Designed to raise awareness of mental health challenges in the construction industry, The Big Brew is an annual campaign which encourages tradespeople, installers and builders to come together over a cup of tea to support one another.

It is the third year Jewson has supported the initiative from Band of Builders, its official charity partner.

In total, 45 Jewson branches hosted a Big Brew, aiming to strike up conversations on the topic of mental health and promote the free and confidential counselling service that Band of Builders offers.

This year, the event was held in conjunction with On The Tools, the UK’s largest online construction community in the UK, which found during recent research that 93% of UK tradespeople have been impacted by mental ill health in some way.

The findings also showed that tradespeople are 26% more likely than workers in other industries to experience mental ill health and that less than a third (32%) of employed UK tradespeople who have experienced mental ill health have access to free counselling or helplines from their employer.

At Jewson’s Salisbury branch, On The Tools hosted ‘The Big Brew Live’, a live-streamed workshop with leaders from Jewson and Band of Builders who had a panel-type discussion about how to break down the stigma surrounding mental health. Other Jewson branches were able to dial in to join the conversation.

Throughout the day, funds were raised to support Band of Builders to provide free wellbeing services for members of the UK construction industry.

Since Jewson began supporting Band of Builders in 2019, it has raised more than £250,000 for the charity.