Listen to this
In my many years of experience as a supervisor of social workers and child and youth care workers in numerous and varied settings, I have found that there are certain common factors which make for effective supervision.
The most important aspect of effective supervision, I believe is to establish an open and honest relationship between the supervisor and supervisee and to have a written contract as to how supervision sessions will work for both parties and supervision records of every client and supervision discussion which takes place.
The supervisory relationship is a professional, goal orientated one where trust, compassion and integrity are paramount. A contract should be set between the supervisor and supervisee prior to the supervision beginning, stating frequency and length of sessions and the recourse either party has if they are not satisfied with the relationship or process.
Expectations and Experience
It is essential for both parties to establish their expectations of supervision; discuss previous experiences the supervisee may have had of supervision whether good or bad and how these have impacted and could be useful or not to the current supervisory relationship.
Outline the type of supervision required namely, formal office-based supervision or life-space supervision which occurs in the supervisee’s work setting or both.
Clarify the structure for each of these types of sessions, the supervisor’s role in each and how they will be recorded and shared.
Facts
Once the supervisee has shared the experience or event/s which took place, the supervisor should explore the facts with the worker. Ask questions about what actually happened, who was involved, where and when did the incident occur, what was the supervisee’s response and the result of their intervention.
Clarify what happened after the incident in question and glean any other facts pertinent to the matter.
Feelings
The next important step for the supervisor is to explore the supervisee’s feelings about the event or intervention. How did they feel about the situation, what do they think their client was feeling, what do they think other participants in the incident were feeling, does the worker feel they managed their emotions well, could they have done anything differently and obtained a different outcome, are they comfortable to continue working with this particular client/youth and how does it feel to have discussed their feelings in supervision?
Explore Dynamics
It is important to help the supervisee identify and explore the dynamics of what happened in the incident – the interactions and the worker’s understanding of their behaviour and the client’s behaviour and what caused it.
To assist with this, the Knowledge, Skills and Self Awareness (KSS) model frequently used in Child and Youth Care is a useful tool and the supervisor can discuss with the supervisee theories they may need to understand their client’s/youth’s behaviour such as developmental theories, the Circle of Courage and other relevant theories. The supervisor should help the supervisee analyse the skills they used with the client such as communication skills, behaviour management or life space counselling skills and then refer back to the feelings already discussed to highlight self-awareness.
Context
As a learning experience, it is helpful for the supervisor to explore with the supervisee the context of the event or experience and examine if this has happened before, has the worker struggled with similar situations before or was their response or behaviour a once-off?
Does the worker always struggle with the same type of behaviour from this client – is there a theme here that the worker needs to address in terms of their own growth and development?
Theory and Practice
The supervisor needs to help supervisees to understand their interaction with clients/youth in terms of theory so they can link and understand human behaviour and patterns of behaviour. Advise workers to read literature which will give them a deeper understanding of their field and explain to them how theory and practice are linked by pointing out examples of what they have experienced.
Effective practitioners must be able to see how theory and practice work together and impact each other.
Investigate Different Strategies
The supervisor’s role is to build the workers confidence, knowledge and skill. Discuss different strategies and explore their own strengths and what they could have done differently to obtain a different outcome.
Teach workers new skills and strategies if necessary and refer them to literature.
It is essential that the supervisor find some positive aspect of the worker’s intervention to feed back to them, no matter how small. Validate what they have done even if it is the fact that they realised they could have done better as this shows a level of self-awareness. Negative feedback must be reframed in a way that gives the worker hope that they can improve and learn from the situation with the supervisor’s support.
Ask the worker how they think they could do better and what strengths they think they have that could have served them well in the situation and work from their reality, validating and supporting them in a caring manner.
Everyone has strengths and no one sets out to mess up!
Liken this to the clients with whom we work.
At times, the supervisor may need to be more direct than indirect depending on the situation, the relationship they have with the worker and the patterns they have observed with the worker’s interventions.
If necessary, the worker may need to be referred for external therapies which may assist them in their personal development.
Evaluate
It is important to evaluate the supervision session and check how the supervisee is feeling and whether their expectations were met and their feelings addressed. Clarify any ‘grey’ areas and ask if there are any questions the worker has. Agree on the time and format of the next session and any preparation which may need to be done before then.
Conclusion
Both supervisor and supervisee need to feel comfortable enough to discuss the dynamics between them and the strengths and developmental areas in their relationship.
There will be times when they will not agree and have different points of view. Listening and responding to each other are essential aspects of a healthy supervision relationship. Both parties will grow from their interaction and learn about working with different personalities, clients and contexts.
Qualities Needed For Supervision
S – SUPPORTIVE AND SENSITIVE
U – UNDERSTANDING AND USEFUL
P – PATIENT AND PRESENT
E – EMPATHIC AND ENCOURAGING
R – RESEPCTFUL AND REFLECTIVE
V – VALUE AND VALIDATE
I – INDIVIDUALISE AND INSTINCTIVE
S – STRENGTH AND SENSE OF HUMOUR
I – INITIATIVE AND INDEPENDENT
O – OPEN AND OBJECTIVE
N – NURTURING AND NON-JUDGEMENTAL
Being trusted to supervise is an honour and privilege never to be taken for granted or taken lightly. It is a responsibility to another professional and to the clients and youth we serve.
Supervision is an essential element of good practice as it ensures accountability, responsibility and ethical behaviour.
All interventions and supervision discussions must be recorded so that we can answer for any interventions with all clients at any time for the safety and protection of workers and clients.
In loving memory of and dedicated to my darling life partner, Nadia, who always encouraged me to be a better person.
