N W Mentoring Scheme Annual Conference Evaluation 2012 by Amanda Nicholls

North West Mentoring Scheme

Annual Conference 2012 Summary & Evaluation

The Event In partnership with the NHS Leadership Academy, the North West Mentoring Scheme exists as part of an overall regional strategy to develop leadership capacity at all levels in the North West of England. The Scheme is focused on enhancing leadership quality and capacity and aims to add value to the process of management and enhances managerial capability across public sector organisations. We provide our members with professional and reputable learning programmes and networking opportunities to encourage their continuous professional development. Each year we hold our showcase event, the Annual Conference, to invigorate existing mentors and mentees, and to attract new members to the scheme. It is a networking and learning event with distinguished and recognised speakers, and is eagerly anticipated by all scheme members and stakeholders.

Annual Conference 19th June 2012 “Mindfulness in Mentoring” The Barton Grange Hotel, Preston, Lancashire This year marked our 5th Annual Conference and was held at Barton Grange Hotel in Preston on the 19th of June, there were in excess of 75 scheme members and stakeholders in attendance. The ﬁrst guest speaker was Deborah Arnot, Interim Director, NorthWest Leadership Academy, introducing the conference with “How Mentoring Delivers Results”. The keynote speaker for the day, talking about “Mindfulness & Engaged Leadership” was Anne Benson, Senior Consultant Leadership from The King’s Fund. Following lunch, we held the mentoring awards ceremony which comprise of:

Mentor Exemplar Award A model mentor representing the embodiment of mentoring ideals. Non judgmental, reﬂective, empathic and facilitative. Model Mentee Award This person has assimilated the ethos of mentoring and applied it practically to their professional life. Services to Mentoring Award A person or organisation who has proactively promoted the NW Mentoring Scheme and mentoring in general. (the awards will be covered in further detail on page 4) In the afternoon three workshops were available for the delegates to choose from, each delegate had the opportunity to attend two of these. The aim of each workshop was to give participants a practical experience of a range of tools for increasing awareness along with knowledge of tools/techniques that support relaxation and build resilience. The workshops were also intended to direct members on where they could ﬁnd more information about Mindfulness, awareness , resilience and well being. The workshops on offer were: Workshop 1: “Developing Mindfulness Through Relaxation & Meditation“ Delivered by Taravandana, Organisational Development Advisor at Blackpool Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust and Freelance Consultant and Coach with Vajramudita, Director of Vajramudita Ltd, Realising Potential Workshop 2: “Building Resilience Through Being Aware of What We Tell Ourselves” Delivered by Emma Dawkins, Assistant Director of HR and OD at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Workshop 3: “Awareness of Emotions and Using ‘Self’ in The Mentoring Process” Delivered by Su Fowler-Johnson, Director of PACE Consulting. The day was closed by Rob Booth, Scheme Manager, in the main room and we asked everyone to complete feedback cards and evaluation forms, which are detailed on the following pages.

Mentoring Awards The North West Mentoring Scheme have established three awards to recognise the value and calibre of mentoring in the North West region. The awards are peer nominated and have proven to be a real success in celebrating outstanding leaderhsip and achievements through mentoring. Winners are chosen by a panel of experienced mentors and the mentoring team. Mentor Exemplar Award Winner :Jill Cooper Midwife, East Lancashire Hospital NHS Trust. Presented by Michael Rubenstein, Finance Director from Impact Consulting, the award sponsor. “Everyone needs someone like Jill in their professional life at some point.” Nominated by Patricia Oliver, Senior Clinical Leader, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust

Model Mentee Award Winner: Helen Thomas Laight, Paediatric Nursing Sister, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Presented by Dawn Nisbet, Talent & Corporate Manager, NHS North West Leadership Academy. “Helen’s ability to reﬂect, assimilate and apply measures for her betterment has been inspiring.” Nominated by Dr Muhuntha (“Mo”) Gnanalingham, Consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Services to Mentoring Award Winner : Sandra Edwards Practice Education Facilitator, St Helen’s and Knowsley Hospitals Trust. Sponsored by Vicki Espin, Director, The Corporate & Executive Coaching Organisation who was unfortunately unable to attend so Rob was there to present the award in her place. “Sandra trained to become a Mentor Champion with the Scheme 12months ago and from this, has ﬂourished in her role as champion to promote and deliver over 10 mentor development days, always offering support to the mentees and mentors of her Trust. ”Nominated by Emma Porter, OD Practitioner, North West Mentoring Scheme.

Evaluation Form Data The delegates were asked to complete feedback cards on the day and rate their satisfaction using a scale of one to ﬁve where one is poor and ﬁve is excellent. We collected 42 evaluation forms and the responses are below:

The speakers

The relevance of topic areas

The networking activities

Rating 1=Poor 5=excellent

The access at the venue

Venues and facilities

The arrangements and quality of the catering

Rating 1=Poor 5=excellent

Booking process and pre-event organisation

Organisation of the day

Administration and resources

Rating 1=Poor 5=excellent

number of delegates

How Satisﬁed were you with:

Delegate Feedback What worked well today? Loved the mix of speakers and workshops. Combinations of talks and interactive sessions. First two presentations were very thought-provoking. Interesting speakers and excellent networking opportunities. Nice balance of speakers. Well timed. Not having speeches at awards. Organiser available and other team around if needed. A theme for the day is good. The variety and content, also the networking opportunity. Opportunities to participate, group work. Networking. Realising the contribution we can make to one another’s growth and development. Stimulating content, good pace, right content at the right point in the day. Relaxation and meditation workshop extremely beneﬁcial. Networking. The presentations were excellent and examples given were very appropriate to subject area. Excellent sessions: all of a high quality and well delivered. The whole day was terriﬁc. The networking. Networking. Everything! Really interesting day. Pace and context of the presentations. Food lovely! Networking at breaks. Speakers in the morning then workshops in the afternoon. All the sessions were interesting and relevant – nice to share ideas with like-minded people. Venue, topic, great organisation as usual. Group work, networking. The topics/areas discussed were very relevant to the current climate.

Delegate Feedback What are you taking away from today? Extra skills and knowledge from sessions and delegates. Practice mindfulness! Useful info regarding sources of further info. To be aware of what we tell ourselves, mindfulness and relaxation. Put into practice what I know. The commitment to mentoring and afďŹ rmation of the skills I have developed over the years. Lots of thoughts to apply! E.g. how to incorporate mindfulness into leadership + management framework. Tips from the building resilience workshop to use with my mentees. Potential use of mindfulness in NHS. Ideas that could aim to put into my working practice that will develop the service I work for and improve client experience. Lots of material, resources and contacts. Lots of ideas. Appreciation about mindfulness and mentoring. Self-reliance and motivation. Lots of new information to use. Increased awareness of self and others. Need to do more around mindfulness in directive and practice. Refreshed knowledge and awareness of mindfulness and new contacts. Feeling re-energised! Link between mindfulness and engagement was interesting. New tips and techniques. Great exploration of whole mindfulness area. Re-established contact and colleagues. Importance of mindfulness in being more productive/focused at work and looking after self. I found mindfulness session useful and have used some of the techniques shown to us.

Delegate Feedback What could be improved next time? Another networking activity would have been useful and enjoyable. Nothing – more of a similar agenda. Opportunities to mix. Confirmation that the slides will be available on the website. More people attending. More working in groups. If it’s not broken yet, why try to fix it? I love a delegate list. I don’t think this event could be improved, just keep delivering relevant topics to current changes and keep up the good work. Feels like there’s a bit of repetition with the mindfulness and engaged leadership and the later workshops, but I enjoyed Anne’s presentation. I think I’d rather have shorter presentations and workshops earlier as I was starting to get a bit fatigued by lunchtime. More interactive smaller groups. More meditation practice. Timing. A bit more info on the workshops. More information for new mentees (maybe) and identifying the new members to the scheme and welcoming them. I, in particular, had 2 new members, just signed up to be new mentees (some acknowledgement would have been nice for them). Maybe have a workshop in the morning, 2 workshops after lunch a little too much. Breaking them up would be better. Some of the questions were difficult to answer as a whole table discussion. Nothing. Thank you for all your hard work. I don’t think this event could be improved, just keep delivering relevant topics to current changes and keep up the good work.

Evaluation Form Data Comments and feedback The event was very well organised and well delivered. Very interesting speakers. Excellent as always. How about Motivation and Flow for a future conference/session topic? Thanks! Excellent day as always, very well organised and good venue. Could we have a mentor development day in Cumbria please? Thank you for a very enjoyable day. Well done and keep it up. Found the pm section more valuable and better networking opportunities. Thank you, I’ve enjoyed the day – some useful thoughts and ideas for the future. Overall a well organised and structures conference. A great day all round. Nice balance of speakers and workshops. Found the camera(??) off putting at times. Copies of all the p/points on the website. Brilliant day, thank you. Very nice day, very relaxed and well organised. How the award winners were selected, who was shortlisted, why etc…who judged the winners. Mentors would like some prior information on where their nomination sits and if they were close in being shortlisted. Relaxation session not for me I’m afraid. Otherwise excellent day as always. Copy of slides needed please. Very good, thank you.

The North West Mentoring Scheme Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Trust Harrop House Bury New Road Prestwich Manchester M25 3BL email: nwmentoring@gmw.nhs.uk web: www.nwmentoring.nhs.uk