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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.

• Read the full report: intandem Views from Home Report 2022
• If you would like to discuss or have a conversation about any aspect of the report we would like to hear from you.

We’re delighted to share our 2020/2021 report, which showcases the impact of intandem during an incredibly difficult year for everyone.

With anxiety, loneliness and isolation at an all-time high during the pandemic, we knew it was more important than ever to ensure mentoring relationships could continue.

Therefore, despite the challenges, intandem volunteer mentors, coordinators and partner charities adapted quickly to Covid-19 restrictions, ensuring that the trusting, community based mentoring relationships continued.

We listened to young people and their families, and mentoring was tailored to respond to each young person’s wishes. Communications between mentors and mentees were conducted virtually, or in person with social distancing, where restrictions allowed. Volunteer mentors embraced remote mentoring as a means of keeping in touch with their young mentees. Partner charities sprang into action to implement new working measures, and coordinators stepped in to support volunteers and families when times were difficult.

Our 2020/2021 report highlights the incredible dedication of our mentors and resilience of our young people during this difficult year. The stories of intandem mentees in the report bring to life the true impact of mentoring on intandem’s young people, many of whom have overcome challenges to achieve incredible outcomes. Feedback from parents and guardians show the extent to which mentoring relationships can positively influence not just young people, but their home lives and families, too.

We are incredibly proud of the impact intandem has made in 2020/2021, and are hugely grateful to our partner charities, volunteers and funders, who make our work possible.

As we focus on the future, we look forward to continuing to build towards our vision: that all young people who are in care or on the edge of care will have the confidence and resilience to succeed in life.

Mentoring adapts and continues

We have been so impressed with the flexibility, creativity, and resilience of our intandem volunteer mentors, young people and charities over the past six months.

After adapting quickly to weekly video or telephone calls, our young people, volunteers and coordinators have come up with lots of creative ways to continue relationships despite not being able to meet face to face.  Art and nature projects, dance moves, darts and treasure hunts have all featured. A huge proportion of our matches have successfully transitioned to meeting virtually to listen, share experiences, and try new activities and challenges each week.

The structure of a regular meet-up online has also helped our volunteers to stay motivated and connected during often difficult times.  Activity packs, fun competitions and pamper boxes have provided a welcome boost and when needed, more frequent contact by video or phone or post has made things more bearable. It has been challenging time for everyone, but from our survey of young people we know that having someone to talk to out with their immediate household has been a positive, practical help.

We continue to adapt intandem mentoring to enable young people to set new goals and achieve their potential.  If you would like to speak to an intandem coordinator about volunteering or being mentored, details of our 12 partners and their locations are listed below:

Local Authority	Organisation	Contact	Email	Phone
Aberdeen	Befriend a Child	Aleisha	aleisha@befriendachild.org.uk	07852 305816
Clacks.	Quarriers	Wendy	Wendy.woolfson@quarriers.org.uk	07531 193637
East Ayrshire	Barnardo’s	Kayleigh	kayleigh.christie@barnardos.org.uk	07834 106409
East Lothian	Move On	Angela	angela@moveon.org.uk	07787 256828
Edinburgh	Move On	Angela	angela@moveon.org.uk	07787 256828
	YMCA Edinburgh	Bruce	bruce@ymcaedinburgh.com	07715 208528
Falkirk	Quarriers	Wendy	Wendy.woolfson@quarriers.org.uk	07531 193637
Fife	Kirkcaldy YMCA	Jo	intandem@ymcakirkcaldy.co.uk	07788 982 866
Glasgow	Y People	Caroline/ Jerri	Caroline.McIntosh@ypeople.org.uk jerri.forrest@ypeople.org.uk	07794 383969 07384 515614
	Volunteer Glasgow	Steven	steven.dunn@volunteerglasgow.org	07468 863919
Highland	Action for Children	Sarah	Sarah.Sproul@actionforchildren.org.uk	07717 780465
Inverclyde	Aberlour	Brian	Brian.gallagher@aberlour.org.uk	07864 625063
Midlothian	Move On	Angela	angela@moveon.org.uk	07787 256828
North Ayrshire	Barnardo’s	Kayleigh	kayleigh.christie@barnardos.org.uk	07834 106409
North Lanarkshire	Y People	Caroline	Caroline.McIntosh@ypeople.org.uk	07794 383969
Renfrewshire	Aberlour	Brian	Brian.gallagher@aberlour.org.uk	07864 625063
South Ayrshire	Barnardo’s	Kayleigh	kayleigh.christie@barnardos.org.uk	07834 106409
South Lanarkshire	COVEY	Terri	t.young@coveybefriending.org.uk	07384 514486
Stirling	Quarriers	Wendy	Wendy.woolfson@quarriers.org.uk	07531 193637
West Dunbartonshire	Y Sort It	Lyndsey	lyndsey@ysortit.com	07852 147734
West Lothian	Move On	Angela	angela@moveon.org.uk	07787 256 828

If you have any questions about the national programme then please contact Susie or Debbie on 07860 272 261 or 07860 272 256. Email susie@inspiringscotland.org.uk or debbiez@inspiringscotland.org.uk

In these challenging times, we want to make sure we stay in touch with our intandem community.

We have transitioned our weekly mentoring to an online or telephone service to help keep everyone healthy during this period of social distancing.  We recognise that many people will be anxious about families, friends and carers during this time so want to make keeping in touch with us as easy as possible.

Our mentor coordinators have already been in touch with families, young people and volunteers to explain the changes we are making and how we can safely continue to offer mentoring support and perhaps help guide you to other support if needed. The coordinators have also contacted referring agencies to make sure they know our plans and that we are limiting referrals at present.

If you need to speak to an intandem coordinator about an existing match, then please contact:

Local Authority	Organisation	Contact	Email	Phone
Aberdeen	Befriend a Child	Aleisha	aleisha@befriendaschild.org.uk	07852 305816
Clackmannanshire	Quarriers	Wendy
East Ayrshire	Barnardo’s	Kayleigh	kayleigh.christie@barnardos.org.uk	07834 106409
East Lothian	Move On	Angela	angela@moveon.org.uk	07787 256828
Edinburgh	Move On	Angela	angela@moveon.org.uk	07787 256828
Edinburgh	YMCA Edinburgh	Bruce
Falkirk	Quarriers	Wendy
Fife	Kirkcaldy YMCA	Linda
Glasgow	Y People	Caroline/Jerri
Glasgow	Volunteer Glasgow	Steven
Highland	Action for Children	Sarah
Inverclyde	Aberlour	Brian
Midlothian	Move On	Angela	angela@moveon.org.uk	07787 256828
North Ayrshire	Barnardo’s	Kayleigh	kayleigh.christie@barnardos.org.uk	07834 106409
North Lanarkshire	Y People	Caroline
Renfrewshire	Aberlour	Brian
South Ayrshire	Barnardo’s	Kayleigh	kayleigh.christie@barnardos.org.uk	07834 106409
South Lanarkshire	COVEY	Elisa	e.mclean@coveybefriending.org.uk	07950 788569
Stirling	Quarriers	Wendy
W Dunbartonshire	Y Sort It	Marilisa	marilisa@ysortit.com	07376 570606
West Lothian	Move On	Angela	angela@moveon.org.uk	07787 256828

NB – full details will be updated here as information is confirmed.

If you have any questions about the national programme, then please contact Susie or Debbie on 07860 272 261 or 07860 272 256. Email susie@inspiringscotland.org.uk or debbiez@inspiringscotland.org.uk