Confidentiality is a pretty big word…what does it mean?
Confidentiality means that someone you tell your problems to will not tell everyone else what you have said. MiniMentors have to keep things confidential. This means that when you talk to them about your feelings or something that has happened, you know that what you have said will just stay between you and them. That is, unless they are very worried about you, in which case they may have to share what you have said with a trusted adult (see below).
So, is MiniMentors confidential?
Yes, private chats are usually confidential but in special cases, they might not be. Sometimes you might tell a MiniMentor or a counsellor something which makes them worried about your safety. In the bubble chat, the MiniMentor or MiniMentors’ counsellor will talk to you about what you have said – and let you know if they have to pass on what you have said to a trusted adult.
Who are trusted adults?
On this site, a MiniMentor will tell a MiniMentors’ counsellor that they think you might be in danger.
If the MiniMentors’ counsellor is very worried about you, they will need to pass on what you have said to someone in a special team of adults called the Safeguarding Team. This is a group of staff whose job it is to look after the safety of the young people that MiniMentors works with.
If you are having mentoring at school with a MiniMentor, the adult who they would trust would be the teacher running MiniMentors or a teacher in charge of looking after everyone’s safety in your school.
What happens if we are worried about you?
All MiniMentors are trained to tell an adult if they are worried about your safety. MiniMentors are carefully trained to understand what they can and can’t keep to themselves. So if you are being bullied really badly, are being hurt or not looked after properly at home or are just very upset about your problems, they will tell the trusted adult. This is because MiniMentors believes that your safety online, at school, at home and everywhere else is really, really important.
The MiniMentors will always talk to you about confidentiality at the beginning of any private chats or mentoring session that you have. This is to make sure that you understand about how it works. If you don’t agree with what the MiniMentor says about confidentiality – that in special cases they might have to tell a trusted adult about what you have said – then they will not be able to speak to you.
We hope that you understand the basics about confidentiality. If you are on the MiniMentors website, you can ask any MiniMentor, moderator or counsellor about confidentiality. At school, you can ask any MiniMentor or the teacher who runs MiniMentors.