Information for managers and mentors
Welcome to the managers and project mentors section.
The AHP Careers Fellowship supports the growth and development of Fellows across the four pillars of practice through a tripartite arrangement between the Fellow, their workplace and the Fellowship Scheme.
Managers and project mentors play a key role in the learning and development of Fellows through supporting the progression of a work-based project.
Evaluations show that these projects can benefit the team, service and people accessing services; the new knowledge, skills and experience of Fellows is invested into the practice setting upon completion of their Fellowship.
Contact us if you have any questions or aspects that you would like to discuss: ahp.fellowships@nes.scot.nhs.uk
How do line managers support a Fellowship?
Line managers are a key partner in establishing and enabling a successful Fellowship. Specifically, line managers:
- Read and sign a service level agreement from NES which outlines roles and responsibilities and requirements of all parties
- Ensure that the awarded funding is used to release of the Fellow to engage with their Fellowship
- Enable the learning environment for the Fellow and open doors to new contacts and opportunities
- Promote the awarding of a Fellowship across their organisation.
Upon completion of the Fellowship, it is important that managers identify how to apply the Fellow’s new knowledge, skills, confidence and experience in the service to enable ongoing professional development and increase capacity in the system.
Hear from Sheena Borthwick, Speech and Language Therapy Service Lead, within NHS Lothian about her reflections on the roles of managers and mentors in supporting Fellows.
Who can be a project mentor?
Fellows are encouraged to identify and approach someone from the practice setting who can help them progress their work-based project; this may or may not be their line manager.
A mentor may have expertise in a particular area that a Fellow wishes to learn about, or they may have an ability to support navigating a project in the practice setting. Alternatively, a mentor may offer a broader leadership development focus and enable access to new opportunities and experiences the Fellow may not usually have access to in their substantive post.
We offer a specific session for line managers and mentors to ask questions about expectations and requirements and to align how these roles and the NES Fellowship Team support the Fellows.
What does the project mentor role involve?
The mentoring will be individualised and depend on the experience of the Fellow and their requirements related to the project. Typically, the mentor role will -
Support the Fellow:
- Through monthly meetings and respond to queries
- To take ownership of their Fellowship
- By facilitating plans and solutions related to the project
- To follow local governance processes
- To identify sources of support as the project progresses
Engage with the Fellowship Scheme by:
- Discussing a mentorship agreement to set expectations of both roles
- Reviewing a one-page project charter
- Joining the Fellow’s midway group presentation
- Completing evaluation surveys (midway, upon completion and follow up)
- Attending the celebration event
What other support mechanisms are available to Fellows?
The Fellowship aims to provide high challenge with high support to optimise their learning and development. Fellows have access to:
- Their cohort and a MS Teams Channel
- Protected time for self-directed reading and planning
- The learning and development programme (see here for further details)
- Action learning / Peer Learning Groups
- Facilitated trio learning mentorship sessions
- Their line manager and project mentor
- NES AHP Careers Fellowship Team
What are the benefits to a service or team hosting a Fellow?
Listen to this ten-minute presentation from Kirsty Farnan, Principal Radiographer from NHS Tayside, who shares her reflections about supporting a Fellow in the workplace.
What if there are difficulties with the mentorship arrangements or the project?
Initially discuss this with the Fellow and revisit expectations about what is possible and facilitate the Fellow to identify other types or sources of support where appropriate. You can also contact and discuss aspects of the Fellowship with the Team in NES at any time.
Whilst the project is important, the Fellow’s learning throughout their experience is the priority. Therefore, the work-based project scale and focus may change as circumstances require and identifying lessons learned and new insights from these developments is all part of the Fellowship experience to feed into future decisions and plans in their substantive post.
What have mangers and mentors said about the Fellowship?
This has been a wonderful opportunity for [name of the Fellow], which has had a positive impact on her personally and professionally. It has been wonderful to have seen [name of the Fellow] flourish during the past year and it is very apparent that she has enjoyed the process immensely. Thank you for this offering this opportunity.
The fellowship has a high potential for impact not only on the individual but also the service. I have seen each individual grow in confidence and skill set. The team has benefitted by the enthusiasm of the individuals which has undoubtedly impacted us as a whole. We have many more individuals keen to step forward for opportunities to grow.
An incredibly positive experience for the person doing the fellowship and for the service and service -users. These Fellowships are a pivotal moment in someone's career and will help to advance our practice and shape learning.
The reason we are so willing to support staff members wanting to be fellows is that we can see how much they grow in knowledge, confidence and enthusiasm. Every single fellow has come out a better professional with a huge amount of skills and ways of thinking and this has huge benefit to the department.
I think these Fellowships provide a wonderful opportunity for AHPs to carry out some pilot work in protected time and have the time to reflect and discuss outcomes.
