Accredited Prisoner Mentor & Peer Mentor Training

Developing Prisoners Into Skilled, Responsible and Effective Peer Mentors

SEETE provides structured accredited prisoner mentor and peer mentor training for people in custody, equipping participants with the skills, knowledge, confidence and professional boundaries required to support others effectively.

Our programme combines recognised learning with practical mentoring skills and authentic lived experience of the criminal justice system.

The aim is not simply to give prisoners another certificate.

It is to develop individuals who can become positive role models, responsible peer mentors and constructive members of the prison community, while gaining transferable skills that can support their own rehabilitation, personal development and preparation for release.

Enquire About Prisoner Mentor Training

SEETE's 10-Day Accredited Prisoner Mentor Training Programme

SEETE's intensive 10-day Prisoner Mentor Training Programme can be delivered to cohorts within prison establishments and adapted around the needs of the establishment and the intended mentoring role.

The programme combines classroom learning, discussion, practical exercises, role-play, reflection and assessment.

Participants explore the responsibilities that come with becoming a mentor and learn how to support another person without becoming responsible for solving their problems.

Subject to the qualification and awarding arrangements commissioned, successful participants can work towards external accreditation and certification, providing tangible recognition of their achievement.

What Prisoners Learn

The programme is designed to develop practical mentoring skills that can be applied within a custodial environment and beyond.

Training can include:

• Understanding the role of a mentor
• Active listening
• Effective communication
• Building appropriate mentoring relationships
• Professional and personal boundaries
• Confidentiality and its limitations
• Safeguarding
• Equality, diversity and cultural awareness
• Motivation and encouragement
• Goal setting and action planning
• Problem solving
• Conflict management
• Challenging appropriately
• Emotional awareness
• Resilience
• Leadership
• Positive role modelling
• Personal responsibility and accountability
• Recording mentoring activity appropriately
• Knowing when and how to refer concerns to staff
• Ending mentoring relationships appropriately

Participants are encouraged throughout the programme to consider not only how they can help someone else, but also what becoming a responsible mentor requires of them personally.

More Than a Training Course

Developing the Mentor as Well as the Mentoring Skill

Peer mentoring can provide benefits beyond the individual receiving support.

For the mentor, taking responsibility for supporting another person can create opportunities to develop confidence, communication, leadership, patience, empathy, reliability and a stronger sense of purpose.

SEETE therefore treats mentor training as both a professional skills programme and an opportunity for personal development.

Participants are expected to examine their own:

attitudes

communication

behaviour

boundaries

responsibility

reliability

decision-making

and their ability to act as a positive example to others.

A certificate alone does not make somebody an effective mentor.

Their behaviour does.

Why Peer Mentoring in Prison?

People in custody will sometimes discuss concerns, fears and difficulties with another prisoner before approaching a professional.

A properly selected, trained and supervised peer mentor can therefore provide an important bridge between prisoners and professional services.

Peer mentors can help:

• Encourage engagement
• Provide appropriate peer support
• Signpost people towards professional services
• Support induction and orientation
• Encourage participation in education and interventions
• Promote positive behaviour
• Support recovery
• Increase confidence
• Reduce isolation
• Model positive decision-making
• Encourage personal responsibility
• Help strengthen the sense of community within a prison or wing

Peer mentors should complement professional services – never replace them.

That distinction forms an important part of SEETE's training.

Understanding Professional Boundaries

Helping Without Trying to Become the Professional

One of the most important parts of becoming a mentor is understanding what a mentor should not do.

Prison peer mentoring can involve sensitive conversations and complex situations.

Participants therefore learn about maintaining appropriate boundaries and recognising situations that must be referred to staff or specialist professionals.

SEETE explores issues including:

• Confidentiality and its limitations
• Safeguarding concerns
• Risk and disclosure
• Manipulation
• Dependency
• Personal relationships
• Conflict of interest
• Appropriate physical and emotional boundaries
• Information sharing
• When to seek staff support
• The limitations of the mentor role

This helps establishments develop peer mentors who understand that being trusted by another prisoner brings responsibility as well as status.

Lived Experience at the Centre of the Programme

SEETE brings lived experience into mentor training in a way that makes learning relevant to the realities of custody.

We understand that mentoring inside a prison is different from mentoring in a classroom, workplace or community setting.

Participants may be supporting people dealing with:

• Substance misuse and recovery
• Family breakdown
• Long sentences
• Anxiety about release
• Isolation
• Conflict
• Education difficulties
• Loss
• Motivation
• Institutionalisation
• Fear of failure
• Resettlement concerns

Our training acknowledges those realities while maintaining clear professional and safeguarding boundaries.

This helps participants understand how their own experiences can become a resource for helping others – without allowing personal experience to override appropriate mentoring practice.

Accreditation & Certification

SEETE's programme can incorporate external accreditation, providing successful learners with formal recognition of the knowledge and skills they have developed.

Accreditation adds value because participants are working towards an achievement that exists beyond the immediate prison environment.

For some learners, completing an accredited mentoring qualification may represent an important educational achievement and can contribute towards a wider portfolio of skills for future employment, volunteering, mentoring or community involvement.

The exact qualification level, awarding organisation, assessment requirements and certification arrangements will be agreed with the commissioning establishment before delivery.

Supporting Existing Prison Peer Mentor Roles

SEETE's programme can be adapted to prepare prisoners for mentoring and peer-support opportunities across different parts of an establishment.

This could include appropriate roles within:

ISFL and recovery environments

Education, Skills & Work

Induction

Resettlement

Equality and diversity

Wellbeing

Rehabilitation services

Wing communities

and other approved peer-support initiatives.

Training can also be designed around an establishment's existing peer mentor structure and local operational requirements.

Mentor Selection Matters

Not every prisoner who wants to become a mentor will necessarily be ready for the responsibility.

SEETE can work with establishments to support the development of an appropriate mentor recruitment and selection process.

Considerations might include:

• Motivation for becoming a mentor
• Communication skills
• Reliability
• Behaviour
• Emotional maturity
• Ability to maintain boundaries
• Willingness to learn
• Ability to receive feedback
• Commitment to confidentiality
• Ability to work appropriately with staff
• Suitability for the intended mentoring role

The objective should not necessarily be to select the most academically capable prisoners.

It should be to identify people with the potential to become credible, responsible and appropriately boundaried mentors.

After the 10-Day Programme

Turning Training Into a Sustainable Peer Mentoring Service

Training prisoners is only the beginning.

For peer mentoring to remain effective, mentors need a clear role, appropriate staff oversight and opportunities for continued development.

SEETE can therefore provide additional support following the initial training programme, including:

• Mentor supervision sessions
• Reflective practice
• Refresher training
• Mentor development workshops
• Support for staff overseeing mentors
• Peer mentor role development
• Programme reviews
• Lived experience consultation
• Impact and feedback reviews

This allows establishments to move from simply having trained prisoners towards developing a structured and sustainable peer mentoring culture.

A Natural Partnership With ISFL

SEETE's Accredited Prisoner Mentor Training can also form part of our wider ISFL Consultancy & Implementation service.

Trained peer mentors can contribute towards positive recovery cultures by welcoming residents, encouraging engagement, supporting appropriate activities, modelling positive behaviour and helping residents access professional support.

Learn About SEETE's ISFL Consultancy & Implementation →

Measuring Outcomes

SEETE can work with commissioning establishments to agree appropriate measures before delivery.

Depending upon the programme, these could include:

• Enrolment
• Attendance
• Completion
• Accreditation achieved
• Learner feedback
• Knowledge and confidence before and after training
• Number progressing into approved mentor roles
• Mentor retention
• Staff feedback
• Mentee engagement
• Referrals/signposting
• Continued education or training
• Examples of positive contribution to the prison community

This gives commissioners more than a record showing that a course was delivered.

It helps demonstrate what changed as a result of the investment.

Who Can Commission SEETE's Mentor Training?

We welcome enquiries from:

Prison Governors and Directors

Heads of Reducing Reoffending

Heads of Education, Skills & Work

Learning & Skills Managers

ISFL and Drug Strategy Leads

Resettlement Teams

Equalities Teams

HMPPS and MoJ Commissioners

Private Prison Operators

Prison Education Providers

Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations

Programmes can be commissioned for individual establishments or developed for delivery across multiple sites.

Commission a 10-Day Prisoner Mentor Training Programme

SEETE can deliver a complete 10-day accredited Prisoner Mentor Training Programme for a cohort of prisoners within your establishment.

A commissioned package can include:

Pre-delivery planning

10 days of face-to-face training

Learner materials

Practical exercises and assessments

External accreditation

Certification

Learner feedback

Completion and outcome reporting

and optional post-training mentor supervision and development.

The programme can also be tailored around the particular peer mentoring roles operating within your establishment.

Develop People Who Can Help Develop Others

Peer mentoring gives people in custody an opportunity to turn knowledge, experience and personal development into something constructive.

SEETE helps provide the training, boundaries and professional framework needed to do that responsibly.

Contact SEETE to Discuss Prisoner Mentor Training

Request a Programme Proposal