Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

The University provides an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), which is independent, free and confidential for both emotional and practical support.  This service is run by CiC and called Confidential Care and gives you a place to turn for support any time of day or night, 365 days a year.

How to access the service

You can contact Confidential Care in the following ways:

By phone: 0800 085 1376 for the Advice Line

By email: assist@cicwellbeing.com

By the Live Chat facility on the Well Online portal (between 9.00 and 17.00 pm Monday to Friday)

New portal - Wellbeing Gateway - Helping you achieve your wellbeing goals

The Wellbeing Gateway is provided by our Employee Assistance Programme, CiC, and replaces its previous Ele wellbeing platform.   It is intended to help you manage your wellbeing, build healthy habits and access professional support when life feels more challenging – whether this be at work or in your personal life.

What’s new?
The new platform contains articles, videos and resources covering mental, physical, financial and everyday wellbeing, presented in a more straightforward way.   There are also now new tools allowing you to track your wellbeing. The Wellbeing Check tool allows you to assess key elements of your wellbeing, while Wellbeing Pulse provides a quick weekly check-in to track changes.  Personalised recommendations have also been improved, and it is now easier to contact CiC to ask questions or access additional support, including via a live chat tool.

To access the Wellbeing Gateway visit wellbeinggateway.co.uk
You can then log in using your colleague ID email address e.g. xy123456@reading.ac.uk. If prompted, our company code password is ‘Readingwellbeing’.
Watch a video demo of the Wellbeing Gateway.

Your use of the the platform will be subject to the terms and privacy notice of CiC. These can be found by reading the Wellbeing Gateway CiC Privacy notice. 

To note, The Wellbeing Gateway content is developed and provided by CIC independently for its clients including the University of Reading. This tool is provided as part of our contract with CIC for use by our employees.

Emotional Support

Confidential Care is provided by CIC and all counsellors are fully accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Experienced, professional counsellors are available to listen to your concerns, and determine the most appropriate course of structured support for you bearing in mind your own unique set of circumstances. They are only able to provide brief rather than long-term intervention and they may conclude after clinical assessment that counselling is not appropriate, which may be disappointing for some.  As a professional provider, we expect the CiC team to be honest and caring in their dealings with you and do their best to provide you with information about the most appropriate course of action for you.

Practical Support

Legal, financial and tax advice: you can access experts for an information and signposting service. The service provides one consultation per unique issue per year. You are eligible to make a number of calls, as long as they are about different issues each time.

Information Services

  • Work Life - Topics includes work/life balance, bullying, communication issues, equality and diversion
  • Body & Mind - Topics include change, anxiety, depression, grief, mental health awareness, health, stress and wellbeing
  • Home Life - This could include relationships, family care and moving house. With family care this includes child, elder and dependent care information.  Support with all child, elder and disability care issues. From finding a care home for an elderly relative to locating a playgroup in your area, all suppliers are thoroughly vetted.
  • Everyday matters - is a valuable time-saving tool that can help locate any service, activity or supplier in your area, including GP surgeries, health and fitness facilities, adult education and specialist retailers. Travel advice is also available. 

Support for Managers

The Managerial Advice Line provides support for managers with challenges and problems within their teams.

It can help with issues around conflicts at work, work-related stress, team, behavioural issues, and much more.

See the guidance sheet for more information. 

Here are some Case Studies .   

Managerial Adviceline Available on 0800 085 3805, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, excluding Bank Holidays.