Overview

Cross Borough Mentoring Programme:

Four high profile London boroughs joined forces in 2008 to develop a unique cross borough mentoring programme. Recognising the importance of sharing knowledge between boroughs, they worked together to create an on line mentoring system – Modern Mentor. The system enables tailored matching of mentor and mentee and helps to manage the mentoring relationship across the 4 boroughs.

The Need

The Boroughs recognised the importance of mentoring as a form of learning and the value of sharing knowledge and experience across the boroughs. In order to implement the programme, the boroughs recognised the importance of creating a training programme to support the implementation.

The Solution

Working closely with the boroughs, Focal Point designed a programme of half day workshops which was rolled out across all 4 boroughs prior to the launch of the programme for both mentors and mentees. The workshops looked at what mentoring is and how it can help development and particularly focussed on developing the skills needed to mentor effectively. Using practical exercises, the sessions helped participants develop their questioning and listening skills, helped them in drawing up a mentoring contract and helped them explore how to deal with any challenges in a mentoring relationship.

One of the founding boroughs of the cross borough mentoring programme is the City of London Corporation. Focal Point have worked with the City of London for a number of years on a variety of other projects.

Susan Lacey, Head of Learning and Development at the City of London Corporation said “Focal Point were an invaluable partner in terms of delivering the training to support this programme. The training was a key part of the implementation plan and the evaluation feedback has been really positive. I would like to thank Focal Point for their ongoing support”