Responsibility for students on industry placements is shared between the college, school or other provider and the employer. Organisations offering placements must know how to keep students safe and look after their health and wellbeing at work. Mentors play a valuable part in helping to fulfil this important duty of care.
Health and safety
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Safeguarding
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Wellbeing
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Physical and mental health
Knowing what risks there are in any environment is the starting point for staying safe. Every organisation must carry out a risk assessment of its own workplace to help keep employees safe. The provider should also carry out a separate health and safety risk assessment of the workplace before allowing students to start an industry placement. In some environments this may just be a check that the business has the correct policies in place - those which cover all employees. In other settings the provider might carry out a site visit or ask for further information.
When students are in the workplace the employer is responsible for keeping them safe. Your provider should check that your existing health and safety policies and procedures cover placement requirements. That means making sure that students:
Someone who has specific responsibility for safety in the organisation or on site, such as a health and safety representative, normally organises induction and training. The student’s supervisor or line manager is responsible for the student’s safety as they go about their work tasks.
As a mentor, it’s not necessarily your job to duplicate these responsibilities – although you should certainly be aware of them. But you can still play a valuable part in helping to keep students safe.
What could you do as a mentor to help keep your student safe?
The word ‘safeguarding’ has a precise meaning. It’s about protecting children, young people and vulnerable adults from neglect or abuse. This includes physical, sexual or emotional abuse, bullying and cyber-bullying. Safeguarding also includes protection from radicalisation and extremism.
Most students on industry placements are below the age of 18 so are covered by the legal safeguarding requirements.
Their college, school or other provider is primarily responsible for safeguarding students on industry placements. They must have measures in place to help reduce the risk of students being harmed. These measures include policies, processes, procedures and guidance about what to do if anyone is concerned that the student may be at risk. The provider must also have named individuals with specific safeguarding responsibilities.
It’s the provider’s job to make sure students know how to ask for help if they are worried about anything. Providers should also give your organisation information about how safeguarding concerns should be dealt with during the placement, what to do and who to contact if any issues arise.
Staff who supervise or mentor students do not usually need Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. Where this is necessary in particular environments the provider should be able to give advice on how to get the checks and who should be included.
Your organisation has a role to play in safeguarding as well – it’s not all down to the provider, even if they do have the primary responsibility. You should be conscious that your mentoring role involves a duty of care to safeguard students, so you should be alert to the possibility of harm however unlikely it seems. Remember that the relationship you have with the student means that you could be in a position to see things which others don’t.
How could you help your organisation to fulfil its duty of care for safeguarding, in your role as a mentor?
Confidentiality is never absolute. The mentor’s duty of care towards the student takes higher priority, should they be in mental or physical danger … It’s important that mentor and student talk with each other to clarify each other’s responsibilities and duties of care
David Clutterbuck, mentoring consultant and author
Health and wellbeing used to be viewed in the past as the responsibility of individuals alone – not any longer. People are far more aware these days that being healthy and well are strongly influenced by broader social and environmental conditions as well as individual choices and actions.
In the work environment, employers know now that actively supporting health and wellbeing pays off. Employees benefit and so does the organisation – sickness absence goes down and productivity goes up. The same applies to students on industry placements. Paying attention to their health and wellbeing helps to reduce stress and anxiety, improves self-esteem and resilience, and has a positive impact on performance.
Be aware of external pressures on students too. They may have coursework to complete while they are on industry placements. Some may have caring responsibilities. Recognise that students are young and may not be confident asking for help.
Here are four practical ways for you to use your role as mentor to influence your student’s health and wellbeing in a positive direction:
Physical health is important in its own right, and also because of its impact on other aspects of health. There are clear links between physical and mental health. Physical health problems significantly increase the risk of poor mental health and vice versa, according to research by the King’s Fund. Taking exercise influences the release and uptake of ‘feel-good’ chemicals in the brain (endorphins). Even a 10-minute walk increases mental alertness, energy and positive mood.
Mental health is like physical health in some ways – in the words of mental health organisation Mind, ‘everyone has it and we all need to take care of it’. Good mental health means ‘being able to think, feel and react in the ways that you need and want to live your life’.
Unfortunately, not everyone is in this position. At any one time, around one in six people in the UK over the age of 16 has what’s known as a ‘common mental health condition’ – depression, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive compulsion disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. Over 40% of UK adults think they’ve had a diagnosable mental health condition at some point in their lives.
Severe mental health problems are not nearly so common. Psychotic disorders are very rare (0.7%). Conditions such as antisocial personality disorders and borderline personality disorders are also quite uncommon (3.3% and 2.4% respectively). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) are rather more common (9.7% overall), especially in the 16-24 age range (14.6%).
Mental health problems of all kinds tend to start during this age bracket as well – three quarters of mental illness first appears before the age of 24. There is also evidence that mental health problems in younger people have become more common recently. Social changes as well as changes in the brain make young adults and adolescents especially susceptible to environmental stress.
As a mentor it’s quite possible that you’ll meet students who have a mental health condition. How do you think you would respond?
Our main focus was to enable these young men and women to develop coping strategies and above all to learn to respect themselves … to a large extent it depended upon having empathy and listening skills
Specialist mentor working with students
Safety
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Safeguarding
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Health and wellbeing
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Mental health
What do we mean by confidentiality in mentoring?
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The connection between mental and physical health
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www.mind.org.uk
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Mental Health Foundation (2016). Fundamental Facts about Mental Health 2016. Mental Health Foundation: London.
T-level employer support package:
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