How mentoring has helped us as mentors and mentees
27 Jan 2022
3 min read
- Workforce development
- Leadership
- Mentoring
In celebration of National Mentoring Month, we share the positive impact that mentoring has had on both mentors and mentees in social care.
Mentoring is a partnership between a mentor and a mentee. The partnership meets on a regular basis to engage in discussions to help support the self-development of the mentee. The aim is to support the mentee to move forward by taking ownership of a solution to a situation.
This is something which can provide a whole host of benefits professionally and personally, whether you’re being mentored or providing mentoring to someone else.
At Skills for Care, we help to facilitate mentoring for our registered manager members. This support has been particularly valuable during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As January is National Mentoring Month, we’re sharing some insights from our registered manager members about how mentoring has helped them and why they chose to get involved with mentoring.
I was new to the role of registered manager and I felt it beneficial to have an outside of organisation mentor for independent advice and support. I’ve found it valuable to have independent support, with a non-biased (outside of my own workplace) opinion, for the development and sharing of new ideas, to ensure consistency and compliance across national standards and framework. It’s been an opportunity to create networks wider than my immediate community which is fantastic for gaining perspective within one’s own role.
Mentee
I requested a mentor to support me as we entered the pandemic. I was surprised at how easy the process was and how helpful the mentor was. It helped me pull together an action plan which informed the staff team, and it was good just to talk to someone who understood. It helped me and my colleagues put a folder together with practical information. I would recommend mentoring, it builds the skills of registered managers who need advice on a more personal level.
Mentee
I am currently mentoring two people, one of which runs a homecare business and I find this fascinating, as I come from a nursing home background, so I am learning so much about another element of social care whilst being able to support somebody. It gives me a totally different insight into how people are cared for at home before they come into care homes and I can also observe the similarities, such as struggling to recruit or struggling to find people to use the service.
I like to think that I have made a difference. One of the people I mentor schedules appointments with me and we chat via Zoom routinely, every four weeks or so, to assess progress and discuss any issues or improvements and the other calls me when she is struggling or unsure and I provide feedback and help her with the situations.
Mentor
When I had a year out to go on maternity leave, I would have ideally had a mentor, so when I came across this scheme, I was eager to get involved. I have learnt new people skills and learnt more about other care sectors which has been great to use alongside the skills I already have. I have worked in the health and social care sector for 18 years so it was nice to have so much to draw on that I could share. Being a mentor has helped me build my own confidence with my day-to-day work.
Mentor
You can find out more about mentoring and our registered manager membership on our website.
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