Nationwide becomes first building society to achieve Mental Health Accessible accreditation

Nationwide has become the first building society to achieve ‘Mental Health Accessible’ accreditation, after improving support for vulnerable customersby The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute.

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.

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.

The award to Nationwide followed a comprehensive assessment of how accessible the company 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.

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.

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.”