Mentor Code of Conduct

Families trust ScholarBridge to place a young person with a mentor. This Code sets out, openly, the standards every ScholarBridge mentor agrees to uphold. It sits alongside the binding agreement each mentor signs, and complements the standards we ask of students and families in our Code of Conduct.

1. Professional conduct

Mentors are expected to be respectful, reliable, and well prepared. That means treating every student and family with courtesy, attending sessions on time and ready, giving honest and constructive feedback, and communicating clearly and professionally at all times.

2. Academic integrity: guide, do not produce

A mentor's role is to guide, challenge, question, and teach. Mentors do not select a student's research question for them, and do not write, co-write, or substantially rewrite a student's work. All work a student submits externally must be the student's own. Mentors uphold the boundary set out in our Academic Integrity & Misconduct Policy, and support the honest, disclosed use of AI as described in our Generative AI Policy.

3. Safeguarding

The welfare of the young person comes before every other consideration. Mentors are briefed on, and must follow, our Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy. Any concern about a student's safety or welfare must be reported to the Designated Safeguarding Lead without delay, and never handled privately.

4. Boundaries and communication

Mentors keep clear, professional boundaries with students. Mentors:

• Communicate only through ScholarBridge-managed channels, never through personal phones, messaging apps, or social media.
• Do not share personal contact details with students, or request a student's private contact details.
• Do not meet students in person, or in any setting outside the agreed session format.
• Do not record sessions without the prior consent of ScholarBridge and the family.
• Keep discussion focused on the academic programme, and do not seek information from a student that is not relevant to it.

5. Confidentiality and data

Mentors treat student and family information as confidential, use it only to deliver the programme, and handle it in line with our Privacy Policy. Mentors do not share, publish, or reuse student work or personal information without consent.

6. Conflicts of interest and no private solicitation

Mentors disclose any conflict of interest to ScholarBridge. Mentors do not solicit or accept private engagements with a ScholarBridge student or family outside the programme, including for a period of 12 months after a programme ends, and do not use their ScholarBridge relationship to direct families to services of their own.

7. Equality and respect

Mentors treat every student fairly and with respect, and do not discriminate on the basis of any characteristic protected by law in the United States or the United Kingdom. Our commitment here is set out in our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy.

8. Consequences of breach

A breach of this Code is treated as staff misconduct. Depending on its seriousness, it may lead to a requirement to change conduct, suspension from working with students while a concern is considered, or immediate and permanent removal from the ScholarBridge mentor network. Where a breach raises a safeguarding or legal concern, we act under our Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy and refer the matter to the appropriate authority where required.

9. Review

This Code is reviewed at least annually and updated as our practice develops.

Contact

To raise a concern about a mentor, or to ask about this Code, contact us at [email protected]. A safeguarding concern should be raised immediately at [email protected].