The Elizabeth Casson Trust offers a mentoring programme for occupational therapists. Our intention is for the programme to be available across the profession for individuals at all stages of their career journey.
This development will support our charitable purpose to ‘further the profession of occupational therapy’ and our operational intention to ‘explore, develop and implement opportunities with occupational therapists from all areas and relevant organisations that will facilitate confidence building, capability and inclusion’.
As we approach the fourth run of our mentoring programme in February 2025, the trustees and our partners for the first three cohorts, Caroline Waters and Helen Chipchase, are making some exciting changes for our next cohort of mentors and mentees. This started with a mentor development event on 25 October, 2024, where 39 occupational therapists heard about our new approach and met our Mentoring Champions: Dr Anita Atwal, Dee Christie, Naomi Hankinson, Dr Becca Khanna, Anne Robinson and Julia Skelton.
The mentoring champions (MCs) have experienced being mentored as well as being mentors and will lead on delivering the programme and continuing to build the Elizabeth Casson mentoring community.
If you are interested in being a mentor but missed our development day, we’re pleased to be able to say we have a library of videos that speak to the various topics to support induction into the programme and offering ‘top tips’.
Questions? If you would like to speak with us to understand more about the Elizabeth Casson mentoring programme and the support that is available to both mentors and mentees, please email Kate.
If you are ready to register your interest to be a mentor, please use the link below.
If you are interested in being mentored in our 2025 cohort, register your interest here
Register to be mentored
Uncertain if this could be you? Read on to see why being a mentor is as valuable an experience for the mentor as the person being mentored.
Register to be a mentor
While being the mentor in a relationship may sound like a one-way street for development, mentors also regularly report that their own communication skills are enhanced and that the investment they make in their mentee is returned in extended networks, greater insight into the challenges and opportunities available across the broader ecosystem and community, a sense of enhanced purpose and connection to their profession, and an opportunity to spot and nurture talent.
If you would like to become a mentor in our programme, you may find it helpful to watch this short video before completing the registration form. If you would prefer to speak with us, please email Kate.
Perhaps you’re interested in gaining greater insight into management and leadership practices and the ability to implement them confidently and flexibly, or perhaps in developing softer skills such as communication, teamwork and time management? Any of these can be supported through mentoring. Being clear of why you would like mentoring helps on achieving the nest match to a mentor.
If you would like to become a mentee in our programme, you may find it helpful to watch this short video before completing the registration form.
If you would like to watch the full video which also includes ‘top tips’ and information on the support/ development sessions for mentors and mentees that are part of the programme, visit our YouTube site here.
In 2018, the Elizabeth Casson Trust carried out a consultation exercise with a range of occupational therapists across the profession; this led to the development of our leadership project (2018-2020). However, from these conversations, we also learned that occupational therapists want access to mentors.
Occupational therapists are seeking individuals who can help them further develop their communication, influencing and impact building skills while also growing their personal confidence and power. This was an important message for us to hear and we set about exploring how to meet this need. In 2020 we set about developing a mentoring programme, selecting the best partner to deliver this and developing resources and tools to support it.
We hope that the mentoring programme will be a fantastic opportunity to support the development of occupational therapists so they become more confident, bolder and will take – or even create – new and exciting opportunities for the profession.
Our ambition is that the programme will offer practical support to occupational therapists – at any stage of their career – and create greater connectivity across the whole OT community that will provide real opportunities for the profession and for individuals to learn and grow.
If you would like to hear more about a personal experience of being mentored and also being a mentor, watch the video below for a conversation between Caroline Waters and Dee Christie, chair of the Trust.
In December 2020 we recruited a cohort of mentors; in January/ February we used the RCOT regional groups to invite OTs to put themselves forward for mentoring in the pilot and a cohort of mentor/ mentee pairs were formed. In March 2021 we launched the three-month pilot programme. The pilot was tailored to the needs and learning styles of both mentor and mentee and, as people are now far more comfortable with connecting on screen, could be accessed virtually enabling us to match mentors and mentees who were geographically distanced.
During the pilot, we supported the mentoring pairs with additional tools and ‘conversation starters’ that addressed some of the common themes highlighted in mentee applications – themes such as ‘confidence’, ‘story telling’ and ‘difficult conversations’. We supported those newer to mentoring with developmental sessions and were also on-hand to provide any ad hoc advice to mentors and mentees.
The pilot ran until June 2021 at which point it was evaluated for benefit and impact.
At the end of the three-month pilot we sought feedback from participants via an online survey. Feedback was provided by 33 of our 34 mentors and 49 of our 54 mentees. We were delighted with the feedback.
Mentors and mentees highlighted increased confidence, self-awareness, openness to exploring new ways of thinking, giving and receiving feedback, reflecting upon and understanding how to deliver personal growth and change as some of the key benefits.
There were clear tangible benefits too with some mentees achieving promotion, getting approved to a Masters course, or changing tack in their career paths. We were particularly excited that 41 of our mentees from this cohort were willing to become mentors. This growth and willingness to pay forward is critical as the success of our programme depends on the ability to attract mentors to our programme, however there is no expectation that mentees do this.
Our second cohort in 2022 ran for six months. The short video below offers quotes from the survey at the end of the mentoring period. Also, read about the experiences of some our mentoring pairs in the case studies below.
Entering a mentoring relationship – whether as a mentor or mentee – can feel like a big step. To ensure both individuals get the most from the experience we have developed written resources, guides and videos.
Some of the topics covered are reflective learning, storytelling, confidence and personal power, personal community, and difficult conversations. For mentors, we also offer one to one support so you never feel you’re doing this alone.
If you would like to be kept informed about the mentoring programme, follow this link to subscribe to our monthly news emails.
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