Most do, and many refer their son or daughter themselves. But we always check families understand what mentoring is, how we focus on the mentee first and foremost, and how we work with any other organisations supporting the family. If families don’t consent (for under 18s) we don’t mentor.

If school, care agencies or other charities are supporting the child and family, we always seek to work effectively with them and be joined-up. Often this means supporting the young person to be heard in these processes, or we can improve other relationships for the family which have come under strain.

Our professionals make sure the mentor, whether volunteer or staff, can focus just on their positive time with the mentee. Anything else which needs sorting out or communicating is the job of our skilled practitioners. Mentors don’t get involved in professional meetings or family dynamics.

Every young person gets their voice heard, about what’s affecting them, what they want, what they enjoy, and their best hopes for mentoring. And every mentoring session they help choose what they’ll do (within the constraints of time and budget!)

All our volunteers have actively chosen to be trained and supported as a mentor, including agreeing to thorough background checks. Our professionals like mentoring so much they do it as a day job. There isn’t a script or a tick list of things to achieve, just conversations flowing over fun activities.