The First 500 - A report on London Deanery's Coaching ... - Mentoring

Matching Mentees to MentorsAs the principle of choice is important, it was decided to offerpeople applying to be mentored a choice of mentors. All mentorssuccessfully completing the assessment.Are asked to write a brief ‘pen portrait’ of themselves, includingbrief details of their background, specialty and interests. <strong>The</strong>Deanery keeps a register of trained mentors, the number ofmentees they are working with, where they prefer to meet menteesand any other preferences. Applicants to be mentored are advisedbefore applying to familiarise themselves with the material on thewebsite. Once the application is received, it is checked againstthe GMC or GDC website and the mentee’s funding eligibility isconfirmed. <strong>The</strong> administrator then passes the application to theMentoring lead and Mentoring Tutor who contact one of the smallteam of ‘matchers’ - experienced mentors who undertake thisadditional work on behalf of the Deanery. <strong>The</strong> matcher telephonesthe applicant and referring to the mentee’s application exploreswhat the issue is that they want to work on and what they canexpect to get out of being mentored. <strong>The</strong> nature of mentoring isexplored, and distinguished where necessary from advice-giving,information provision, patronage or therapy. This discussion servestwo purposes, first in managing the expectations of those whogo on to be mentored and second in identifying those for whomcoaching and mentoring will not meet their needs. In such casesthe applicant may be directed towards a more appropriate sourceof support, locally or via other Deanery services such as MedNetwww.londonDeanery.ac.uk/var/support-for-doctors/MedNetor the Careers Unit www.londonDeanery.ac.uk/var/careers-unit<strong>The</strong> pen portraits of 3-5 mentors that would seem to suit theirpreferences are then emailed across and the applicant has time toconsider and make a choice. <strong>The</strong>y are reminded of the ‘no blame’policy and that they can decide that they would prefer anothermentor if issues arise. <strong>The</strong> matcher gently reminds potentialmentees to respond and is able to gauge the level of commitmentto being mentored. <strong>The</strong> matcher with the deanery may agreenot to pursue further once a certain level of non-response hasbeen reached.Feedback and EvaluationFeedback about the service was encouraged from the start, fromboth mentors and mentees. Evaluations are an intrinsic part ofeach of the training and supervisory events provided for mentors,and the comments have been used to improve the content andsetting of these events. Regular meetings to discuss feedbackwith the training and supervision partners ensured the quality andcontext of the training improved over time. Records are kept of thetraining and supervision accessed by each mentor. At the simplestlevel, records are kept of how many mentees each mentor hasand how many sessions have occurred. Evaluating the successof the relationship is necessarily more difficult. While what goeson in the sessions is confidential, the Deanery team are awareof who is being mentored and by whom, and can reasonablyask for feedback on the success of the mentoring in its closuredocumentation and also by telephoning individual mentors andmentees to hear how they are getting on. This feedback is regularlydiscussed at meetings of CMAG in order to encourage continuousquality improvement.A formal evaluation of the first year of the service was carried outbetween January and July 2009. <strong>The</strong> evaluation was carried outby the Coaching & Mentoring Research Unit at Sheffield BusinessSchool. <strong>The</strong>y carried this out by interviewing stakeholders withinthe Deanery and CMAG; surveying mentors and mentees;conducting case studies with 8 mentor:mentee pairings andreviewing the Deanery’s documentation relating to the governanceand management structures, processes and procedures of theservice. <strong>The</strong> results of this evaluation were the subject of a <strong>report</strong>(Chadwick-Coule and Garvey, 2009) available on request fromthe Deanery. In brief, stakeholders were very positive about theleadership, the training, the service and the way it was organised.Both mentors and mentees <strong>report</strong>ed that their expectations weremet or exceeded. Mentors and to a lesser extent mentees, noteda beneficial impact on their listening skills, their management of selfand others, and their response to a challenging situation.20London Deanery Coaching and Mentoring Service