How Southern Water secured budget and buy-in for Health & Wellbeing
Lara
Wrote this on, January 27, 2026
Southern Water is a major UK utility provider, with around 3,200 employees working across a network of sites along the south coast. With a workforce that is around 72% male and two thirds operational, their teams include shift workers, lone workers, and frontline colleagues managing demanding, safety critical roles every day.
Like many organisations, Southern Water already had wellbeing “in place” on paper. There was an Employee Assistance Programme, an occupational health provision, and around 50 trained Mental Health First Aiders. But when Rachael Lewis joined as Health and Wellbeing Manager, it quickly became clear that having support available and having support embedded are two very different things.
Rachael didn’t come into the role with a neat pre-made programme. She came in with lived experience, a background spanning both the NHS and commercial roles, and a clear sense of what can happen when wellbeing is treated as an add-on rather than a risk. What followed was a reset. Not a rebrand. Not another awareness campaign. A proper rebuild of how peer support worked and how it was safeguarded.
Southern Water operates in a high-risk environment. Safety is already a well-understood language across the business, and Rachael quickly recognised that this needed to extend to psychological safety too.
Rather than positioning wellbeing as an engagement initiative or a cultural nice-to-have, the focus shifted to risk, prevention, and duty of care. That meant asking harder questions about how support actually functioned day to day, particularly for operational colleagues working shifts or in isolation.
A key priority was strengthening the Mental Health First Aid network, not just by increasing numbers, but by ensuring it was visible, supported, and properly governed.
This was where the partnership with Everymind at Work began, supported by Emily Langton, Partner Development Lead at Everymind.
Strengthening the Mental Health First Aid network
At the heart of Southern Water’s approach is its Mental Health First Aid network. Rather than leaving Mental Health First Aiders to operate in isolation, the network was redesigned to provide structure, oversight, and ongoing development.
Mental Health First Aiders now receive regular support, access to development sessions, and a clear framework for how and when conversations should be logged and escalated. This has helped build confidence across the network and reassured volunteers that they are not carrying risk alone.
For Rachael, that safeguarding element was critical.
“You can’t just train people and hope for the best,” she says. “You have a responsibility to support the people who are supporting others.”
One of the biggest challenges in wellbeing is measurement. Rachael is clear that there is no single perfect metric.
“Every organisation is different, and every organisation is aiming for different things,” she explains.
Mental health related absence is one measure often used, but it needs context. When stigma reduces and conversations increase, reported mental health absence can rise before it falls.
Emily Langton, Partner Development Lead at Everymind, explains, “What you often see first is people being more honest. Instead of saying they’ve got a cold, they’re now saying the real reason is mental health or work-related stress.”
Over time, as support becomes embedded, those figures begin to stabilise and reduce. Alongside this, Southern Water has looked at engagement, presenteeism, and visibility of the network itself. But data has never replaced the human impact. Emily shared,
We’ve worked with organisations where the network has saved a life, and for some boards, that is the return. Knowing someone is still here.
Leadership buy-in: moving from reactive response to proactive prevention
A significant enabler of progress at Southern Water has been leadership alignment. Rachael describes the organisation’s CEO as highly people-focused, which has helped wellbeing gain traction at executive level.
“It’s like pushing on an open door,” she says. “We’ve now got all of our exec trained as Mental Health First Aiders. A year ago, I never would have thought we’d get to that point.”
That alignment has allowed wellbeing to evolve beyond health and safety alone. Rachael’s role is now moving into HR, ensuring wellbeing is embedded across the employee lifecycle, from onboarding through to performance and development.
“It’s about connecting the dots,” she explains. “Making sure wellbeing is present at every stage, not sitting in a silo.”
Alongside the Mental Health First Aid network, Southern Water has strengthened its wider support pathways. This includes upgrading occupational health provision and reviewing the Employee Assistance Programme to ensure colleagues can access support earlier and more easily.
“What’s changed is the focus on prevention,” Rachael says. “How do we help people upstream, before things escalate?”
The Everymind platform has played a key role here, providing visibility of trends, gaps, and pressure points across the organisation. Rachael explains,
When you start to see the data live, it’s an eye-opener; you can see where people feel supported, where they don’t, and what they’re struggling with. That tells us what the next intervention needs to be.
For Mental Health First Aiders themselves, that visibility matters too.
“As a volunteer, you want to know the impact you’re having,” she adds. “It’s reassuring to see that what you’re doing is making a difference.”
Navigating resistance and building momentum
Rachael is open about the resistance she encountered along the way. Buy-in didn’t happen overnight, and not every conversation landed first time. “My instinct was that this was the right thing to do,” she says. “So I didn’t give up.”
Rather than pushing in one direction, she built alliances across the business, engaging stakeholders outside HR and reframing wellbeing in language that resonated with different audiences. Emily sees this pattern often. “Sometimes organisations only listen after a serious incident,” she says. “We want to stop it getting to that point. That means helping leaders understand the real risks of doing nothing.”
A defining feature of the work at Southern Water has been the partnership with Everymind. Rather than a transactional supplier relationship, the focus has been on understanding the reality of the organisation.
Emily regularly visits sites, speaks with the Mental Health First Aid network, and combines data insight with on-the-ground context.
“You get a much richer understanding when you see the environment and talk to people,” she explains. “That context shapes better decisions.”
For Rachael, that external perspective has been invaluable.
“The relationship has brought things onto my radar that I might not have seen otherwise. It’s helped strengthen what we’re building.”
Looking ahead
Southern Water is now focused on expanding its network, strengthening safeguarding, and continuing to use insight to guide decision-making. The aim is not to run more initiatives, but to embed support into how the organisation operates.
“We’re on the right path,” Rachael reflects. “And having the visibility, the data, and the right partners gives us confidence to keep going.”
Southern Water’s journey shows what’s possible when wellbeing is treated as a core part of risk management, not an optional extra. By strengthening peer support, aligning leadership, and using insight to guide action, they are building a system that protects people and supports performance, every day.
If you’re inspired by this partner journey and want to learn more about how Everymind can support your business, get in touch with us here.
