The industry’s contractual relationship with Samaritans, administered on its behalf by Network Rail, ends on 31 March 2020. It is to be replaced from 1 April 2020 by a grant-based system, that will not only see Samaritans continue to work with the industry but give scope for other organisations to contribute to those activities as well through centrally funded grants.

This new approach will herald a number of changes in the industry’s relationship with Samaritans, the most significant of which are:

• the current full day training courses they offer will be reduced to half a day
• a train the trainer option will be available so that stakeholders can deliver approved Samaritans training via their own trainers
• the current Samaritans Project Officers will be replaced by dedicated and embedded Regional Development Leads to offer greater support to the industry at a Network Rail Regional level
• a dedicated communications post will coordinate suicide prevention activities across stakeholder comms teams to extend the reach of industry’s campaigns