Research & Innovation Services

Written by Rebecca Daniel and Sarah Bramall, co-founders and co-directors of The Coaching Catalysts. They are internationally accredited Professional Certified Coaches (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Senior Practitioner Coaches with the European Mentoring Coaching Council (EMCC), EMCC accredited Coach/Mentor Supervisors and Coach Trainers, working across education, healthcare, and other organisational settings to support reflective, ethical, and sustainable practice.

With contributions from:

Bob Thomson, Runa Begum, and Phyllis Woodfine, the expert supervision team. Together they bring extensive experience in mentoring, supervision, leadership development, and wellbeing across higher education and professional contexts.

Creating Space to Think: Introducing Mentoring Supervision in the InFrame Project

This is where mentoring supervision comes in.

As part of the InFrame Research Culture Project, The Coaching Catalysts have been invited to introduce mentoring supervision as a core support for mentors taking part in the programme. Mentoring has been made available to all colleagues who are leading, or working on, the InFrame Culture Catalyst Funded projects, in addition to members of the InFrame project team. The InFrame Mentors are change makers and allies across the Higher Education sector who work within the research ecology and offer collegial support to colleagues through mentoring.

This blog article introduces what mentoring supervision is, why it matters in a research context, and what emerged during the InFrame mentoring orientation session where mentors and mentees experienced supervision in practice for the first time.

Who we are and why we are involved?

The Coaching Catalysts is founded and led by Rebecca Daniel and Sarah Bramall. We specialise in creating reflective spaces where people can pause, think, and develop their practice with care, challenge, and integrity.

Within the InFrame project, our role is to introduce, design and deliver mentoring supervision that supports mentors to work ethically, sustainably, and relationally. There can be some ambiguity when the term ‘supervision’ is used as it has a different meaning across sectors and within specific industries. Within this blog we will clarify the meaning of supervision within the mentoring context and for the InFrame mentoring programme.

Our involvement is not about assessing mentors or monitoring performance. It is about creating space for reflection, learning, and wellbeing so that mentoring relationships can flourish.

What is mentoring supervision?

Mentoring supervision is a structured, confidential space where mentors can reflect on their mentoring practice with others.

It offers a place to:

• Think through live situations and dilemmas.
  
• Explore boundaries, roles, and responsibilities.
  
• Reflect on impact, not just intention.
  
• Notice patterns, assumptions, and blind spots.
  
• Attend to wellbeing and emotional load.
  

In a research environment, mentors are often supporting colleagues through career uncertainty, complex power dynamics, competing priorities, and questions of identity and belonging. Some of these conversations can be testing and share detal that is emotionally demanding. Supervision provides a place to slow this down and make sense of it, rather than carrying it alone.

Importantly, mentoring supervision is not:

• Line management
• Performance review
• Problem-solving advice-giving
• A judgement on competence
  

Instead, it is a reflective partnership that supports mentors to think well, act ethically, and stay connected to their values, as they support others.

Why mentoring supervision matters in research culture?

Research culture is shaped not only by policies and structures, but by everyday interactions. How people listen, challenge, support, and hold responsibility with one another matters. Mentors often sit at the intersection of support for and influence on their mentees. Without reflective space, this role can become emotionally burdensome, isolating, or unclear. Mentoring supervision helps address this by supporting three core functions.

First, the formative function supports learning and development. Mentors reflect on how they mentor, what is working, and where they might stretch or adapt their approach.

Second, the normative function supports ethical and professional practice. This includes boundaries, confidentiality, role clarity, and navigating complexity responsibly.

Third, the restorative function supports wellbeing. Mentors are human. Supervision provides a space to acknowledge pressure, uncertainty, and emotional load, and to reconnect with purpose and resilience.

Together, these functions contribute to more thoughtful, sustainable mentoring and to a research culture that values reflection, care, and shared responsibility.

What emerged from the orientation session?

During the InFrame mentoring orientation, mentors and mentees took part in a live mentoring supervision experience in small breakout groups. For many, this was their first encounter with supervision.

Participants reflected on:

• The value of having protected space to pause and think.
• Relief at not having to have answers straight away.
• The importance of boundaries and clarity in mentoring relationships.
• How rarely time is made for reflection in busy research roles.
• The difference it makes to feel listened to without being judged or fixed.

Mentors spoke about the reassurance of knowing they would not be mentoring in isolation. Mentees reflected on how supervision supports the quality and safety of mentoring relationships, even when they are not directly part of the supervision space.

Across groups, there was a strong sense that mentoring supervision supports not just individual mentors, but the wider culture in which mentoring takes place.

Looking ahead…

The orientation session was designed as a taster. Group sizes were larger than those used in the ongoing supervision programme, and time was necessarily limited. But even in this short time, a positive outcome was achieved. As the programme moves forward, mentoring supervision groups will be smaller, with consistent group membership to support trust, psychological safety, and depth of reflection. These spaces will allow mentors to build relationships with one another over time and to engage more fully in reflective practice.

Mentoring supervision is not an add-on to a programme. It is a foundation for quality assuring ethical, inclusive, and sustainable mentoring. By embedding supervision within the InFrame project, the programme is signalling that supporting mentors matters, that reflection is valued, and that research culture is shaped through how people are supported to work with one another.

We are proud to be contributing to this work and to be partnering with the University of Glasgow and colleagues across the InFrame collaboration. We look forward to continuing to learn alongside mentors, mentees, and programme leads as the project unfolds.

We’re excited to keep you posted as the project progresses and unfolds – sharing our learnings, reflections and successes with you