Beacon Counselling Trust was represented at the BuildForce National Armed Forces Insight Day in Harrogate, continuing conversations around Armed Forces wellbeing, prevention and the role employers can play in reducing gambling-related harm.
The event, hosted by AtkinsRéalis at the Pavilions of Harrogate on 14 October, brought the Armed Forces community together with employers from across construction and the wider built environment. The programme included career conversations, keynote speeches, CV support, live interviews, an employer forum and talent-matching opportunities.
For Beacon, the event provided an opportunity to explore another important part of successful transition into civilian employment: how workplaces protect and nurture the health and wellbeing of the people behind those skills.
BuildForce supports Service Leavers, veterans, reservists, spouses and dependants into sustainable careers, with its wider programme incorporating mental health, sport and wellbeing and after-care alongside employment and training support.
This closely connects with Beacon’s commissioned prevention-focused approach to gambling-related harms.
Gambling harm doesn’t exist in isolation. The workplace can be an important setting in which conversations begin, changes are noticed and people are able to access support.
Through Beacon’s Workplace Charter to tackle gambling-related harms, the organisation encourages employers to consider how workplace culture, policy and staff awareness can create environments where gambling-related harm is understood and where people feel able to ask for help.
The event also followed Beacon Counselling Trust’s recent Health & Wellbeing Award at the English Veterans Awards, recognising the organisation’s work supporting the Armed Forces community.
Nicola Jaques MBE, representing Beacon at the event, said: “Our Armed Forces community brings an extraordinary range of skills, experience and assets into our workplaces. Preserving those assets means investing in the wellbeing of the people who carry them.
“Prevention starts with making difficult conversations easier. If workplaces understand gambling-related harm, recognise when somebody may be struggling and know how to respond, we have an opportunity to intervene much earlier. That’s where workplace wellbeing and public health really connect.”
Good workplace wellbeing is about more than responding when somebody reaches crisis. BCT’s Workplace Charter is encouraging employers to consider:
- Would staff feel comfortable raising concerns about gambling-related harm?
- Would managers recognise the signs and know what to do next?
- Does workplace policy reflect gambling as a health and wellbeing issue?
- Are routes to appropriate support clear?
- Could your organisation do more around prevention rather than waiting for harm to escalate?
If you’re interested in how the Workplace Charter could support your workplace to better understand, prevent and respond to gambling-related harm, contact Dave Eva at dave.eva@beaconcounsellingtrust.co.uk.