and build relationships with
- Supporting Cogwheel also supports affordable mental health provision within our local Cambridge community
Wellbeing with a Wider Impact
Supporting your staff means supporting your community. Together, we make wellbeing accessible for everyone.
When your organisation invests in our Employee Counselling Service (ECS), you’re supporting more than just your team. You’re strengthening the wellbeing of the wider community.
Every session you fund helps to make counselling accessible for people across Cambridgeshire who are on low incomes or out of work. This means your workplace wellbeing investment doubles as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) action — improving mental health equity while supporting your staff.
By choosing Cogwheel, your business becomes part of a local movement that believes wellbeing shouldn’t depend on income. It’s a simple, measurable way to show your commitment to community values and make a lasting social impact.
When you invest in ECS you also :
- Invest locally: every session supports mental health services across Cambridgeshire
- Champion equality: make counselling accessible for those who can’t afford it
- Strengthen wellbeing: create healthier workplaces and communities
- Show measurable impact: your investment funds 1 community sessions per ECS session
There’s strong evidence that people on lower incomes are more likely to experience mental health problems, yet are often the least able to afford professional help.
To change this, we created the Cogwheel Counselling Support Fund (CCSF) – ensuring that money is never a barrier to support.
How the fund helps:
Bridges the gap: contributes up to £18 per session for those out of work or on Universal Credit
Improves access: allows individuals of all ages (5+) on low incomes to receive counselling for as little as £11 per session
Supports local people: all funds go directly to clients across Cambridgeshire
- Sustained by community: every ECS session helps keep the CCSF running
Together, we make sure that nobody in our community is priced out of mental health support.
While the Cogwheel Counselling Support Fund provides affordable accessible mental health support for people who are unemployed or earning less than £20k, all of our counselling services are matched to income and are available at affordable rates below market value.
Our affordable counselling is based on income, priced at between £29 – £69 per session based on affordability.
In 2023 alone, we provided over 3,000 affordable counselling sessions and 953 heavily reduced sessions for people needing mental health support, who might not have been able to afford it otherwise.
At Cogwheel, we believe that affordable counselling should be available to everyone, no matter their age, background, or income.
We support:
Children (aged 5+): helping them express emotions, build confidence, and cope with life changes
Young people and students: offering a safe space to explore identity, stress, and relationships
Adults: supporting individuals through anxiety, depression, loss, and life’s challenges
Older adults: addressing loneliness, grief, and emotional wellbeing in later life
Ready to support your team?
Register for free by completing the form below or book a call to learn more. A member of our team will be in touch!
Registration Form
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