Mentoring terms | Jack Davenport

These terms cover mentoring with me: monthly mentoring, single sessions and the free intro call. The date above is the version. Before we start, I email you a PDF of the version in force, and you reply to accept it. That version is the one that applies to you.

1. Who these terms are between

“I” and “me” mean Jack Davenport, a sole trader based in the UK, reachable at mentoring@jackdavenport.co.uk. My postal address is in the email that sends you these terms. “You” means the person being mentored. If your employer pays, section 11 covers what that changes, and what it does not.

2. What mentoring is, and what it isn’t

I guide. The decisions, and the work, stay yours. I share what I have learned from building software and leading engineers, and help you work out your next steps.

It isn’t legal or HR advice. I can help you think through a redundancy, a grievance or a difficult situation at work, but for your legal position, talk to Acas or a solicitor.
It isn’t therapy. If something needs more support than I can give, I will say so and help you find it. If you are struggling, your GP, NHS 111 or the Samaritans (116 123, free, any time) can help.

3. The free intro call

A 20 to 30 minute video call to see whether we are a good fit. There is nothing to pay and no obligation.

4. What monthly mentoring includes

Two 60-minute video calls each month.
Questions between calls, in a shared document (section 5).
Goals agreed at the start, and reviewed together at three months.

5. Questions between calls

We share one Google Doc, which only the two of us can open. Add questions to it whenever you like, as many as you like. I answer in the doc on Tuesdays and Fridays:

a question added by the end of Monday is answered on Tuesday;
a question added by the end of Thursday is answered on Friday;
if that day is a bank holiday, I answer on the next working day.

If a question needs more than a written answer, I will say so and we will take it to the next call. The doc is not for emergencies.

6. Price and payment

Monthly mentoring is £175 a month, paid in advance. Or pay £495 for the first three months up front.
A single session is £95, paid when you book it.
I invoice you, and payment is due before the first session it covers. If a payment is late, I will let you know, and sessions are on hold until it arrives.
I am not VAT registered, so no VAT is charged.
If my prices change, I give you at least 30 days’ notice by email, and never during your minimum term.

7. The minimum term, and ending it

Monthly mentoring has a minimum term of three paid months.
After that it runs month to month. Either of us can end it with 30 days’ written notice; an email is enough.
You can give notice during the minimum term, so the earliest it ends is the end of your third paid month.
Sessions carry on as normal during the notice period, and it is paid as normal.
I can end it straight away if a payment is more than 14 days late, or if you are abusive. If I end it, for any reason, I refund anything you have paid for months that have not started.

8. Moving, missing and rolling over sessions

With at least 24 hours’ notice, a session moves: to another time that month, or it rolls over into the next month.
A rolled-over session must be used by the end of the following month. After that, it lapses.
With less than 24 hours’ notice, or none, the session counts as used.
If I move or cancel a session, it is always rearranged, never lost.
When mentoring ends, any sessions still owed are used during the notice period. They are not refunded.

9. Pausing

You can pause monthly mentoring once in any 12 months, for up to one month. Ask before the next month’s invoice. A paused month is not charged, and it does not count towards your minimum term.

10. Single sessions

One 60-minute video call, paid when booked. The 24-hour rule in section 8 applies: with notice, it moves; with less, it counts as used. Section 2, and sections 11 onwards, apply to single sessions too.

11. If your employer pays

I invoice your employer, and tell them only that sessions took place and what they cost. I never tell them what we discussed. How we work together is still agreed between you and me. Your employer paying does not make me their employee or their agent, and I do not report to them.

12. Confidentiality

What we talk about stays between us. You never need to share your employer’s code or anything confidential. The one exception is if I believe someone is at serious risk of harm, or the law requires me to share something. If that happens, I will talk to you first wherever I can.

13. Notes, recordings and the shared doc

After each call I keep short private notes, to prepare for the next one. I keep them for 12 months after we finish, then delete them.
I never record a call unless we both agree at the start of that call.
The shared doc is yours to keep. When mentoring ends, I remove my access within three months.

The privacy policy explains how I handle your personal data.

14. Your right to cancel within 14 days

If you are paying for yourself, you can cancel within 14 days of accepting these terms, for any reason. Tell me by email, or with the form at the end of these terms.

If you asked me to start within those 14 days and then cancel, you pay only for the calls that have happened, at £87.50 a call (half the monthly price), and I refund the rest within 14 days.
A single session you asked to have within the 14 days cannot be cancelled once it has taken place.
After the 14 days, the minimum term in section 7 applies.

15. Changes to these terms

When I change these terms, I publish the new version here with a new date. The version you accepted applies until your minimum term ends. After that, I give you 30 days’ notice by email before a new version applies to you, which is the same notice you need to leave if you do not want it.

16. Responsibility

I mentor with reasonable care and skill. The decisions you make are your own, and I am not responsible for their results, such as the outcome of a job application, a pay review or a grievance. If something does go wrong, the most I am responsible for is what you paid me in the three months before it happened.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow to be limited, and nothing affects your statutory rights.

17. Who owns what

Anything I share with you, such as frameworks, templates and examples, stays mine, but you are free to use it in your own career. Please don’t publish it or sell it on. What you bring to mentoring, including your own notes and the shared doc, stays yours.

18. Mentoring is with me personally

You are paying for mentoring with me, so I will never hand it to anyone else. In the same way, your sessions are yours and cannot be passed to someone else.

19. Giving notice

Anything these terms say must be in writing, such as notice to end mentoring, is given by email: from you to mentoring@jackdavenport.co.uk, and from me to the address you accepted these terms from, unless you give me a new one. It counts as given on the day it is sent.

20. The agreement as a whole

These terms, together with the email in which you accept them, are the whole agreement between us. Nothing said on a call or written elsewhere changes them, unless we both agree to it in writing or it is a new version under section 15.
If a court decides that part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.
If I let something go once, for example a session moved at short notice because you were ill, I can still rely on that term the next time.

21. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your own courts.

Questions

Ask me anything about these terms at mentoring@jackdavenport.co.uk, before or after you accept them.

Cancellation form

Only fill in and send this form if you want to cancel within the 14 days in section 14.

To: Jack Davenport, mentoring@jackdavenport.co.uk
I hereby give notice that I cancel my contract for the supply of the following service:
Ordered on:
Name:
Address:
Signature (only if this form is sent on paper):
Date: