After working as a learning mentor in a secondary school for two years, Tracey Bennett took her aims to make a difference to young people's lives for a similar role in a very different environment, Ealing Youth Offending Service.
Before children and learning mentoring Tracey put her psychology and criminology degree to good use and worked in an adolescent psychiatric unit t. Her dissertation on self harm in prisons informed her duties working with self harmers and suicide risks, and it was in this environment she realised her commitment to making a difference in this area.
"I was alarmed by the amount of disregard for these youngster's futures, many of who had been involved in the Youth Justice System either directly or through their families," she said.
After children, and Learning Mentor National Training, she became a learning mentor in a Slough secondary school, finding that although her additional qualifications aren't essential for the post she was able to start the job with the needed knowledge already in place. Now, still mentoring, she works for Ealing Youth Offending Service, providing preventative, supportive and reparative work for young people, aged eight to 18 who come into contact with the Youth Justice System.
Learning mentors operate in schools, or, as in Tracey's case, wherever they are needed, to work with young people and, if appropriate their families to help overcome their barriers to learning, whether they may be physical, social emotional or other.
"In school this would consist of one hour slots of either one-to-one work maybe counselling young people or looking at social skills, confidence building, self-awareness etc, and group sessions focussing on anger management or self-esteem," she explains.
"In the YOS there is no typical day. I can meet young people anywhere (within reason), this may involve visits to their home, Young Offender Institutions; their school or at our offices.
"The main aim is to try and ensure they are accessing some sort of education or training and any issues likely to deter them from continuing are dealt with quickly, before any behaviour problems become entrenched.
"Learning mentors take some of the pressure off teachers for dealing with troubled pupils, and act as a link between school and home providing clearer communication and allowing the parent to regain some control over their child's life," Tracey added.
The aforementioned barriers to learning are as wide ranging as Tracey's typical day. They include issues like a child who hates school, having inherited this attitude from a parent who really didn't like it either.
"My work then would involve getting involved with the parents - maybe addressing their own learning difficulties through adult education or getting them involved with groups in the local community and being a point of contact," she said.
Some young people, she says, have a dreadful home life. In these cases, Tracey would liaise with other agencies - in agreement with the young person - to supplement her own mentoring. Multi-agency work also comes into play if a young person has learning difficulties not picked up at primary school or has been through emotional trauma. With these issues identified, Tracey decides on group or individual mentoring.
"Usually group sessions have quicker results but sometimes a young people are unable to work in a group either due to shyness or to behaviour issues," said Tracey.
"With one-to-one work, sometimes just talking is enough - a chance for them to air their grievances, and let off a bit off steam. Just the fact that they know somebody is interested in what they have to say often works wonders.
"Sometimes I can mediate between the young person and their teacher, or another adult they may have problems communicating with. It takes a lot of the pressure off them and provides a bit of a safety net - they're not alone."
As a relatively new edition to the education workforce - learning mentors were first introduced in failing inner-city schools and were so successful they became more widespread – Tracey reports some misunderstanding and misuse of the resource in schools. Her experiences and benefits as a YOS mentor are strides ahead..
"The council offers in house training on topics such as working with diversity, domestic violence and child protection, for example," she said of professional development opportunities in her current workplace. "There are also courses offered by the Youth Justice Board, and any other external course which would be beneficial to my work would be accessible.
"By contrast, in school there was not much on offer. Any training offered was at the discretion of the senior management team and often without consultation with those working at the front line.
"There is still a tendency in schools for learning mentors to be seen as teaching assistants, and not invited to apply for more senior pastoral roles. However, some more forward-thinking schools have now acknowledged the work of learning mentors and are beginning to give them more opportunities for career development."
It's clear she much prefers her current environment and enthuses about having more creativity and diversity in her work.
"I am not stuck to one school's ethos," she said. "I create my role and then take it into schools or education providers. I am more able to challenge the ideas of other professionals at multi-agency meetings. I have more support to try new ideas, such as working with pupils during periods of exclusion/out of school. I can see the pupil-school relationship more objectively and react accordingly."
Tracey also enjoys the YOS approach to work/life balance. Leaving her school post gave her a salary increase (meaning she could go part time) and she makes the most of flexi-time. A real blessing, she says, if her children are ever ill as she can make time up later in the week.
Who would want to leave with job so challenging, rewarding and flexible? Not Tracey, that's for sure.
"At the moment it's very exciting to be part of such an innovative YOS, and to help create some of the best practice that may benefit young people all over the country," she said. "I would like to stay for a while and experience as much as I can within the Youth Justice System."
Making a difference and developing the service - within a team which shares similar goals - is a massive motivator for Tracey and she has some ambitious ideas for advancing the work mentors like her do, including developing her interest in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - a tool she believes could be used to empower young people to take control of their lives.
"Further on down the line, I believe it will become necessary to include some kind of holistic training for our future teachers, where they are taught to be fully cognisant of the issues young people may have," she said. "From what I have heard, there is only a very small element of teacher training focussing on these issues. I may consider developing some sort of training to be delivered in schools and/or training establishments to this end."
She added: "I can always envisage I would like to continue working directly with young people, wherever I may end up. Even though I sometimes feel I'm providing very little, it's often just enough to create a real change in the young people – it never fails to amaze me."
