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Mentoring

Mentoring schemes and opportunities to become a mentor.

How mentoring works

Mentoring is a relationship where a more experienced or knowledgeable person offers support, advice and guidance to help a less experienced person develop and progress. During mentoring:

  • the focus is on career and personal development
  • the mentee identifies when advice, guidance and support is required
  • mentors usually have a specific professional role in the organisation or situation
  • mentors possess a wide range of knowledge, skills, and networks useful to the mentee
  • the agenda is set by the mentee, with the mentor providing support
  • there is no charge for any of the mentoring services

Mentoring for all

College of Policing's mentor scheme

Contact mentoring@college.police.uk for more information.

Mentoring for senior leaders and chief constables

Mentoring for chief constables

This service is available for both new and more established chief constables. We have a list of experienced chief constables who have volunteered to mentor a more recently appointed peer.

Contact us at hub@college.police.uk for more information.

Mentoring for deputy chief constables

This is for both new and more established DCCs (and police staff equivalents).

We have a list of experienced DCCs who have volunteered to mentor a more recently appointed peer.

Contact us at hub@college.police.uk for more information.

Mentoring for assistant chief constables and ACOs

This is for both new and more established assistant chief constables (and police staff equivalents).

We have a list of experienced ACCs who have volunteered to mentor a more recently appointed peer.

If you are an assistant chief officer, and would consider mentoring a newer ACO, get in touch.

Contact us at hub@college.police.uk for more information.

Reverse mentoring

Traditional mentoring schemes involve a mentor who is more senior than the mentee, drawing on their seniority and experience to help facilitate a mentee's development. 

Reverse mentoring, as the name suggests, reverses these roles. 

Frontline policing professionals are trained as mentors, and are matched with senior leaders who are the mentees.  Reverse mentoring schemes are set up by individual police services or on a collaborative/regional basis to address a specific organisational development need.

Benefits

The benefits of reverse mentoring include:

  • increased senior leader visibility and engagement
  • a better appreciation of the issues affecting under-represented groups in policing
  • opportunity to demonstrably connect with the frontline to understand current issues

Resources available to forces

We have  a number of resources available including:

  • organisation guidelines including mentee briefing guidance, case study, and the evaluation outcomes of the reverse mentoring pilot
  • a mentor training pack including a trainer guide with a supporting PowerPoint and handout pack, and a pre-course workbook for delegates

The resources can be adapted to meet specific force/regional needs and priorities. You can find our resources by searching for 'reverse mentoring' on College Learn (you will need to log in).

Women's chief officer network

The women's chief officer network offers a chief officer-level mentor to female candidates who are taking part in the assessment processes for the police leadership programme – stage 5 (executive leaders).

We contact those eligible. Mentors are subject to availability.

We are also putting a 'buddy' scheme in place for police leadership programme – stage 5 (executive leaders) students who would find that useful. This will be someone who has been through the assessment process themselves relatively recently, understands what that feels like, and who can offer advice, guidance and support. There would also be scope for this to extend beyond the course into a longer-term mentoring relationship, if both parties wanted that.

Become a mentor

As we strive to provide development opportunities for our future chief officers, a lot of the work (including mentoring) would not be possible without the help of those of you who very generously give up time to support less experienced colleagues.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor yourself in any of the categories above, we would love to hear from you – we are particularly in need of ACO mentors. Contact hub@college.police.uk for more information.

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