As early as 2016 there was identified a need to formalise standards for mentors (see the eight levels of mentors), mentoring training and mentor programmes. Starting in 2019, the National Mentoring Day and the Mentoring School have been working together to understand ‘what is good mentoring?’ and ‘what is outstanding mentoring?’, bringing together the results in evidence-based National Standards.
Accreditation of the National Mentoring Standards is awarded by National Mentoring Day and the Mentoring School and lasts for one year.
National recognition and accreditation of mentoring programmes will provide:
• Certification,
• Digital logo for your use,
• Listing on the national standards website,
• Promotion on social media,
• Opportunity to submit case studies to promote your work.
Accreditation Levels
There are three levels of accreditation of mentoring programmes:
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
Accreditation Process
The accreditation process is a simple one. Organisation register on the site and are able to rate themselves against the criteria in the seven pillars. They submit links to the evidence for each criteria.
We check the self-rating against the submission and evidence. Judgements are based on best fit, for example if a submission meets most of the criteria in a level, then this will be awarded. The overall judgement will require at least six of the seven pillars to be scored at that level or higher, for example to be accredited at silver level, at least six of the pillars must be rated as silver or gold.
Quality Assurance
In order to quality assure the process and ensure best practice is embedded, programmes are required to remain at each stage for six months before progressing to the next level and cannot progress from Bronze to Gold in one step.
New applicants will need to meet the Bronze standards and hold that level for at least six months before being able to progress.
National Mentoring Day and the Mentoring School will only officially recognise mentoring programmes that have achieved at least Bronze accreditation.
Assessment Outcomes
The assessor will award an outcome for each pillar and the overall accreditation. These cannot be appealed against, however the assessor will contact the applicant prior to this to request more evidence if a criteria does not meet the threshold.
Accreditation applies for single mentoring programmes, unless there is a combined approach and shared expectations across several mentoring programmes, for example those being run in the same department by one coordinator.
Reaccreditation Process
Rather than submit an entire application, applications for reaccreditation at the same level only need to evidence continuation of provision. Applicants seeking to change level will need to submit a full application.