The Looked-After Children Mentoring Project aimed to establish pilots with adults acting as mentors for children in foster care and residential homes. Youth charity Rainer has been running the government-commissioned project with The Prince's Trust and the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation since April.
Steven Corbett, national project manager at Rainer, said: "We have had a stocktake. There was no problem in mentor recruitment, there are lots of people interested in doing it, but there are issues about getting people to refer young people to mentoring."
Referrals to the projects can come from social workers, teachers, foster carers and personal advisers. But according to Corbett there are not many referrals coming from social workers. He said some professionals may be reluctant to refer children and young people to mentors because they are not sure what the role of mentors is.
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