Are you a confident professional working with young people and seeking a more senior, impactful role? Do you see the support young people need when they face difficulties in education, at home or with mental wellbeing, and want to be part of the solution?

Due to staff relocation, youth charity Mentoring Plus has a rare opportunity to join its highly regarded team of professional practitioners, leading one of its core projects.

c.30 hours per week permanent
Term time plus (c.41 weeks per year)
Occasional evening / weekend work in support of charity (TOIL offered).
Partly hybrid, but regular office-based work required (Bath based, free parking available).
Salary: From £30k FTE dependent on experience + pension

Our Professional Mentoring service takes inspiration from our award-winning 1-1 community volunteer mentoring project, providing mentoring to young people with more complex needs and circumstances.

For children and young people, the experience is the same: a trusted, positive adult role model offering an engaging weekly mentoring session following their positive interests. It’s a safe space to talk, an opportunity to get out of the house, to try new things and build confidence and self-esteem. We build trusting relationships over time, and see the positive changes in young people who we help to stay safe, engage with opportunities and find their own unique path forward.

The only difference is that these are young people who need a higher level of support than we would ask of a volunteer. They’re living with more difficult challenges, often with significant mental wellbeing issues causing low school attendance. Mentoring sessions are mostly during the school day, and may form part of an alternative timetable. Interventions are at least 14 weeks and many last a year or longer, dependent upon need and funding.

As Senior Practitioner of Professional Mentoring, you’ll lead a small team of practitioners, mentors and office staff to make this support a reality for 30-40 mentees at any one time. You’ll work directly with young people, but the success of this role will be based on your ability to offer positive supervision to your adult professionals and freelance mentors.

Building strong relationships with referring organisations while also attracting new professional mentors, you’ll ensure the right young people are being reached and the support they receive is safe, engaging, effective and individualised for each mentee.

As you’d expect, this work sometimes involves significant complexities and safeguarding concerns. You’ll need a sound knowledge of these to support your team, and to engage with regular supervision with our Head of Practice and a clinical supervisor to discuss approaches and support your own wellbeing.

Within this project, schools also contract with us to provide an in-school mentor 1-2 days per week, and other statutory bodies have arrangements to refer. With admin support, you’re responsible for providing accurate information for charging mentoring fees, often from a mentee’s EHCP or similar, and impact monitoring data. You’ll need a level of organisation and attention to detail, and to enjoy the reward of maximising this project’s reputation and reach for the benefit of children and young people.

We’re looking for someone energetic and committed, with at least 2 years’ relevant experience. We deliver professional mentoring across BathNES and the surrounding region, including to young people experiencing rural isolation, so driving and reliable access to a car are essential (mileage paid).

Our Bath-based HQ offers a friendly and informal workplace where staff supervision, in-house, 1-1 clinical and group-based, are central to our practice, and colleagues offer positive co-support. This is a termtime-plus role (39 weeks plus 2 weeks in school holidays across the year). Hours and days can be flexible and some hybrid working is fine (not 100% remote). We commit an annual budget to CPD and aim to allow every staff member to follow their own practice interests, often leading to opportunities for professional development.

Download a full job description and person spec here: if you think this sounds like the next role for you, we'd love to hear from you. For Safer Recruitment we can only accept an application using this form. Details of how to submit it are in the form.

Deadline: Mon 25 March 2024 12 noon

Interviews planned for w/c Mon 8 April 2024

Questions about the role? Please call Helen Goodchild or Ruth Keily on 01225 429694.

Mentoring Plus is committed to maximising inclusion irrespective of age, gender identity, heritage, ethnicity, background, life experiences, disabilities, learning difficulties, lifestyle, beliefs etc, provided that individuals are able to meet the requirements of the role with appropriate support. We operate a strict equal opportunities policy for both adults and young people. Our central Bath premises have parking and are wheelchair accessible.

Safer Recruitment procedures will be followed including an enhanced DBS check and employment references taken and verified.