Talking across purposes: the benefits of an interagency mentoring scheme for managers working in health and social care settings in the UK

This article describes the development of an interagency management mentoring scheme which was developed across health and social care organisations in the South East region. It describes the early ideas that were formulated to take this initiative forward, and discusses initial successes of a pilot mentoring project which subsequently informed the ongoing development and establishment of a highly effective formal mentoring scheme within a three-year period. Particular attention is given to discussing the issues facing managers working in contemporary organisational frameworks for health and social care and the particular benefits of mentoring to management development for managers from different backgrounds. The role of informal and formal learning across traditional organisational barriers is discussed, highlighting how mentoring assists the development of tacit and explicit knowledge essential to the development of learning organisations in health and social care.