Education Support
EAP
See a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons of the Education Support EAP for schools, colleges and universities.
Education Support EAP overview
Education Support is a charity with roots in the 1877 teachers' benevolent fund, and it is the only UK EAP built exclusively for education staff. It runs the free 24/7 helpline for all UK education workers, a financial grants service, and a paid EAP covering roughly 100,000+ staff across around 1,400 schools, colleges and universities.
Its research arm publishes the widely cited Teacher Wellbeing Index, which gives the charity real credibility with unions, trusts and the Department for Education. The 2025 Index found education staff wellbeing at its lowest since 2019, with 78 percent of staff stressed.
The tiny Trustpilot base (a handful of reviews, 2.6) is not a meaningful sample, but it does flag inconsistent helpline quality.
At a glance
Trustpilot rating:
2.6
/ 5
EAP type:
Traditional EAP
Number of clients:
1,400+ schools
HQ:
UK
Services:
On-demand counselling
Next day sessions
Neurodivergence support
Integrations
Plan options:
Trial available
Flexible pricing options
No exit fees
Counselling on Education Support
Callers to the helpline speak directly to a qualified BACP-accredited counsellor rather than a call handler, 24/7, 365 days a year. There is no app or triage layer in the way.
The paid EAP adds structured counselling of up to six sessions per issue, face to face or by telephone, plus online CBT, management consultation for people managers, and financial and legal information lines.
The sector specialism is the point: counsellors used to school contexts, workload cycles and Ofsted pressure. The main public criticism is consistency, including one caller connected to a counsellor abroad who did not know the English school system.
Other services on Education Support
Integrations
No workplace tool integrations; access is phone-first with online CBT alongside. The charity wraps the EAP in sector extras: staff wellbeing surveys, organisational audits and wellbeing training for schools.
Confidentiality
Standard counselling confidentiality with BACP-accredited staff.
Extras
Grants for education staff in financial hardship sit alongside the EAP, though applicants must submit three months of bank statements and awards are made as vouchers, which one reviewer found intrusive. The Teacher Wellbeing Index and retention research are free public goods that benefit the whole sector.
Education Support EAP reviews
See what others say about
Education Support
Best reviews for Education Support
Sector specialism
It is the only UK EAP built solely for education staff, with counsellors used to school contexts, and unions including the NEU and NASUWT signpost members to it.
Direct access to counsellors
The 24/7 helpline connects callers straight to BACP-accredited counsellors with no triage queue, and thousands of staff are given counselling access each year.
Bad reviews for Education Support
Inconsistent helpline quality
Reviewers describe scripted call handling and generic advice, including a caller routed to a counsellor abroad with no knowledge of the English school system.
Limited, intrusive financial help
The grants process requires three months of itemised bank statements and pays in vouchers rather than cash, which some applicants abandon as invasive.
In Summary
Education Support occupies a special place: a charity doing genuinely important work for a burnt-out profession, at a price point (around £9 per staff member per year via resellers) that school budgets can absorb.
As an EAP, it is a classic six-session phone model with the strengths (direct counsellor access, sector fluency) and weaknesses (consistency, no digital booking, no same-day structured therapy) that implies.
For schools choosing between it and a generalist EAP at a similar price, the sector specialism usually wins. The real comparison is with modern therapy-first services, where the question becomes usage: what share of your staff will actually pick up the phone versus book a session from their laptop after the evening marking is done.
How Education Support compares to Spill
Education Support's free helpline is there for every education worker in the UK and deserves to be signposted in every staff room. As a paid EAP though, it offers up to six phone sessions per issue. Spill gives school and university staff unlimited therapy, booked in one click, with evening, weekend and holiday availability that fits around timetables and marking, from BACP-registered counsellors experienced in educator burnout.
Spill also fits school budgets and school procurement: from £75 a month on a rolling 30 day contract, no multi-year commitment, live within hours. A single school or a whole trust can start this term, not next budget year.
Choose Education Support if budget is the binding constraint and phone counselling at around £9 per head per year is all it allows. Choose Spill if you want teachers actually using unlimited therapy, booked around school life rather than during it.
See how Spill works for schools and trusts: book a free 30 minute demo or explore our EAP for schools and universities.