- Home
- Latest News
- About Us
- Membership
- Events
- Services
- Suppliers
We're proud to offer early learning service providers a high-quality EAP
The Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) is proud to be in partnership with Telus Health the most trusted mental health and wellbeing partner to over 15,000 organizations around the world - in order to offer the early learning sector a high-quality Employee Assistance Program (EAP) at a fraction of the usual cost.
We chose TELUS Health because they offer a comprehensive modern Employee Assistance Program (EAP) which aims to destigmatise mental health issues and offer a more holistic approach.
In addition to professional counselling and therapy services, TELUS Health offers your team of staff access to ongoing proactive health advice, via a range of interactive digital tools such as a mobile app and website resources.
Importantly, TELUS Health offers personalised solutions with a tailored level of support that individuals are comfortable with, when and how they choose it.
Watch our introductory video
ACA President Paul Mondo and TELUS Health Director of Business Development Kylie Hancock provide an overview of:
The impact of mental health issues on the workplace
While lifestyle factors including work, diet, drugs and lack of sleep can all affect one's mental health, those struggling with a mental health problem are often experiencing additional factors.
Life experiences such as serious illness or a death in the family, family or marital problems, physical health problems, social isolation, study or work stress can all have an impact on the mental health of your team members.
If mental health issues among your team are not addressed, they can eventually lead to high absenteeism, lost productivity and high staff turnover.
You may be interested to know that ACECQA's Ten Year Workforce Strategy includes an entire focus area on wellbeing (Focus Area 4 on page 52), which calls for research into practical mental health strategies for employees that work and the promotion of these wellbeing supports.
How can service providers foster positive mental health for their team?
As an employer, you can implement strategies for a healthy workplace which promote the mental and physical wellbeing of your staff and also provide support to anyone who may be experiencing mental health issues.
A very important part of your strategy to foster a mentally healthy workplace includes offering your staff access to an EAP, which aims to enhance mental health and wellbeing, maximise productivity and improve organisational culture.
By improving your team members' lives and wellbeing, they will be happier, healthier, and ultimately more engaged and productive at work.
What exactly is an
Employee Assistance Program?
An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is an external service, paid for by the employer, to ensure their employees and their families have access to professional assistance for personal or work-related issues that are impacting on their employment or work performance.
The EAP usually offers your team of staff a suite of practical services such as counselling or therapy from psychologists, social workers and other mental health professionals along with practical everyday life support including general health advice and programs. A comprehensive EAP can even include legal services and financial management or debt support.
What about the privacy of my staff?
Any EAP benefits received by employees or family members remain confidential.
This means that while the employer pays for the service, they have no insight into an employee's specific use of the service.
That is, employers do not get to know who is utilizing the service, what the reasons are for, or how often employees call.
This is an important detail, as it means that employees can trust that they are engaging with a private, confidential service.
What is the USUAL cost of an EAP?
EAP services are offered at no cost to the employees - it is the employer who pays for the service.
Under most EAP packages to employers, the employer pays an annual subscription fee and sometimes additional charges depending on the service being accessed by the staff, such as the counselling service (which can be face-to-face or a telehealth service).
Generally the EAP subscription fee to the employer can range from $2,000 - $5,000 annually, with an additional average cost of approximately $90 a year per employee. The total cost to the business will vary depending on the number of staff employed. As an example, for a business that has 30 staff, the annual cost for an EAP would work out to approximately $5,000 to $8,000 a year.
In the context of the challenging times for the early learning sector as well as for the entire Australian community over the last few years, the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) is committed to addressing the mental health needs of our sector. We know that larger service providers are in a stronger position to be able to afford an EAP service, whereas smaller service providers are less likely to have the financial capacity to take one on.
What is the much lower cost of the ACA/TELUS Health EAP?
Our partnership with TELUS Health means that we can offer an ongoing high-quality EAP package to the early learning sector at a fraction of the usual annual cost.
The ACA/TELUS Health EAP Pricing Structure
The 12-month annual subscription fee is calculated at:
$24 + GST per staff member for ACA members; and
$31 + GST per staff member for non-members.
Eg. If you have 100 staff, the annual fee (ie. a 12-month subscription) for an ACA member would be $2,400 plus GST or $3,100 plus GST for a non-member.
That's it - there are no additional fees and this is an ongoing low-cost offer.
ACA's annual subscription period which commences on 1 August every year. New sign ups outside of this period will be billed on a pro-rata basis (i.e. for the amount of months to take place between the time of subscription and 1 August next year).
What is the extent of the services in the ACA/TELUS Health offer to early learning service providers?
When you sign up to the ACA/TELUS Health EAP, your staff members will have access to:
*PLEASE NOTE: The service is not designed to replace emergency services.
- CareNow self-guided digital clinical support covering over 30 topics.
- Total Wellbeing Index – measure the health of your own wellbeing with de-identified, aggregated reporting to understand the health of your entire organisation.
You can read more about TELUS Health, their history, and the services they offer here
Does the EAP offer Critical Incident Support?
The ACA/TELUS Health EAP subscription does not include Critical Indicent Support, but when you sign up to the EAP you have immediate access to this service as an add-on payable extra via TELUS Health should you require it. Your service will be invoiced directly from TELUS Health on a case by case basis, should you request this level of service.
TELUS Health uses a team of specialist clinicians with trauma response experience to provide appropriate and highly responsive critical incident support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Their specialised Critical Incident Disaster Response support clinicians provide immediate guidance regarding the likely effects of a traumatic event, they will agree on an intervention plan, including clinically appropriate response times.
The TELUS Health team will also recommend the most appropriate intervention for your circumstances and will dispatch local clinicians to conduct onsite interventions.
The TELUS Health team will also recommend the most appropriate intervention for your circumstances and will dispatch local clinicians to conduct onsite interventions.
TELUS Health uses a team of specialist clinicians with trauma response experience to provide appropriate and highly responsive critical incident support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Their specialised Critical Incident Disaster Response support clinicians provide immediate guidance regarding the likely effects of a traumatic event, they will agree on an intervention plan, including clinically appropriate response times.
The TELUS Health team will also recommend the most appropriate intervention for your circumstances and will dispatch local clinicians to conduct onsite interventions.
TELUS Health uses a team of specialist clinicians with trauma response experience to provide appropriate and highly responsive critical incident support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Their specialised Critical Incident Disaster Response support clinicians provide immediate guidance regarding the likely effects of a traumatic event, they will agree on an intervention plan, including clinically appropriate response times.
The TELUS Health team will also recommend the most appropriate intervention for your circumstances and will dispatch local clinicians to conduct onsite interventions.
How to sign up your service
To sign up, please complete the online subscription form here.
Within 7 days of completing the form, you will be sent:
If you need any assistance with this process or have any queries, please contact your local ACA State Body directly.
We hope you take full advantage of this incredibly valuable offer.
SUPPORT FOR THE MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING OF YOUR STAFF
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
What is an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)?
An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is an external service, paid for by the employer, to ensure their employees and their families have access to professional assistance for personal or work-related issues that are impacting on their employment or work performance.
The EAP usually offers your team of staff a suite of practical services such as counselling from psychologists, social workers and other mental health professionals along with practical everyday life support including general health advice and programs around financial management or debt support.
The price of the ACA/TELUS Health EAP seems too good to be true - have I read the costs correctly? Will the costs go up next year?
Yes you have read the pricing structure correctly!
This is an ongoing offer for early learning service providers (both ACA members and non members) , to ensure that the early learning sector has access to an affordable, high-quality EAP.
As per the costs outlined below, the costs for the ACA/TELUS Health EAP are substantially less than for an EAP when subscribed directly between the employer and the EAP service.
We have achieved this low cost on behalf of the sector, by working with TELUS Health to come up with a packaged service that offers what we think are the most important inclusions for your team of staff, in order to be able to offer you an EAP at a much lower cost than usual.
These items include:
The ACA/TELUS Health EAP Pricing Structure
The 12-month annual subscription fee is calculated at:
That's it - there are no additional fees and this is an ongoing low-cost offer.
Why should an early learning service have an EAP in place for their staff?
As an employer, you can implement strategies for a healthy workplace which promote the mental and physical wellbeing of your staff and also provide support to anyone who may be experiencing mental health issues.
A very important part of your strategy to foster a mentally healthy workplace includes offering your staff access to an EAP, which aims to enhance mental health and wellbeing, maximise productivity and improve organisational culture.
By improving your team members' lives and wellbeing, they will be happier, healthier, and ultimately more engaged and productive at work.
Does ECEC Services have to offer their team an EAP?
No, there is no regulation that stipulates that Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services have to offer their staff an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).However you may be interested to know that ACECQA's Ten Year National Workforce Strategy includes an entire focus area on wellbeing (Focus Area 4 on page 52), which calls for research into practical mental health strategies for employees that work, along with the promotion of these wellbeing supports.It is well recognised that the provision of an EAP can make a big difference to the workplace culture and environment by supporting your employees' health and wellbeing. Offering an EAP can result in staff employees being more engaged and satisfied with their jobs and employers, which in turn feeds into the level of quality of the service as well as staff retention rates.
How many telephone-based counselling sessions can each of my staff access?
Under the ACA/TELUS Health EAP, your staff have free access to three telephone-based or video-based (their preference) counselling sessions for each individual issue.
An individual issue may be a life situation such as the death of a loved one, separation of a partnership, a particular trauma event or something more general such as one's current personal emotional state.
If individuals would like additional counselling for a particular issue beyond the three free sessions, they may be referred to an external counselling service. This is something they may wish to discuss during their session.
Does the ACA/Telus Health EAP include face-to-face counselling sessions?
No - the ACA/TELUS Health EAP offers employees 24/7 access to telephone-based and video-based counselling only.This includes scheduled telephone and video appointments for non-urgent incoming calls - which make up the majority of callers - and immediate access to telephone-based counselling for emergency situations (i.e. when the caller has expressed that they are in danger of physically harming themselves or someone else).
However TELUS Health can also arrange referrals to in-person counselling, of which the cost can be partially or fully covered by a Mental Health Plan (through your GP) via Medicare.
Does the ACA/Telus Health EAP include Critical Incident Support?
No - the ACA/TELUS Health EAP subscription does not include Critical Indicent Support in your initial subscription.
However when you sign up to the EAP you have immediate access to this service as an add-on payable extra via TELUS Health should you require it.
Should you request this level of service, you will be invoiced directly from TELUS Health on a case by case basis, .
TELUS Health uses a team of specialist clinicians with trauma response experience to provide appropriate and highly responsive critical incident support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Their specialised Critical Incident Disaster Response support clinicians provide immediate guidance regarding the likely effects of a traumatic event, they will agree on an intervention plan, including clinically appropriate response times.
The TELUS Health team will also recommend the most appropriate intervention for your circumstances and will dispatch local clinicians to conduct onsite interventions.
What other benefits can my team of staff take advantage of when using the EAP?
Why does the EAP provide only one log in & password for all my staff to use?
In order to reduce administrative costs, the ACA/TELUS Health EAP provides you with one log-in ID and password, to be shared with all staff.
However as soon as your individual staff members engage with the online platform on a personal level, such as by starting an online health assessment, they will be asked to create their own log-in & password. This means that if they record their weight, height, etc, this information will be stored in their own, private and personal profile.
Does the EAP allow employees to see which services their staff are using and why?
No - any EAP benefits received by employees or family members remain confidential.
This means that while the employer pays for the service, the employer has no insight into an employee's use of the service.
That is, employers do not get to know who is using and accessing the service, how often employees may be calling the telephone therapy service or what they might be using it for.
This is an important detail, as it means that employees can trust that they are engaging with a private, confidential service.
