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Ethical Code of Practice for Mentoring

The mentor's role is to respond to the mentee's developmental needs and agenda; it is not to impose their own agenda.
Mentors must work within the current agreement with the mentee about confidentiality that is appropriate within the context.
The mentor will not intrude into areas the mentee wishes to keep private until invited to do so. However, they should help the mentee recognise how other issues may relate to those areas.
Mentor and mentee should aim to be open and truthful with each other and themselves about the relationship itself.
The mentoring relationship must not be exploitive in any way and it must not be open to misinterpretation.
Mentors need to be aware of the limits of their own competence and operate within these limits.
The mentor has a responsibility to develop their own competence in the practice of mentoring.
The mentee must accept increasing responsibility for managing the relationship; the mentor should empower them to do so and must generally promote the mentee's autonomy.
Mentor and mentee should respect each other's time and other responsibilities, ensuring that they do not impose beyond what is reasonable.
Either party may dissolve the relationship. However, both mentor and mentee have a responsibility for discussing the matter together, as part of mutual learning.
The mentee should be aware of their rights and any complaints procedures.
Mentors must be aware of any current law and work within the law.
Mentor and mentee must be aware that all records are subject to statutory regulations under Data Protection Act, 1998.

Taken from A Guide For the Journey (Roger Courtney, 2000), a research report on mentoring in Northern Ireland which was commissioned by the Volunteer Development Agency.