Establishing a parent mentor scheme has proved to be a daunting task. There have been problems about:
- funding
- recruitment and retention, and
- the need for greater clarity about the role and responsibilities of mentors.
There is consensus among professionals about the potential benefits of parent mentors.
Mentors valued the benefits that parents were able to derive from their involvement.
Mentors also appreciated the benefits to their own development from being involved in FDAC.
It is acknowledged that the parent mentor scheme is the least developed part of the pilot.
The parent mentor programme is potentially one of the most distinctive features of the FDAC model. It is the only component where help to parents is provided by non- professionals. The aim of the parent mentors is to provide a positive role model based on their own life experiences. In the feasibility study, the plan envisaged was that parent mentors would be parents who themselves had lost their children to the care system as a result of parental substance misuse but had gone on to rebuild their lives and parent successfully.
This section of the report brings together views about mentors from a focus group with three parent mentors and from the interviews and focus groups with the FDAC team and other professionals. The views of parents about mentors were presented earlier, in the ‘Parents Talking’ section (C1).
Establishing a parent mentor scheme was harder than had been anticipated. In part, this is because recruitment was slow and retention low, with numbers falling far short of the target figure of 15 to 20 needed for 60 cases a year. When FDAC opened its doors early in 2008, five mentors had already been recruited. This counted as the first recruitment wave. A second wave, later that year, resulted in three further appointments, and four more mentors were recruited early in 2010, during the third wave. But, by the end of the evaluation (May 2010) there was only one mentor involved in the work, although another (from the first wave) considered himself to be still on the books and available to help. Another practical difficulty was that parent mentor activity was put on hold for six months soon after FDAC started. This was because it became clear that work was needed to
clarify the selection criteria and the role and responsibilities of the mentors. It was also felt that the mentors were more exposed, professionally and emotionally, than the FDAC team and that time was needed to clarify boundaries and put support mechanisms into place. A half-day consultation was held with the five mentors already in post, after which they worked with the FDAC team over several months, identifying training needs and establishing sound working arrangements.
Problems with funding also restricted the development of the mentor programme. More money was needed than had been available and the lack of stability in funding made it particularly difficult to allocate sufficient time for the recruitment, training, supervision and support work that was considered essential. As other agencies find, volunteer co-
ordination is a skilled and time-consuming task.
It was a cause of frustration also that money could not be found for the top-up training that was planned for parent mentors after their first six months in post. Mentors relished the training opportunities they were offered at the start of their involvement and they were keen to build on what they had learnt and to hone their skills in working alongside parents. Advertising costs were also mounting, though mentors in particular thought more progress might have been made through direct contact with local organisations.
There are definitely people out there. It‟s part of recovery, because so much of that is about giving something back. And there will be people with experience of care, not just drugs and alcohol. I‟d say 80 per cent of women with drug problems have also had problems with social services, so you‟d get the combination
needed.
Despite these difficulties, there is consensus about the benefits to be achieved from having a mentoring element to FDAC’s work. This was the view of the FDAC team and their managers. In part, they thought mentors had a symbolic importance, with their involvement demonstrating that the team acknowledges that tackling substance misuse is not easy for parents. They were clear that mentoring worked well, and was valued, by parents who opted for that service, and some team members thought that parents who had been through similar experiences should be included in some way in every FDAC case.
Their non-professional perspective is important. They may see ways of working that we don‟t understand.
The guardians who had had experience of parent mentors being involved with their cases were all very positive about their role in providing support to parents. The few lawyers and social workers who had come into contact with a mentor were also positive. As one lawyer put it:
She was brilliant. Please keep trying to get this part of the service in place. Several professionals expressed disappointment that a team of mentors had not been developed as planned and that the chance of accessing a mentor had not been
extended to all parents. One of the judges commented that he had not seen a mentor for a long time and that it was a shame that the scheme had fizzled out.
The mentors themselves valued the gains they have seen in the parents they mentored, watching them come to realise that there are people they can trust, and realising that they can turn their life around. They valued, too, the personal gains for themselves – increased self-confidence and self-esteem, feeling a valued team member, seeing their past traumatic experiences of substance misuse put to good use, learning new skills, and moving on to a new career. All these positive spin-offs were viewed as life changing by mentors.
I felt appreciated, wanted. I was part of the organisation, not just an add-on. I felt valued.
For me this was a bridge to professional work. I realised I loved the care field and drug work so I looked for qualifications and did training and now work in a service supporting homeless people.
I‟ve never sat in an office before or read files or looked at computers. It‟s a new skill. So for me it‟s about growing and developing and forging a new career path.
Reflections about parent mentors
The findings highlight both the difficulties and benefits of this aspect of FDAC’s work. Our main conclusion is that the mentoring component is the most poorly developed part of the pilot. There is insufficient information to draw any conclusion about whether it made a difference to outcomes for parents and children. There is, however, some compelling anecdotal evidence from various quarters that it can offer real benefits to both parents and parent mentors, and that its fit with the overall approach of FDAC means that every effort should continue to be made to develop the work.
An important finding is that a mentoring programme is not something that will grow of its own accord. It needs careful planning, dedicated time and stable funding, all of which have proved difficult to provide. The numerous other demands on the team have tended to dominate, probably because they are more driven by external deadlines (of the legislation, the court process and local authority planning). This has made it hard to carve out a regular and ongoing space for the contribution of parent mentors. There is a sense – from the team as well as from the parent mentors – that this aspect of the work has not yet been championed as well as it might have been.
A recurring theme has been whether parent mentors need to have had experience of both substance misuse problems and child care problems stemming from that misuse. The parent mentors and parents feel strongly that both criteria are essential if parents are to have confidence in mentors as role models for the lifestyle changes that are needed. The team are seized with the difficulties of getting enough people with both type of experience, but are willing to keep trying.
Attempts to recruit a new parent mentor co-ordinator provide a timely opportunity for a renewed focus on the parent mentor aspect of the FDAC model. Planning for this
appointment has prompted a review of the arrangements put in place over the past year. These are about parent mentor recruitment, the stage at which a mentor becomes involved with parents, the use made of local training courses, ways of managing
needed from the FDAC team and other mentors, and a review of the possible availability of mentors previously involved but not acting as mentors at the moment.
Time and effort is needed – in any service – to ensure that volunteers feel supported in their role and that those who offer their services are open and non-judgmental in their attitude to service users. The mentors we spoke to were clear that FDAC achieved this, and everyone thought it was worth making a fresh commitment to making the scheme work as intended.
You have to understand why parents might reject FDAC – because they‟ve had bad experiences with judges before or they‟ve not been listened to by workers. Or it‟s fear.
People are scared when they think they‟ll have to stop using drugs. They need someone who understands, who won‟t judge them about their substance misuse, who understands their lifestyle and their language.
Mentors can speak to parents at their level quickly whereas professionals can be too wordy and too directing. It works the other way too – we can explain to professionals the words, the street language, the mannerisms.