Testimonials

We are passionate about our subject and the knowledge we have accumulated over the years. Here is what some of our clients have said about working with us.

Marcus delivered an engaging and insightful session on sleep and wellbeing, which our staff enjoyed and benefitted from. They gave excellent feedback and all attendees said the workshop provided them with new insights or knowledge. Marcus was a pleasure to work with and we will recommend Third Pillar of Health to others at the university.

We are delighted to see that even in the space of 6 months the sleep pilot has supported a positive impact on staff health and wellbeing and, in turn, absence data. Sequentially this work has helped to strengthen staff productivity, service delivery and ultimately the provision of safe and consistent patient care.

Third Pillar of Health provided a very professional and comprehensive service, offering easy and sensible solutions to support and improve our staffs’ sleep health. The trust certainly endorses their service and looks forward to working with them again to continue tackling issues surrounding fatigue and sleep deprivation.

Marcus from Third Pillar of Health led and co-ordinated a Fatigue Study for a group of Police Federations/Forces. His level of commitment to the project was outstanding from start to finish, with an excellently detailed and well evidenced report at the conclusion. There was a clear project framework, with timely outcomes. Third Pillar of Health provided great value and Marcus was a pleasure to work with.

The Lend Lease Hungate construction site commissioned Third Pillar of Health to run a project to examine issues of tiredness and fatigue in our workforce. With project completion nearing and workloads increasing we wanted to understand whether fatigue is an issue for our staff. Staff were encouraged to complete an online assessment and then meet with Marcus de Guingand on site to discuss some of the key issues.

Each individual received their own personalised report and had a chance to discuss any personal sleeping issues with Marcus. We were then provided with a comprehensive report of the findings of the assessment and face-to-face meetings. The report was extremely useful and highlighted some key issues for our staff. Most importantly the concern over sleep duration and quality in staff expected to be clear-thinking in their daily working lives as well as the potential dangers to some members of staff who were commuting long distances – often on top of long work days and too little sleep. As a result of the programme we have immediately implemented a policy to pay for accommodation for two nights a week to ease the burden of commuting on those travelling long distances and we continue to explore other ways to combat this issue.

The report has made a number of useful recommendations, which we will be exploring. Overall we found Third Pillar of Health to be a real pleasure to work with, personable and friendly our advisor assisted our staff in providing the most comprehensive data, ensuring we get the best results and are able to provide a healthier work life balance for all participants. I am happy to recommend Third Pillar of Health to any other organisation looking to tackle issues around tiredness and fatigue.

In late 2015 Dorset Police Federation was one of 5 Federations to commission a study in to fatigue in police officers. Anecdotally we believed fatigue to be an issue, but we needed some independent empirical evidence to support the anecdotal. In particular we wanted to understand the extent, impact and causes of fatigue in officers as well as which worker groups and shift patterns were at particular risk.

Third Pillar of Health conducted the study via an online sleep health self-assessment. Individuals were able to immediately download their own personalised report and feedback. Dorset Police Federation was then supplied with two excellent in-depth reports. One gave the results across all participating Federations and the second was specific to Dorset Police with our results broken down by job role, age and gender whilst benchmarked against all the participating Forces. This was extremely useful in pinpointing areas of greatest risk within the force.

The comprehensive reports were produced to a very high professional standard with clear evidence to support the results and sensible “workable solutions” suggested to tackle the issues identified. We have shared the results with Dorset Police and the results continue to be part of our overall aim to help support officers in providing the best possible service to the public, even in difficult times for policing.

We found Marcus and Third Pillar of Health to be reliable, professional and enthusiastic. We hope to be able to run the programme again for our members towards the end of this year. Dorset Police Federation has no hesitation in recommending Third Pillar of Health to any other organisation looking to tackle issues around fatigue and sleep deprivation. 

Last year, Bedfordshire Police Federation commissioned Third Pillar of Health Ltd to undertake a comprehensive and confidential fatigue assessment on our behalf, to examine the extent, impact and causes of tiredness and fatigue in Police Officers especially those working shifts. The study enabled us to understand which job roles and shift schedules gave rise to the greatest problems and then we were able to compare the results in Bedfordshire with other forces.


I am very happy to say that the work undertaken by the Company, and Marcus de Guingand in particular, was carried out in a very professional and courteous way and always met agreed timescales.  Marcus was very knowledgeable and organized, regularly providing feedback and keeping me updated during the timeframe of the survey.

The feedback received from Bedfordshire Police Officers who took part in the survey was very pleasing and positive and from that the force were able to look at areas raised and implement the recommendations of Third Pillar of Health accordingly.

I would certainly have no hesitation in recommending to you the services of Marcus and the Company.

Marcus gave RSSB’s office staff a wonderful and engaging session on the importance of sleep to wellbeing which slotted in excellently to our World Sleep Day activities. The information presented had a great balance of the basic acknowledgement that sleep is fundamental to our health and wellbeing alongside some fascinating science and data to support this information. Marcus’s session inspired many questions from our staff at the end and throughout and the feedback we got was that everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.

Marcus’s passion for the subject is evident and this was a great bonus.

I was pleased with the service afforded to us by Third Pillar of Health (Marcus). The service offered and delivered was exceptionally good.

The ongoing dialogue and attention to the needs of our Board and the Officers was outstanding.

I am confident that the survey and reports generated will assist our Board in progressing health and wellbeing matters on behalf of Officers in North Wales.

As the chair of Wiltshire Police Federation, the body that represents all police officers from Constable to Chief Inspector I was looking to get evidence about fatigue levels in police officers.

We worked with Marcus on a fatigue survey of police officers across six police forces in the UK. The report into the survey was of a high standard with clear recommendations backed up with strong evidence.

Marcus worked closely with us to ensure that the recommendations were realistic, achievable and took account of the political sensitivities around the issue of fatigue within the police service.

We worked with Third Pillar of Health to deliver a successful sleep campaign for Reed Business Information, consisting of educational webinars, social media campaigns and a series of mini sleep challenges. Throughout the month-long sleep campaign, Third Pillar of Health provided a fantastic overview & introduction to sleep health, enabling RBI's people all over the world to feel more informed and supported in getting a better night’s sleep! 

At a time of declining Police numbers and increasing workloads it was a good time to seek feedback from officers to identify what effect in relation to stress and fatigue this was having on them.  We enlisted the support of Marcus (Third Pillar of Health) because he had previously shown his expertise in this area following presentations on stress and fatigue.  We were particularly keen to look at workable solutions in what is currently a difficult Policing climate at the moment.

We worked closely with Marcus to produce a comprehensive survey which was undertaken by Police Officers.  The net results were properly evaluated and cogent outcomes were produced.

Throughout this work I can say that Marcus has been reliable, helpful and committed to creating a customised package which properly assessed the key issues for us.  Marcus went out of his way to ensure that the product was delivered efficiently and on time.  As a result of the research the Force and the Police Federation is now actively looking at ways to address the key areas identified and work on those areas to bring down stress and fatigue and assist in creating a healthier and more efficient workforce.

Thames Valley police federation joined forces with five other police areas to commission Third Pillar of Health to conduct a research study looking at fatigue levels suffered by police officers across a range of diverse job roles within the service. The methodology used included identifying officer job roles and shift patterns and questionnaires were sent to individuals who elected to be part of the study. 

Marcus organised the work around identifying, promoting and then collecting the information and putting it into a process where the results could be used to highlight particular areas where there would be a raised risk of harm to individuals and subsequently the organisation.

I found Marcus to be enthusiastic with excellent communication skills throughout the study. He frequently emailed and telephoned me to clarify points and to ensure the project moved forward at the right pace to be in line with the results from other forces, this was often a challenge for both of us. 

The final report was well structured and of a very high professional standard. The recommendations that were made were based on strong evidence and examples from the officers on the front line of policing. Throughout the study Marcus had to deal with some political practicalities as well as six different police forces operating numerous shift patterns and job role definitions. 

Thames Valley police federation were very pleased with the Service we received from Marcus and Third Pillar of Health and would recommend the company to any organisation looking to understand and address employee fatigue issues.

Third Pillar of Health – Marcus de Guingand were invited to run a session on the importance of sleep to wellbeing at the MHFA Offices in Old Street on 19th October 2017. The session was run in the office area and all staff were invited to attend.

Marcus was thoroughly informative, he answered all our questions confidently and presented some very interesting data on certain aspects of sleep. Marcus highlighted the link between poor sleeping patterns and the impact on our mental health as well as our physical. Giving us some really positive tips on how to take better care of ourselves. Thank you, Marcus

Here are a few quotes from our Team 

• “Inspired me to learn more about my sleep cycles and what I can do to map these and gain better sleep” 

• “I now have a better understanding about sleep cycles and this may be the reason I find it hard to wake up because I am trying to wake up from a deep sleep and not after a dream state. I will consider my natural cycles and get to bed early” 

• “I will make a choice not to drink alcohol if I know I need a quality sleep. I will also try to reduce my 'weekend jetlag'” 

• “I felt the session was very informative in a short space of time. The information was clear and easy to understand” 

• “I enjoyed but as I've looked at this subject several times and tried different things over the years, I didn't personally find I learnt very much. However, I thought it was good as a refresher and for those who may not know much about this topic” 

The Seminar in Summary: 

We were really happy with the feedback we received from the team. 90% said that they learnt something new and 95% would recommend that their colleagues attend and thought that the seminar was excellent or good was particularly pleasing.

We approached Marcus to help us with a Sleep Awareness project for Staffordshire Police employees. We knew from information gathered from our shift workers who had completed the voluntary Working Time Directive Questionnaire that sleep and fatigue is an issue for many of our staff. 

We wanted the project to be accessible to everyone and to be relevant to those who work shifts as well as regular hours. Marcus designed a project that included:

• A short online sleep assessment for staff to complete and receive an immediate personalised report on their sleep highlighting the areas that are of concern

• An online portal with useful information on a range of sleep related issues, this was accessible to everyone through our intranet

• 2 seminars on sleep and fatigue held at our headquarters 

The seminars were well attended and received some good feedback. This combined with the detailed report that Marcus produced using the information gathered from the online sleep assessment has highlighted the ‘problem areas’ for our police officers and staff. This will enable us to plan future projects and services that we can offer to everyone to help them address their sleep issues and improve their wellbeing.

Through Social Media both our members and ourselves picked up on a project run by Third Pillar of Health on behalf of some fellow federations and forces across the country. It was an interactive survey looking at how shift patterns, especially nights, affected our members’ health. With the reducing numbers of Officers and increased workloads, the wellbeing of our members is of vital importance, to keep them at work to protect the public. 

We asked our members whether they wanted to take part, and joined up with the Third Pillar of Health, through Marcus de Guingand. Once we had passed on our members details that was it, Marcus did everything else. This included individual feedback to those that had taken part, and a statistical report specific to us but compared to the National results. This not only gave us the empirical evidence to support the anecdotal, but provided possible solutions. 

We have publicly launched the report, Marcus worked on the press release and put himself up for media interviews. I have taken the report to our Strategic Health & Safety and Wellbeing Group, and am awaiting an action plan. Overall an excellent piece of work, thank you.

Marcus at Third Pillar of Health ran workshops on 'the importance of sleep to wellbeing' at both of our UK sites as part of our wellbeing week in 2017.

The session covered factors such as why sleep is important, how much is needed, the implications of not enough sleep and tips and advice for improving sleep quality.

Marcus was engaging in his delivery of sessions and incredibly knowledgeable on the topic. The feedback from employees was that the sessions were useful. We very much hope to work with Third Pillar of Health again soon.

As part of the University of Nottingham students’ Union Wellbeing activities we wanted to do something for World Sleep day in March. As the majority of our staff were working from home due to the pandemic, Marcus de Guingand from Third Pillar of Health kindly offered the option of a webinar on ‘The importance of sleep to wellbeing’. Prior to the webinar we were also able to complete an on-line “3-minute” sleep health self-assessment with staff being able to immediately download a report with an overview of their results as well as links to a number of factsheets and ‘suggested reading’.

The webinar was extremely interesting and informative and included some key sleep statistics which, how sleep impacts on health and performance, the link to stress and mental health, common sleep inhibitors and hints and tips on how to achieve better sleep as well as how to tackle more serious sleeping problems. Staff were able to ask questions throughout the webinar and there were many questions asked about individual sleep issues! Marcus responded to all questions giving great advice and tips which was well received. It was clear that we have staff that have issues with sleep in one form or another (or someone in their family does) and this session gave valuable advice and tips that staff could take away with them and put into practice.

The self-assessment and webinar were optional for staff, but proved to be a popular subject evident by the number of staff that took part. We had only positive feedback following and during the session on the Teams chat. Comments such as ‘really important subject and excellent presentation’, ‘really interesting’, ‘thank you very informative’, ‘nice to see data’, ‘come back next year’ to name but a few!

Marcus is approachable, engaging and extremely knowledgeable and we will definitely be contacting him again!

We recently held our first Health Promotion and Screening day, and Marcus very kindly participated by delivering a 3-minute online sleep health self-assessment, which my colleagues found very helpful. Sleep is one of those things that we all take for granted, 'managing' our chronic sleep deprivation and fatigue. The assessment gave really useful insight to the long-term effects of chronic sleep deprivation on our health and his Sleep Tips Flyer was very informative. This wellbeing event was a long (as in VERY long!) time in the making but Marcus was very supportive and encouraging throughout that journey. I am really appreciative and can absolutely recommend Marcus and Third Pillar of Health without hesitation.

I booked Marcus on behalf of my company's Health and Well-being committee and couldn't have been happier with the presentation he gave on sleeping well.

Because of lockdown the event had to be virtual via Teams, but this didn’t cause any issues.

The presentation was informative but not too heavy, he engaged with the participants and answered all questions efficiently. The content was relevant to all elements of Sleeping problems and included mention of COVID and the issues caused by this also.

We would definitely look to use Marcus for any future events.

We recently commissioned Third Pillar of Health to carry out a study into fatigue levels amongst police officers in Sussex. The survey was arranged very efficiently by Marcus and two reports, one national and one tailored to Sussex were produced which we will be using to highlight issues with the force. 

We found Marcus to be very thorough, reliable and approachable and were very happy with the service and the product we received.

Marcus undertook a fatigue study on behalf of the Hertfordshire Police Federation with all of the officers that we represent.

The crucial point for us was that it was independent of us and the force, it was anonymous, which gave us the ability to engender trust in those that we wanted to respond.

The report that we received was comprehensive and the recommendations concise and focused. It has allowed me to take that report back to the force, sharing the data and being able to use it to assist the force in beginning to build its well work force plan.

It has reinforced the concern that shift patterns, and their design, are at the core of the officer’s long term health and wellbeing, whilst an extended hours shift pattern may look good to the officers and be a short term resourcing fix, working long hours with ever longer commutes either end, are a silent killer.

In the summer of 2014 we ran two days of sessions for senior staff at Darent Valley Hospital. In conjunction with a representative from the mental health charity MIND. Staff spent either a morning or afternoon in one of the two sessions.

We approached Third Pillar of Health and asked them to provide a training workshop aimed at managers, giving them more information about the importance of sleep in respect of health and performance at work for those health care workers who undertake regular nights / rotating / twelve hour shifts, and some useful advice they could give to staff who may approach them suffering with sleeping problems. It was also useful for the Occupational Health staff who attended, as we may be asked to advise management about working hours for HCWs and whether any change would be considered a reasonable adjustment in accordance with the Equality Act.  The evaluation forms showed that the large majority of the attendees found the session useful. As a result we would be happy to recommend Third Pillar of Health to any other organisation looking to address this important, but often under-recognised, aspect of health, safety and performance.

Having commissioned Third Pillar of Health to conduct a study into levels of fatigue amongst police officers within Cambridgeshire. Marcus with his team arranged the study and dealt with it expeditiously, at the end of it we had two products put together in the way of written reports.

The first report dealt with the combined data results from participating Constabularies and the second bespoke to Cambridgeshire’s alone. Both these reports have been used locally to influence issues regarding to wellbeing within our Force and most recently to a staff survey to be carried out.

More than happy with the product produced and the way the whole project was managed by Marcus.

We engaged Third Pillar of Health to look at fatigue and its effects across all staff in our organisations and to see if we could establish commonality across various roles and or departments. The survey met these requirements and we were able to produce an evidence based summary to the employer on the health of its workers. This was further supported by the outcomes of further employer led staff surveys across its workforce.

The employer has since made changes to its own values, adopting a wellbeing centric approach to the way it treats its workers

We approached Third Pillar of Health to provide mini 1-to-1 assessment and advice sessions as part of our Employee Engagement Day. Marcus was more than happy to help and worked with us to fit his approach to the format of our day.  

It’s clear that this is a subject that is important to Marcus and we found him to be engaging, helpful and really knowledgeable throughout the planning and implementation process. We hope that we can have the opportunity to work with Third Pillar of Health again in the future!

Third Pillar of Health was asked to provide 3 1-hour workshops to staff in their Health & Wellbeing team. Despite the limited timeframe the sessions were a success.

“In relation to future partnering with ourselves, in Workplace Wellness, we feel that we have a very good understanding of your areas of expertise and we would have no hesitation in engaging you on client projects as appropriate.”

Marcus delivered an engaging and interesting talk on Sleep as part of our Health and Wellbeing week earlier in the year. He was extremely knowledgeable and answered several questions that employees had including a lot of myth busting around the topic of sleep.