- Author, Alys Harte
- Role, File 4
The UK’s largest provider of workplace mental health services allowed corporate clients to listen to confidential help calls without the callers’ knowledge or permission, a BBC investigation has found.
Advisers working for the firm, Health Assured, told BBC’s File on 4 that the practice was “grossly inappropriate” and “unethical”. Lawyers said it also risked breaching privacy and data protection laws.
Health Assured told the BBC the practice was “not in line with company policy” and said it had “taken steps to ensure it does not happen again in the future”.
He strongly disputed that the practice violated the confidentiality or privacy of its users.
Health Assured provides Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) services, including a short-term helpline and advice, to 13 million workers across the UK and Ireland.
EAPs are intended to help employees deal with personal problems that may affect their well-being and performance at work.
Dozens of people contacted the BBC, including 30 current and former employees of Health Assured and its parent company, after we reported in March on claims that helpline calls made by vulnerable people were not always being handled appropriately.
Listen to File 4: Research on Employee Assistance Programs Sounds of the BBC
At the time, Health Assured refuted those allegations, saying it held itself to the highest standards, “putting people first… in the care we provide.” It also said it used a variety of methods to help callers and that the most appropriate route was decided by a detailed clinical assessment.
In addition to listening to confidential calls, the new allegations made to the BBC about Health Assured include:
- Non-clinically trained staff are being recruited to help eliminate delays in initial calls to the helpline
- Confidentiality agreements are used to prevent former employees from speaking out about allegations of unfair treatment or discrimination.
- Some former employees are being threatened with legal action unless they remove negative online reviews about Health Assured
- A former employee, with no clinical training, described having to search for advice online while waiting to transfer a call from a suicidal person to a counselor.
“The caller never noticed”
Maria (not her real name) worked for Health Assured as a counselor for several years.
He told us it was not unusual for representatives of corporate clients (companies that had already contracted with Health Assured to provide services to their employees) to be allowed to listen in on helpline calls to see how the service was administered.
“The basic premise of the helpline is that it is confidential, but the [callers] “I never knew,” he said. “It was never revealed. It’s very unethical.”
Corporate clients were offered the chance to listen in on calls, during which sensitive information could be revealed, sometimes to “smooth things over” after a complaint, another former employee told us.
“They told us [a corporate client] “I was going to be listening. In that case, the counselor knew because we wanted to make sure he was at his best, but the person who called never found out.”
The helpline is designed to offer employees support with personal problems such as bullying, grief or depression.
Sources told us that on more than one occasion, corporate clients themselves became distressed after listening to the calls and needed support from Health Assured advisors.
As one former employee said: “If there was a high-risk or suicide call, [the person listening in] “I ended up being traumatized by it.”
Health Assured’s website says it is committed to privacy and data protection principles, and that these helplines are “necessarily confidential – privacy laws and ethics dictate this.”
He also says that callers “can be assured that anything they say… will not go beyond the counselor they speak to.”
In a statement, Health Assured told the BBC that the practice of corporate clients listening to “limited parts of initial helpline calls” was done “in good faith” to “demonstrate quality assurance”, but admitted it was not company policy and said it would not happen again.
He strongly refuted any suggestion that he breached the confidentiality of callers, adding that “appropriate arrangements had been made with [those] who heard elements of the calls live.”
It was not stated whether consent was sought or whether sensitive personal information was disclosed during the calls.
In addition to corporate clients, counselors applying for jobs at Health Assured were allowed to listen to live support calls as part of an open hiring day without the knowledge or permission of the callers. This occurred in February of this year.
Image source, Limited insured health
Terry Hanley, professor of counselling psychology at the University of Manchester, told the BBC he thought the practice was “highly questionable” and “unnecessary” given the ease with which “more sensible” alternatives can be adopted.
Health Assured told the BBC this was done to ensure candidates were “capable of effectively supporting the types of calls we handle” and was “entirely appropriate” because they were qualified counsellors, bound by ethical standards and “strict confidentiality agreements”.
Health Assured is part of Peninsula Group, a Manchester-based HR, employment law and health and safety consultancy. The group’s founder and CEO is Peter Done, founder of gambling company Betfred.
In February, Health Assured won a £2m contract to provide emotional support services to the UK’s COVID-19 inquiry. The inquiry terminated the contract in March 2024, two weeks after the BBC’s original investigation. The company told the BBC it had exercised a common option for such contracts.
‘Sworn to secrecy’
The Health Assured helpline was sold to customers as a “fourth emergency service”, but former employees told the BBC that demand often significantly outstripped supply, especially during the pandemic. As a result, staff without clinical training were sometimes called upon to return initial calls and help clear the backlog at weekends, on so-called “super Saturdays”.
Meanwhile, before the pandemic, an “overflow” of calls was sometimes diverted to the phones of employees in other parts of the Peninsula Group, according to a former employee of one of these companies. These people were employed to provide business advice but had no clinical training.
The former employee said he was expected to answer helpline queries during overtime and schedule calls with counselors. However, due to the nature of the calls, he says he found himself giving advice he was not trained to provide.
They described nonclinical staff seeking advice online while talking on the phone to helpline callers. On one occasion, they said they were on the phone with a suicidal person for 15 minutes before someone from Health Assured was available to take over.
“No one wants to Google ‘how to help someone avoid suicide,’” we were told. “I’m not a therapist, I wasn’t prepared for this.”
The former employee said they had no choice but to answer the calls. They claimed this happened regularly during their time at the company and that they had been sworn to secrecy.
Health Assured said that during “exceptional peaks in demand” employees had worked overtime calling people to provide “a fast track to support” but not to actually provide support. It added that this had not happened since 2022.
He denied that an excess of calls were being redirected to other parts of the wider group and said it was incorrect to suggest Peninsula employees were given instructions or authorisation to triage and support advice calls.
‘Pressed’ to accept confidentiality agreements
Some former employees told the BBC that non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) had been used to prevent them from speaking out about allegations of unfair treatment or discrimination.
One said he had felt pressured to sign a confidentiality agreement when he was not well enough to understand the consequences of doing so.
Several said they were prescribed antidepressants or needed therapy after working at Health Assured.
The company told us it maintains the highest standards, both in the care provided and in the health and well-being of its employees.
He said “duties of confidentiality” prevented him from commenting on the use of confidentiality agreements.
‘Threatened with legal action’
When we asked Health Assured about all these allegations, the company pointed us to positive reviews online.
For example, Glassdoor, a website where current and former employees can anonymously review their time at a company, suggests that more than 70% of past and present Health Assured staff would recommend working there to a friend.
But the BBC has seen emails threatening legal action against former employees of Health Assured – and the wider Peninsula Group – unless they remove what the company said were fake and malicious online reviews.
The BBC also learned that negative online reviews, including from those who had used the company’s services, were regularly monitored.
Sources said senior management was keen to know how and when negative online reviews would be removed or resolved.
Asked about this, Health Assured told the BBC it tried to reach out to customers who expressed dissatisfaction to “find out what went wrong and how they can put things right.” It said all employees were encouraged to post honest reviews and the company only challenged fake ones.
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