Coaching & Mentoring

Within a YJSIP context, coaching and mentoring is primarily about providing a youth justice leader (manager) with a confidential, supportive space to reflect, reframe, explore and – where appropriate – be challenged. It is a space focused on the coachee or mentee exploring what is relevant to their development.

The role of the YJSIP trained coach or mentor is to facilitate a deeper level of reflection, play back and notice themes/patterns of thinking, challenge and at times, offer other solutions. Where coaching tends to have a short-term structure and a focus on the coachee identifying the solutions to their own goals, mentoring is often thought of as a more-experienced person (the mentor) imparting their skills and knowledge on the lesser experienced person (the mentee). In a YJSIP mentoring match, the focus will still be on the mentor giving space for the mentee to identify their own solutions wherever possible, thus modelling the approach that evidence suggests is more likely to lead to meaningful change with children and families – one that is facilitative and participative.

Both YJSIP coaching and mentoring are interested in supporting someone’s professional development and growth with the ultimate aim of improving outcomes for children and communities.

YJSIP is an organisational member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and follows its Global Code of Ethics, available here: www.GlobalCodeofEthics.org

An example of Coaching support; Leader A is relatively new in post. They would like to develop their confidence and competence in the supervision of practitioners, particularly those they perceive a more experienced than they are in practice.

An example of Coaching support; Leader B is questioning how to progress to strategic management and is unsure if this is what they want.

An example of Mentoring support; Service C has a newly appointed Head of Service looking for more guidance around a specific strategic area, as opposed to broader developmental goals.