Mutual Mentoring 2024 is now open for applicants

The Analysis Function (AF) is delighted to open applications for its Mutual Mentoring Programme for a third year running. This programme forms partnerships that combine ‘traditional’ mentoring with reverse mentoring, which is where a junior colleague mentors a colleague at a more senior grade.

Our objectives are to:

• enable senior analysts to deepen their understanding of diverse experiences within the Analytical Function, recognising potential barriers to career progression — this insight will guide them to encourage more inclusive leadership and teams, and to address equality issues within their areas of responsibility
• offer junior analysts a platform to share their experiences on inclusion and perceive these issues from a senior management viewpoint — this also includes valuable career and personal development discussions, aimed at maximising their professional growth
• provide opportunities for cross-departmental and professional networking, and to facilitate experience-sharing and learning

Mutual Mentoring offers significant benefits for both mentors and mentees. It encourages positive change in organisations by promoting equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion. This aligns with the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for 2022 to 2025 and is a major commitment in the AF Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Strategy.

How the Mutual Mentoring programme works

The programme matches people from Grade 6 or below who identify as belonging to under-represented groups facing barriers to their career progression (including Protected Characteristics) with someone at least two grades senior. Senior analysts include Senior Civil Servants (SCS) and those at Grade 6 and Grade 7.

For example, a Higher Executive Officer (HEO) junior partner would be matched with an analyst at Grade 7 or above. A Grade 7 junior partner would be matched with a Deputy Director. Where possible, we aim to match colleagues from different departments.

Who can take part

Junior partners

The programme is open to AF members at Grade 6 or below who consider there to be barriers placed on their career progression in relation to their background or protected characteristics, such as:

• being disabled
• being a carer
• coming from a lower socio-economic background
• coming from an ethnic minority background

You will be matched with someone at least two grades above you. The list above is not exhaustive and we welcome applications from all civil servants who experience disadvantages due to their identity.

Senior partners

The programme is open to all Senior Civil Servants (SCS) and colleagues at Grade 6 and Grade 7 level. There are no requirements for senior partners to come from a particular background. This is because the reverse mentoring aspect of this programme is intended to help senior analysts consider how to make their own leadership and teams more inclusive. The junior partner can help the senior partner increase their understanding of the diverse experiences of AF members and the barriers they may face.

Training

Training sessions will be held online in Spring 2024. Sessions will be accessible and inclusive. More information about the content and timing of the sessions will be shared with successful applicants closer to the time. The training will introduce mutual mentoring and will explain the expectations of both members in the partnership.

Both members of a mutual mentoring partnership will be asked to sign a mentoring agreement. This will establish agreed ground rules and confidentiality within mentoring partnerships.

Time commitment

Mentoring partnerships will be expected to meet once a month between May and October 2024. Participants will need to commit around 30 minutes to 2 hours of their time each month throughout the programme. This means a minimum time commitment of 4 hours, including the training session, over 6 months.

We are committed to creating safe and inclusive spaces. The time commitment is there to ensure valuable and high-quality partnerships for both junior and senior mentors.

How to sign up

If you are interested in taking part, please complete our online application form by 6pm on Monday 11 March 2024.

In your application, please tell us:

• why you want to join the programme
• what you hope to achieve and get out of the programme
• what you can offer your mentoring partner in return

We will try to match all interested applicants with a partner. If there is an especially high demand from junior partners, selections will be based on the strength of the applications, with emphasis on the 250-word expression of interest.

Contact us

If you have any questions, please contact Analysis.Function@ons.gov.uk.