IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nationwide becomes first building society to achieve ‘Mental Health Accessible’ accreditation, after improving support for vulnerable customers
29 February 2024
- The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute charity has awarded Nationwide its ‘Mental Health Accessible’ accreditation for essential services firms.
- Nationwide is the first building society to be accredited, following an in-depth assessment of support for customers with mental health problems.
- In response to Money and Mental Health’s recommendations, Nationwide has taken further steps to make its services easier to use and more supportive for customers with mental health problems.
Money and Mental Health’s Mental Health Accessible programme works with essential services firms to help them understand the difficulties customers with mental health problems can face using their services, and how they can improve support.
The programme was established after Money and Mental Health’s research found that customers with mental health problems face serious difficulties when engaging with essential services including banks and energy and water providers (1).
It found that common symptoms of mental health problems – like low motivation, difficulties processing information or feeling easily overwhelmed – can make it extremely challenging to complete day-to-day financial admin and communicate with firms when something goes wrong.
Today, Money and Mental Health has announced that Nationwide has become the first building society to receive the Mental Health Accessible accreditation.
The award followed a comprehensive assessment of how accessible Nationwide’s services are for people with mental health problems. This included an evaluation of its product and service design, customer-facing communications and staff training by the Money and Mental Health team, which made recommendations on areas where more action is needed (2).
As part of the assessment, these areas were also tested by members of Money and Mental Health’s Research Community – a group of 5,000 people with lived experience of mental health problems – who provided feedback on how they could be improved.
The accreditation also reflects steps taken by Nationwide to make its services easier to use and more supportive for customers experiencing mental health problems. This included:
- Enhancing resources to help staff better understand the challenges faced by customers with mental health problems when accessing and using its services.
- Making its customer-facing communications more inclusive and accessible for those struggling with mental health problems.
- Providing extra training to staff on how best to create communications with customers experiencing mental health problems in mind.
These measures will make it easier for customers with mental health problems to access the information and support they need – and reduce some of the unnecessary stress and anxiety that can arise when engaging with your bank or building society.
Nationwide has been awarded ‘Level 1’ accreditation through the charity’s Mental Health Accessible programme – the first of three, increasingly demanding levels a firm can achieve. The ‘Level 1’ accreditation means that Nationwide has demonstrated that its services offer a basic level of support and accessibility for its customers with mental health problems.
Money and Mental Health is looking to support other banks and essential services firms, to help them understand the challenges their customers with mental health problems face and take steps to improve the services they offer.
Rosie Normanton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Money and Mental Health, said: “Keeping up with financial admin or getting in touch with your bank or building society can be a challenge for anyone. But for people with mental health problems, using and accessing financial services can often feel extremely difficult, especially when you’re dealing with common symptoms such as memory problems, reduced concentration and low motivation. Unfortunately, many firms’ services do not fully consider these unique challenges, resulting in customers with mental health problems experiencing worse outcomes.
“So we’re delighted that Nationwide has taken steps to improve its support and the accessibility of its services for customers with mental health problems, which we’ve recognised by making it the first building society to receive our Mental Health Accessible accreditation. We were particularly pleased to see Nationwide take swift action in response to our recommendations, for example by improving its resources to help staff better understand the challenges people with mental health problems face and making its communications with customers more supportive.
“We want to work with other firms across the financial services and essential services sectors to improve their services for customers with mental health problems, whether that’s through our Accreditation programme or through bespoke projects for smaller firms.”
Stephen Noakes, Director of Retail at Nationwide, said: “Poor mental health and money problems unfortunately go hand in hand, and one may cause or exacerbate the other. This is something we know that many people experience, but by making adjustments to our services and support, informed by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute’s research and their community of people with lived experience of mental health conditions, we can work towards breaking that link.
“We’re proud of the teams across Nationwide who have helped bring in vital new resources to help both customers and colleagues alike, and I know that we all look forward to continuing to build our support, whether that’s through specialist training on mental health for our frontline colleagues or creating new resources with the latest guidance in mind.”
ENDS
Contact:
- For Money and Mental Health media enquiries, please contact Rachel Fergusson, External Affairs Officer at Money and Mental Health, on 07935 216 804 or [email protected]
- For enquiries about Nationwide, contact Alex Brammer on 07827 897396 [email protected]
Notes to Editors
(1) This research is from Money and Mental Health’s 2018 report ‘Access essentials – giving people with mental health problems equal access to vital services’
(2) Money and Mental Health assessed the bank on six key areas:
- Understanding the needs of vulnerable customers
- Product and service design
- Skills and capacity
- Customer-facing communications
- Member services
- Monitoring and evaluation
About the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute
The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute is an independent charity set up by Martin Lewis, and committed to breaking the link between financial difficulty and mental health problems. We conduct research, develop practical policy solutions and work in partnership with both those providing services and those using them to find what really works. www.moneyandmentalhealth.org
About Nationwide
Nationwide is the world’s largest building society. It is owned by its 16 million members and exists to serve their needs. The Society is one of the UK’s largest providers for mortgages, savings and current accounts, as well as being a major provider of ISAs, credit cards, personal loans, insurance and investments.