Capita PLC

Capita is a purpose-led organisation and a leading provider of business process services, driven by data, technology and people. Every day our 50,000 colleagues, based in 10 countries, help millions of people by delivering innovative, digitally enabled solutions to transform and simplify the connections between government and citizens, businesses and customers. We have many customer-facing roles, including a large contact centre portfolio which provides, among other services, out of hours support to local councils dealing with vulnerable clients.

How does your organisation contribute to preventing suicide and supporting those affected by it?

Within Capita we have dedicated teams for Safeguarding, Wellbeing, Health / Safety / and Environment, and Occupational Health. These teams are each run by experts and are led by Capita’s Senior Medical Officer. A key objective for Capita is to protect the wellbeing, safety and health of all Capita’s employees, the people we work with and our service users. We have clear frameworks in place to guide all of our health-related functions, and for both colleagues and service users this includes signposting and appropriate safeguarding actions if suicidal behaviours are indicated. For our colleagues, we also have a multi-disciplinary support process called SafetyNet which provides expert and independent support and advice to Human Resources colleagues, Employee Relations representatives and line managers across Capita, who are dealing with complex HR cases within their teams, which also may involve, safeguarding, health, wellbeing, or vulnerability issues.

What are your current priorities?

At Capita we believe suicide is preventable.
To support this belief and drive positive action, we have an ongoing set of projects aimed at educating colleagues about suicide and protecting colleagues from harm. We work closely with external agencies including central and local governments, emergency services, and a range of influential charities to help inform our approach and to allow us to innovate in this area.

What challenges are you currently facing?

Increasing awareness among our colleagues, Senior Executives and the Board. Should they feel suicidal themselves or someone mentions that they are feeling suicidal to them (including our customers), that they know what to do and where to go.
We continue to provide guidance and signpost support including when to notify the emergency services and when safeguarding referrals are required.