Mentoring Partnership

Creating reciprocal relationships that model, mirror, and mentor

Ejiro  Ogbevoen by Som Senior

VOW provides a bespoke, confidential, and safe environment to think things through and explore professional dilemmas, challenges, and the barriers to progression

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VOW

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Mentoring

What is Valuing Our Workforce (VOW)?

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Overly bureaucratic processes, excessive caseloads, poor staff morale, and retention are well-documented issues facing the profession, and as the emphasis on performance grows increasingly unrealistic, practitioners failing to meet targets can face disciplinary procedures. The pandemic's legacy has resulted in unprecedented service demands, reduced resources, and a cost of living crisis. These additional workforce pressures have resulted in feelings of moral injury, mental ill health, and high levels of staff sickness.

In addition to these challenges, Black, Asian & 'ethnic minority' social work practitioners may also experience unconscious bias, microaggressions, and racism, all of which can affect their confidence, performance, and career progression.

VOW was established as an independent online mentoring resource to counter these experiences and provide a confidential space for practitioners to think things through.

VOW is not a well-being or counselling service. VOW uses a systemic, outcome-focused, and psychosocial mentoring approach to validate practitioners' competence and identity.

Psychosocial mentoring is the process of enabling and strengthening resilience and helping practitioners recover from and/or actively respond to episodes of inequitable practice, which can have a potentially damaging long-term impact.

VOW has been described as "therapeutic" and "transformative" by practitioners using the service.

A young job-seeker applies for her job on her laptop computer. It is a portrait of her (Indian Asian woman) sitting at a table as she smiles and fills in her application.

Benefits of Psychosocial Mentoring

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What We Do

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VOW offers online 1:1 mentoring support during working hours. Each mentee will be offered 1 – 3 mentoring sessions depending on their individual needs. Mentees will meet with a mentoring partner for 1 hour either weekly or monthly.

VOW is interested in the presenting issues and will validate the stories told. Primarily, our approach will pay close attention to the stories of success – which are often hidden in plain sight – and will focus on the resources and tools that mentees have utilised in the past to resolve dilemmas or overcome challenges. We will use an effective framework that will support mentees to develop new stories and create realistic strategies to help them move forward confidently.

These are some of the themes we can help you to think things through:

Facing racism – You are not alone! Strategies to respond to inequitable practice.

Facing performance related issues – How to plan, how to survive!

AYSE challenges – How can we help?

Barriers to progression – What is getting in the way? What to do next.

Choosing the battle – Deflecting arrows: knowing what to focus on.

Impostorism – Exploring the impact on professional identity, practice, and changing the narrative.

Career Progression – Maximising stories of success and moving forward.

What next, where next? – Thinking about the present and future.

VOW’s bespoke 1:1 mentoring resource is a paid CPD activity that requires organisational funding to support Black, Asian, and 'ethnic minority' practitioners wanting space to think things through. If you are interested in mentoring sessions, please speak with your Training and Development department.

What PRACTITIONERS ARE SAYING ABOUT VOW

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Testimonials

I have found your support and website inspiring to me as a practitioner. It has made me realise that I do have a voice which is powerful and can make a positive difference for others. My confidence has grown and I am embedding the Social Graces/systemic practice as part of my role as a social work practitioner and supporting my staff. I am thankful for your time and support. You would be an asset to many.

VS – Advanced Social Work Practitioner

This was the first time I had undergone formal coaching sessions and I can honestly say it has positively impacted on me in the personal and professional sense. Why personal? Because Jac allowed me a safe space to discuss my anxieties as a manager particularly in terms of suffering from the dreaded “imposter syndrome”, and in the professional sense, Jac allowed me the space to let go of things that did not matter and to focus on developing myself as a manager and leader. I would highly recommend Jac and would not hesitate in approaching her again for support and advice.

Nadeem - Social Work Manager

I really didn’t know what to expect from mentoring. A lot has been going on for me at work and I needed an independent space to talk, but to be quite honest, I was done talking. But VOW offers a very different way of thinking, and the Metro Map helped put my experiences into words. The focus is on you and I was helped to strategize. That alone has made such a difference!

Julie S– Social Worker

I found our conversations helpful. When you are facing systemic racism and inequitable treatment the impact is significant as well as emotionally draining. This could have affected my capacity to respond with emotional intelligence. Because I have felt grounded by our discussions, I have been able to think rationally and to keep the focus on whether my managers have followed process and procedure. I also like the thought of catching or deflecting hypothetical arrows and missiles before they cause me harm. I have found our connection inspiring. I’m going to build on the realization that the fight is [not just] about fighting against the system for myself but fighting for others who don’t feel able to fight for themselves or whose fight is still yet to come.

NB - Service Manager

Jac helped me navigate the challenges I had in supervision. She helped me think through the situation and what I was bringing to the table and what was on the table. She helped me implement strategies to help me move forward.

Toni W– LAC Social Worker

For more information about our work with Black, Asian, & ‘ethnic minority’ social work professionals and to request support from our team

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