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Mentors involved in the Sacro mentoring service were asked how they would define mentoring:

M4: It's got lots of different meanings. It's changed a lot recently but it's a lot bigger recently after Elish Angiolini and the Commission report and things like that. From when I started as a mentor, the word mentor didn't ever really mean much. It was just another word for a worker. I never took much reference from it. Now mentoring is massive and it's a proper word and properly means something…You could really put it into a lot of things but definitely one to one, it's intensive and I would say that role modelling would be a massive element to it.

M3: As a mentor you are trying to influence somebody's behaviour. Rather than just spending time with them.

M5: Well I know there's already quite a few definitions however it's trying to keep it in context of what the true definition of a mentor is and what we do within Sacro because the two are completely different. If you're asking me to describe it in the role that I have, then everything to every girl really because it varies from person to person. A lot of the girls […] have similar issues and are in similar situations whereby they are maybe homeless or need their benefits sorted out or have addiction problems, however if you're working with a girl and they're in crisis and it doesn't matter what that crisis might be, if you are the only person that she has to come to then you help her deal with that crisis. So it could be anything. It could be a shoulder to cry on, it could be a taxi for the day, it could be liaising between her and another service, or her and family members. It could be wiping away her tears. It could be anything. So it's really difficult to put a definition on it.

It is clear from these accounts that mentors have difficulty defining ‘mentoring’, but generally mentors and staff agreed that mentoring was one to one, intensive support focused on the needs of the individual. A small number of mentors distinguished between mentoring and support work, and felt that they could not start ‘mentoring’ an individual at the beginning of the relationship. Instead, at the start of the relationship it was about doing things ‘for’ the woman until she was ready to do certain things herself.

Staff generally defined mentoring by the specific activities involved rather than allocating a conceptual meaning to the term such as ‘an experienced and trusted advisor’ (Oxford Dictionary 2015). M4 highlighted how the label of ‘mentor’ has become important due to the increasing popularity of mentoring in the criminal justice sector. Prior to this increased focus on mentoring she viewed her role as equivalent to that of a support worker. The mentor (M5) stated that she understands the ‘true’ definition of mentoring to be different to the service that she and other Sacro mentors deliver. While the definition of a mentor, ‘an experienced and trusted advisor’ implies that a person adapts their behaviour through advice from a mentor, the actual role of mentors at Sacro involved responding to crisis situations related to problems in the welfare system and beyond the control of the individual. It could be argued that this discrepancy between ‘mentoring’ and what Sacro actually practice is reflective of similar tensions to that described by Carlen (2008), when she discussed imaginary penalities. Staff are aware that they are not delivering ‘mentoring’ because it is not possible due to the crisis situations which many of the women they work with are currently experiencing. However, they are aware of the funding and policy that favours mentoring and so must act as if they are delivering mentoring because mentoring is ‘marketable’ and meets the priority of statutory funders.

Women who used the mentoring service defined a mentor as:

Alana: Support basically. Encouragement, someone who is like on your side in order for you to try and progress.

Jacqui: Someone that is there to advise you and help you out and gab away to you and things like that. Letting you know what help is there for you. Like housing issues and even addictions, training courses.

Barbara: Someone that helps you to stay on the right path, makes sure you're ok, helps you make the right choices so you don't reoffend or end up back in prison.

The definitions presented by the women highlighted the relational aspects of the support. Advice, encouragement and support defined the role of a mentor, similar to a befriending role where the focus is on building a relationship and reducing social isolation (Scottish Mentoring Network 2016). Previous research of mentoring has supported the view of Clutterbuck that mentors can be defined as role models (Tierney and Grossmann 2000; Newburn and Shiner 2006; Bateman 2008; Trotter 2011; Angiolini et al. 2012). However, women who used the mentoring service did not describe their mentor as a role model, but often as a ‘friend’:

Christine: I don't even see it as a support worker, I see it like it's...my best pal. That's what it's like. My best pal. Because you become close and you get to know each other.

Debbie: We've got an amazing friendship.

Rachel: I would say she is more a friend than a worker.

For some women, the relationship with their mentor was ‘like a friendship’ rather than being a ‘real’ friendship, suggesting that they understood that their relationship had boundaries:

Alana: You have to be firm, like stand your ground basically. Be a friend, but not too much of a friend. Like how can I explain it? A friend with boundaries.

Claire: You can talk to them, you can…I don't know...they can become just like your friend...like a friend. They're just there for you when you need them and that and you don't get that. I couldn't say that I could go into social work and do that with a social worker.

This is in line with previous research where women in prison who were paired with a mentor viewed their mentor as friend with boundaries and did not describe their mentors as role models (Brown and Ross 2010a; Keating 2012). Some mentors felt that it was inappropriate to be viewed as a friend whereas others believed that it was a by-product of doing the job well. Many also felt that although women might describe their mentor as a friend they understood that it was a professional relationship. Brown and Ross (2010a) suggest that this perception of the mentor as a ‘friend’ may be related to associating characteristics such as ‘non-judgemental’ and ‘honest’ to a defined model of friendship. Most of the women also described their mentors as being non-judgemental:

Rachel: She doesn’t look down on you or anything. I could be sitting just now in my pyjamas and hair everywhere and it wouldn’t bother me because she wouldn’t say ‘you should have seen her today.’

Mentors and social work staff were more likely to describe their support as role modelling than women who used the service, again highlighting a discrepancy between what the women experienced and what the mentors perceived mentoring to be based on:

M1: Probably another word for it is a role model…most of my clients are very isolated and the people that they did have in their life were people that were involved in drugs and alcohol and that kind of thing, and they've not really had anyone that has been a good role model. Someone that they can learn from, or can aspire to, to learn skills from or qualities and things like that. So I think it's about being a positive role model.

The description of the role modelling aspect of mentoring by the mentor (M1) contains components that have been associated with a befriending role. One mentor felt uneasy with the term role model as it suggested there was an unequal power balance in the relationship:

M6: I think it is good to be a role model for the women but I struggle with that because sometimes I think that that implies I'm above them. They

shouldn't aspire to be who I am or who other workers are. I just think it should be that they should aspire to make other choices.

The association of role model with mentor may be specifically suited to youth mentoring. Commonly in these projects, youths are paired with an older person. Peer mentoring may also have the potential for mentors to be viewed as role models due to their shared offending history and similar backgrounds to the people they mentor. The term ‘role-model’ also implies that there will be disclosure from the mentor about their personal experiences and how they overcame difficult circumstances. The gap in shared experiences due to ‘class’ differences might explain why women do not view their mentor as a role model. Many of the mentors were younger than women using the service and educated, and had not experienced the marginalisation and disadvantage that was present in the lives of many of the women who worked with Sacro. One Sacro staff member recognised that age could prevent a mentor being viewed as a role model:

Mngr1: The only barrier I would say there is if we have maybe an older woman who finds it difficult taking advice and guidance from someone half her age. Or similarly if we had an older mentor paired up with a younger service user who would benefit more from role modelling from a younger mentor.

The perception of women as ‘friend’ and not a ‘role-model’ may also reflect that social isolation is a key issue for women and not a skills deficit. Women may not require a role model because their difficulties are not a result of irrational behaviour or flawed thinking, but what they do value is having someone to talk to about their concerns.

Accounts from mentors and women who use the service have shown that mentoring encompasses different roles and can provide a range of support. Although this flexible definition of mentoring may be beneficial for mentees as it allows their support to be adapted, a lack of clarity also makes service evaluation difficult. The definitions provided by mentors are in line with the definition provided by the Commission on Women Offenders (Angiolini 2012) as ‘a trusted one-to-one relationship where practical and emotional support is provided by the mentor on a wide range of issues relating to offending behaviour’ because this definition includes ‘any’ type of support

viewed to be related to offending and is therefore flexible. However, there is a lack of theoretical basis within the definition and it is not clear how this differs from befriending or support work. It can be argued that the definition of mentoring is unclear because of the influences from various sectors. For example, the Commission report that its definition of mentoring has a remit centred around ‘offending related behaviours’ whereas The Scottish Mentoring Network, is focused on mentoring more generally. This may present confusion around what the specific definition of mentoring is and what it is about mentoring that is of value. While examining the mentoring process throughout the remainder of this chapter, the definition and role of mentoring will be examined further to explore how these definitions are in line with the service delivered.