"With more advisers now working remotely, possibly for the first time, it’s posing challenges for how business owners look after their staff and ensure they maintain a healthy work/life balance."
Care First is an independent provider of employee support services, offering confidential online support along with access to its team of professionally qualified counsellors and information specialists. Its team are experienced in helping people to deal with a wide range of practical and emotional issues such as health and wellbeing, family matters, relationships and workplace issues.
The new service for Sesame members is being funded by the network and is available free of charge 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by phone or online.
The new support package is the latest addition to Sesame’s Covid-19 Adviser Support Hub, which launched in March to provide advisers with a range of information and tools to help firms trade safely and look after their staff and customers through the pandemic.
Richard Howells, managing director at Sesame, said: “Our team is already assisting firms in a multitude of ways through this unprecedented and difficult period, however working in partnership with the specialists at Care First, we saw an opportunity to take our health and wellbeing support a step further. With more advisers now working remotely, possibly for the first time, it’s posing challenges for how business owners look after their staff and ensure they maintain a healthy work/life balance. This is of paramount importance to ensure that advisers are well placed to look after themselves, their clients and continue to trade safely through this time of uncertainty. That’s why Sesame is pleased to be funding the cost of an assistance programme through Care first, which is enabling advisory firms to access an extensive range of confidential information and expertise, free of charge, to assist with anything that’s troubling them.
“Providing access to specialist health and wellbeing support is another example of how we are using our Group’s scale and reach in the market to assist small advisory firms. This latest initiative also helps to build on the successful launch of our Covid-19 Adviser Support Hub, which regularly receives 1,000 visits a day from our members and clients, along with advisers from across the wider financial services industry.”
Tristan Rigby, commercial partnerships manager at Care First, commented: "At times of such uncertainty due to the developing Covid-19 pandemic, Care First understand first-hand how this situation may be making people feel very anxious; not just around emotional issues like feeling overwhelmed, or particularly worried about their own wellbeing, or concerns over their loved ones, but also regarding practical elements of our usual lifestyle which may be affected by these circumstances. Care First are delighted to begin our partnership with Sesame and support their members. It’s important more than ever to be able to provide a service that is available to everyone, however they work, and we believe our service will deliver this to Sesame."
