Disclaimer

A starting point, not legal advice. This wording was drafted for a one-to-one youth mentoring practice; check it reflects your own services before relying on it.

This website is information, not mentoring. Reading these pages, however useful, isn't a substitute for a real working relationship between a young person and a trusted adult. Every teenager described here is a composite of a situation, not a person.

Mentoring is not therapy or medical care. I don't diagnose, treat or advise on mental health conditions, and I never claim to. When a young person needs that kind of help, I say so and signpost properly: CAMHS through the GP, the school counselling service, or a qualified therapist. Mentoring can run alongside clinical care; it must never be used instead of it.

Mentoring is not an emergency service. Messages sent through this site are read within two working days, not within the hour. If something can't wait, please use the routes on the urgent help page: Childline on 0800 1111, Papyrus HOPELINE247 on 0800 068 4141, or 999 if anyone is in immediate danger.

No outcome is promised. Teenagers are not projects with deliverables, and anyone who guarantees you a transformed child by half term is selling something. What I promise is steadiness, honesty and a genuinely checked, insured, safeguarding-led practice. The words from families on this site are shared with permission, anonymised, and, where the words are a young person's, shared with both their permission and a parent's. They describe individual experiences, never promises.

A note on the colour. This site is bright because teenagers deserve better than beige. The practice behind it holds an enhanced DBS check, safeguarding training and full insurance, and the seriousness of the work is never in question.