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    The DCP Faculty of Leadership and Management Mentorship Programme

    The scheme aims to increase effective and strategic leadership activity for clinical psychologists while also taking into account the particular challenges for under-represented groups.

    What is the DCP Faculty of Leadership and Management Mentorship Programme?

    The DCP Faculty of Leadership and Management Mentorship Programme is part of the Clinical Psychologists as Leaders (CPL) Programme, which offers support for clinical psychologists throughout their careers.

    It has two distinct arms:

    1. Leadership Mentoring
    2. Leadership Training

    The Mentorship Programme supports the development of effective and strategic leadership strategies while working in or preparing for leadership and management roles as clinical psychologists. Mentorship can also foster clinical leadership and organisational skills, which can have a big impact on teams, and services.

    It allows clinical psychologists to engage in a formal relationship over an agreed timescale of six to eight months with a colleague outside of their immediate management or supervisory structures.

    The independence of the mentor, outside of the mentee's organisation, specifically addresses the need for a space to discuss management of work politics and career aspirations with colleagues not directly involved in managing and appraising them.

    While the key focus of the Programme is enabling professional development with an emphasis on leadership skills, it also covers other areas of learning, wellbeing and career and personal development.

    There are resources available on the BPS, DCP and Faculty of Leadership and Management websites to support those particularly interested in developing leadership skills, which can be used to complement the mentorship programme.

    Who is eligible?

    Full members of the DCP, who are also members of the Faculty of Leadership and Management, are eligible to access our Mentorship Programme.

    It is not currently available for students or those in-training. 

    Existing mentors and mentees 

    Existing users can login into the mentoring platform using the button below. 

    Access the mentoring platform

    If you have any questions about the mentoring scheme, contact Cat Bernet-Wilson, Careers Manager, at [email protected].

    How to become a mentor

    The DCP Leadership & Management Faculty Mentorship Programme offers a vital source of leadership development support for clinical psychologists. Since the programme's launch, many mentors and mentees have taken part and benefitted from it with a sense of community through the mentorship experience.  

    Reasons to become a mentor

    Becoming a mentor through the programme offers:

    • The privilege of mentoring a clinical psychologist(s). This could be supporting them to enhance professional development including leadership skills, helping with service development issues, and career and personal development to become an effective leader
    • An opportunity for shared learning and contributing to the profession
    • The chance to meet new people outside of your network
    • Support from a dedicated BPS programme lead who will be on-hand to answer any questions about the mentoring experience

    "During my career, I benefitted greatly from being mentored at times of professional development and change. Becoming a mentor was a natural step to share experience and to enable others to develop. I would urge those with a wealth of experience to consider becoming mentors. The role is enjoyable and keeps you focused!" – Mentor

    "You often find things out about yourself as well …you suddenly realise what you have taken from an example" – Mentor

    "I feel valued through mentoring … they valued my feedback giving me a sense that my experiences are relevant and helpful for others" – Mentor

    Who can become a mentor?

    There's a common misconception that you need to have years of work experience to become a mentor. However, this definitely isn't the case. You can apply to become a mentor if you are:

    • A qualified clinical psychologist at any stage of your career (early, mid-level or senior)
    • Able to commit to a one-hour mentoring session over six - eight months (six sessions in total)
    • Have access to a laptop or computer so you can use the online platform PushFar which brings mentors and mentees together and has guidance to help you get the most out of the programme

    How the BPS will support you as a mentor

    • Guide you through the mentoring process by offering online onboarding and mentoring induction training
    • Provide free tickets for CPD events hosted by the Leadership & Management Faculty during the time you are mentoring
    • Support from Cat Bernet-Wilson, BPS Careers Manager throughout your time as a mentor

    What's the next step?

    Your first step in the mentor application process is to email Cat Bernet-Wilson, BPS Careers Manager introducing yourself and including the following:

    • Your name, job title, where you work and your BPS membership number
    • A brief description of why you would like to become a mentor and join the programme (max 300 words)
    • Any specialist areas of interest you think you could support your mentee(s) with

    Feel free to ask any questions you may have about the programme in your application email. The programme leads will review your application and Cat will be in touch, usually within two weeks, with further information.

    We look forward to welcoming you onto the mentoring programme!

    If you have any questions about the mentoring scheme contact Cat Bernet-Wilson, Careers Manager, at [email protected].

    How to become a mentee

    The programme will be ready to welcome applications from mentees in late Spring 2025.

    Further details will be uploaded shortly.

    How to make mentoring work for you

    It is important to use your time efficiently to get the most out of this process.

    The following are key to making a mentoring relationship work:

    1. Initial Introductory 'Getting to know you session'. This is an initial half hour phone contact to:
      - Learn more about each other
      - Set some clear overall goals for the six months of mentoring
      - Agree parameters and kind of contract you want to set together, eg, timings, ground rules, etc
    2. Mentees should have a clear focus, and plan ahead for each session, thinking about key topics and preferred outcomes at the start of each session. Each session will be driven by the topics the mentee would like to focus. Examples may include; managing time and competing priorities, launching a new project, raising profile/visibility, communication issues and skills, leading a team, managing challenging work relationships and team conflict, managing skilfully in the mental health services climate, managing upwards, managing constant organisational change/cuts to services, confidence and career planning.

    Schedule your six hourly sessions, extending over six to eight months into your diaries.

    1. Mentors should have successful facilitative listening and inquiry skills to enable their mentee(s) to explore relevant issues and empower them to find their own solutions. Sharing of experiences with mentees is recognised as being facilitative in helping people develop effective leadership skills. Mentors may draw on their own work experiences, share what has worked well for them and discuss how they have successfully managed to overcome  the challenges they have faced at work.

    It is also particularly important to use your time efficiently to get the most out of this process.

    For example, you should always try to:

    • Start and end on time.
    • Use the first 5-10 minutes to check in, and recognise achievements however small, set the focus for the session.
    • Dedicate 40 minutes (approximately) to the main topics, 05 minutes to confirm, and close by agreeing actions over the next month.
    • Use the last 5-10 minutes for feedback on what has worked well/ what would be even more helpful/what they would like more of.

    Ethics and conduct

    • As DCP members all mentors and mentees are bound by the society's Code of Ethics and Conduct, and Member Conduct Rules.
    • HCPC standards for practitioner psychologists also apply.
    • In the event of any issues or concerns regarding the programme, in the first instance please contact the Programme Core Team who can advise you further.

    Data handling and privacy

    The mentor data provided here is shared only with DCP members.

    For more information on how we handle your data, please consult our Privacy Policy.

    Our journey so far 

    This current Programme follows on from previous successful mentoring schemes aimed at newly qualified and senior psychologists. Both schemes had positive outcomes. 

    The Newly-Qualified Clinical Psychologist scheme led by Dr Jenny Taylor and Professor Helen Pote. It focussed on leadership and identified and started to address barriers to leadership activity for junior psychologists in Central & East London.

    The Senior Clinical Psychologist scheme was led by Sarajane Aris, Dr Esther Cohen-Tovee, and Dr Amra Saleem Rao, focussed on psychologists in Senior positions and found impact on measures of authority and resilience, wellbeing, stress management and goal attainment as well as leadership.

    The Clinical Psychologists as Leaders programme (CPL) merged the two schemes & was set up in 2018 to develop a mentoring infrastructure across the career span.

    A steering group oversaw the rolling out of the DCP funded CPL project, chaired by the Dr Amra Saleem Rao and supported by Sarajane Aris- the Faculty Mentoring Lead. The steering group comprised of appointed project leads ( Dr Jenny Taylor and Professor Helen Pote), Research Assistant (Melissa Stock), EDI Lead, Expert by Experience Lead.

    The project found that over a thousand "unique visitors" visited the programme's webpages, which have been viewed over 3,000 times since its launch, and more than two hundred people signed up as mentors or mentees.

    Impact and satisfaction reported by those who engaged with the evaluation of the project was high. Satisfaction was rated as 'extremely helpful' or 'very helpful' by both mentees and mentors.

    Mentees leadership skills improved significantly after mentoring (pre-post score comparison, p= .022).

    Qualitative feedback provided specific examples of how mentoring improved mentees' skills and contributed to personal and professional development for mentees and mentors in many areas, including leadership.

    The CPL project came to a close as planned at the end of 2020 with a recommendation to continue the programme which led to the next phase. Leadership & Management Faculty Mentorship programme was streamlined on the DCP webpage led by Tim Cate. 

    The programme has been a flagship project highly valued by the DCP & Faculty members.

    The programme was put on temporarily on hold to refresh its new operating system and will be restored in late Spring 2025. 

    Acknowledgements 

    Our thanks to several committed Clinical Psychologists for supporting the programme, which is immensely valued by the Faculty Committee and its members. 

    • All the Mentors of the Programme over the years for volunteering as mentors.
    • Previous project leads, along with the project Steering Group members Dr. Adrian Neal Dr. Patrick Roycroft, Mr. Robert Bathie (Expert by Experience Lead), Dr. Rana Rashad (Diversity Lead and Research Assistant Melissa Stock) - they all brought  their valuable experience to the new DCP Mentorship Programme Steering Group.

    Programme Core Team

    • Amra Rao, Chair of the DCP Leadership & Management Faculty
    • Meherzin Das, DCP Leadership & Management Faculty Mentorship Programme Lead
    • Cat Bernet-Wilson, BPS Careers Manager