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Mentoring Scotland's young people

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Mentoring Scotland’s young people

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Celebrating two years of intandem’s young person group InVoice

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intandem had a celebratory day at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo on Saturday 4 March 2023.  

Joined by more than 100 children and young people, mentors, charity partners, funders and the Minister for Children and Young People, Clare Haughey  The occasion was to celebrate the second anniversary of InVoice, intandems young person group who meet every other month to discuss issues that affect them and how to make intandem’s mentoring the best it can be for children and young people across Scotland. 

Our InVoice representatives took centre stage with one brave young person addressing all attending and introducing the Minister. 

The group enjoyed a day at the zoo alongside some delicious food, crafts and a short talk from the Minister which highlighted the importance of the partnership and the vital impact of mentoring and to keep The Promise, Scottish Government’s pledge that every young person in Scotland can grow up feeling safe, loved and respected. 

About intandem 

intandem is Scotland’s national mentoring programme, working with children and young people aged eight to 14 with care experience. 

Working with 12 partner charities, young people are matched with a volunteer mentor who gives them a scaffolding of support by meeting every week to help them set and achieve their goals.  

intandem is funded by Scottish Government and The Robertson Trust and managed by Inspiring Scotland.  

Find out more about intandem here. 

Sign up to be a volunteer mentor here.  

Care Day 2023

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Today is Care Day (17 February 2023) which aims to champion children and young people with care experience and tackle misconceptions.  

All families need a helping hand to navigate tough times, such as chronic illness, mental health problems or a bereavement. It is during these tough times when parents can struggle without a solid support network and children and young people can become involved with the care system. 

This is why we need volunteer mentors, to work with our care experienced young people and ensure they have the scaffolding of support in place to go and achieve their goals.  

intandem is Scotland’s national mentoring programme. Funded by Scottish Government and The Robertson Trust, as part of the Promise and delivered by Inspiring Scotland, the programme connects young people and volunteer mentors to establish meaningful, supportive and long-lasting relationships. 

By giving some time each week, you could be a positive and stable role model and make a difference in a young person’s life.  

All we ask is that you: 

  • Are a good listener and are open minded  
  • Can spend a little time consistently each week doing fun activities in your local community with your mentee  

Nothing more, we offer full training and expenses so you can concentrate your full attention on your mentee.  

By committing to at least a year, your weekly meetings with your young person could: 

  • Help a young person see their potential and reach their goals  
  • Provide stability and respite for the whole family  
  • Help raise a young person’s self-esteem and improve their friendships  
  • Increase engagement with communities 
  • Bolster your own skills including   

Sign up to be a volunteer here.  

Views from Home: Report Published

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A new report, Views from Home, captures the views and experiences of children, young people and families supported through intandem and what more must be done.

Funded from the Promise Partnership in 2021 intandem sought to understand more where mentoring adds value, where there are gaps and what can be done to develop intandem in the way children, young people and their families need and want.

This is an important piece of work as we know from previous research that children and young people who are looked after at home do not always have the support they need, in a responsive and timely way.

A vital part of the project was the recruitment of a Development Officer, who had experience of the care system, who supported the design of the research and conducted the interviews.

More than mentoring 

A key theme was the importance of developing flexible support with children and young people telling us that building positive, long term and trusted relationships with others is important to them.

 

From the survey responses it is clear that children and young people value their relationship with their mentor. The mentoring provided by intandem was perceived as reliable, responsive and enriching. These included the ‘stickability’ of mentors and the longevity of mentoring relationships – with the average intandem mentoring relationship lasting 17 months.

The findings also confirmed intandem is more than mentoring and working alongside families is vital.

Recommendations

The report concludes with 10 recommendations made by the children, young people and their families all of which intandem acknowledges and is committed to taking forward. To do this, we need to continue to invest in our approach to involve children and young people in the design and development of intandem; how we share learning with others and embed change across our partner charities; and how we collaborate and partner with statutory services, particularly social work teams.

Part of a collective response 

While this research was intended for intandem’s own learning and development, it highlights where we can focus our collective efforts.  intandem recognises– we can only be successful in delivering on The Promise if we work together to ensure children and young people grow up loved, safe and respected.

We hope that this report will be useful to anyone involved in the lives of children and young people who are looked after at home.

A huge thank you to our mentors

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This volunteer week gives us a platform to shine a spotlight on the huge impact that intandem’s volunteer mentors make. On behalf of our partner charities, we’d like to thank all of our volunteer mentors for their commitment to supporting children and young people. Without you Intandem wouldn’t be possible.

By bringing together young people and supportive volunteers, intandem enables children and young people to bring about positive change in their lives. Since we began in 2017, we have made nearly 500 matches with the average mentoring relationship lasting 17 months. It’s this commitment to a long-term relationship that sets our volunteers apart and really makes a difference to the young people they support.

Like with Kyle:

Kyle and his mentor were matched three years ago and regularly met, until the pandemic moved their meet-ups remotely. Kyle had a history of issues with school and eventually stopped going. Struggling with motivation, Kyle was spending his days sleeping and his nights playing computer games. He wanted to change this and with his mentor Michelle’s continued her support, meeting every week and helping him develop a stronger routine, Kyle has got his motivation back. Kyle’s now 16 years old and working a full-time job with a landscaping company – saying he really enjoys both the routine and the independence of making his own money.

But for every success story there are still more children and young people looked after and at home who could benefit from the support of a trusted mentor. Over 550 young people have been referred to intandem, across 19 local authority areas in Scotland.

Find out more about how you could become an intandem mentor and make a difference to both your life and the life of young person where you live.

intandem to expand mentoring programme to support children and young people living in kinship arrangements

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An award of £450,000 from The Robertson Trust will enable intandem, the national mentoring programme for children and young people looked after at home, to expand to  include 8-14 year olds living in kinship care arrangements across Scotland.

intandem recognises that young people looked after while living at home can experience challenging circumstances. There is a range of evidence, including research funded by The Robertson Trust, that shows how mentoring can help to support work to narrow the attainment gap in school, and to improve engagement in education and more broadly. This three-year award will expand the number of children and young people mentored each week and begin to address the current gap in support for children living in kinship care arrangements.

Inspiring Scotland is the strategic delivery partner for intandem. This collaboration with The Robertson Trust reflects both organisations’ dedication to support the commitment made in The Promise to help children, young people and their families build and maintain positive long-term relationships and to support them when life is under strain.

Celia Tennant Chief Executive of Inspiring Scotland commented: 

“For over five years we have worked with the Scottish Government as their strategic delivery partner and 12 outstanding charity partners to establish intandem and champion it as an effective model in supporting children, young people and families during turbulent times in their lives.

We’ve listened and sought to understand how intandem could be more effective and make a bigger difference. This expansion has been realised and informed by conversations with young people and their families, partner charities, social workers, and others across the sector to fill a current gap in mentoring support.

 We are delighted that with this support from The Robertson Trust, we can help Scotland keep its promise to all care-experienced children, young people, and their families so that every child grows up loved, safe and respected, able to realise their full potential.”

Commenting on the award, Jim McCormick, Chief Executive of The Robertson Trust said:

“We are delighted to be able to fund intandem and to help extend their vital work to children living in kinship care arrangements.

 Our ten-year strategy focuses on tackling poverty and trauma. We know that a good education experience is one of the best protections against poverty but there continues to be a pervasive poverty-related attainment gap in Scotland. Children with experience of care and kinship care arrangements can benefit hugely from mentoring to build confidence and connection, in turn supporting their engagement with education.

This funding is one of the first of The Robertson Trust’s new proactive programme awards. We look forward to learning alongside Inspiring Scotland and intandem’s partner organisations through this award.”

Celebrating 5 years of intandem

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Inspiring Scotland’s Head of Development and Partnership, Julia Abel, reflects upon the impact of intandem mentoring as the programme celebrates its fifth birthday.

We all need consistent, trusting relationships. For young people who have care experience, these relationships can sometimes be lacking. The long-term presence of a trusted, supportive adult can make all the difference to the trajectory of their lives.

We’re celebrating five years of intandem, Scotland’s national mentoring programme. Funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by Inspiring Scotland, the programme connects young people and volunteer mentors to establish meaningful, supportive and long-lasting relationships.

Since 2016, intandem has supported young people who are looked after at home on a Compulsory Supervision Order (CSO). While being in care is often linked to social disadvantage, children and young people looked after at home have the poorest outcomes of all young people in Scotland, through no fault of their own. intandem supports these young people to develop positive relationships with a trusted adult role-model. Weekly mentoring provides space for these relationships to flourish.

intandem is a community-based mentoring programme, with meetings taking place outside of the school environment. Over the last five years, intandem has trained 733 volunteers and coordinated 450 matches. With over 3,500 children and young people in Scotland currently living at home under a CSO, it is vital that we continue to invest in them with mentoring support, so these children don’t fall through the cracks.

We know intandem works. The average match lasts 17 months, providing young people with stability and long-term support. Mentored young people consistently report a range of positive outcomes, including increased self-esteem (62%), increased community engagement (64%) and improved friendships (64%).  With Covid-19 prompting an increase in feelings of anxiety and isolation, it’s more crucial than ever that all young people have the opportunity to form meaningful relationships.

With intandem, inspiring Scotland is committed to helping Scotland #KeepThePromise, a pledge to embed the voices of care-experienced young people when making decisions about the Scottish care system. As part of this commitment, intandem facilitates a Young Person’s Forum, where care-experienced young people can speak on the issues closest to them. intandem staff are also currently working with a care-experienced individual, to help shape the work of intandem as we look to the future.

intandem is made possible by the commitment of its funder, Scottish Government. It also depends on the dedication of volunteers and the commitment of the programme’s twelve charity partners, who work tirelessly to coordinate matches across Scotland. These charities are committed to matching more young people with mentors, to ensure every young person has the opportunity to thrive.

intandem has a bold and ambitious vision – that Scotland’s children, young people and families can stay together to build and maintain positive, loving relationships. intandem is currently embedded in 19 Local Authorities and aspires to expand even further. By continuing to grow, intandem can help Scotland #KeepThePromise to all care-experienced infants, children, young people, adults and their families – that every child grows up loved, safe and respected, able to realise their full potential.