Promoting supervisory practice change in public child welfare: lessons from university/agency collaborative research in four states

This article describes qualitative findings regarding lessons learned from research and demonstration projects in four states focused on the implementation of clinical supervision within their public child welfare agencies. This was part of a larger mixed methods study of the effectiveness of these new clinical supervision models on practice, organizational, and client outcomes. Themes from 15 focus groups with frontline supervisors participating in the projects are provided; they focused on the challenges experienced while participating and working to use clinical supervision techniques, recommendations regarding implementing such projects in the public child welfare environment, and those aspects of the implementation that were most effective in supporting their work. These themes provide direction for states and localities wishing to shift frontline supervision to a more clinical model within the public child welfare setting.     

Supervision and social work students: relationships in a team-based rotation placement model

Social work has historically privileged one-to-one supervision in field education. However, in recent decades, the relentless pressure on organisations to innovate for efficiency gain has created an impetus to explore alternative placement formats. This article reports on how students and supervisors experienced their placement relationships in the context of one such alternative—a team-based rotation placement model where students routinely engaged in group and peer supervision as well as one-to-one supervision with various supervisors. A total of 128 Masters of Social Work students and 92 student supervisors participated in rotation placements across five hospitals over a three-year period; 2011–2013. The study adopted a mixed methods approach using online surveys and post-placement interviews each year. The findings suggest that, although both supervisors and students viewed the one-to-one supervisory relationship as pivotal, they experienced this relationship differently. Supervisors were more likely to highlight the interpersonal connection within the supervisory relationship as the primary vehicle for practice learning. Students were more likely to view their supervisory relationships as the conduit to the practice experiences that aligned with their placement goals. Ultimately, the study highlights the centrality of role and positioning when exploring perceptions and experiences of teaching and learning relationships on placement.     

When approved is not enough: development of a supervision consultation model

The dramatic increase in the literature that addresses family therapy training and supervision over the last decade has been predominantly in the area of theory, rather than practice. This article describes the development of a meta-supervisory learning context for approved supervisors and provides examples of interactions between supervisors that subsequently influenced both therapy and supervision. We delineate the assumptions that inform our work and offer specific guidelines for supervisors who wish to implement a similar model in their own contexts. We provide suggestions for a proactive refiguring of supervision that may have profound effects and benefits for supervisors and supervisees alike.     

Pathways to social work supervision

ABSTRACT

Social work research and literature in the area of supervision tends to focus on the supervision of field education students. Less attention is given to the supervision of social work practitioners and there is almost no information that examines how social workers become supervisors. This exploratory study interviewed 27 practicing social work supervisors across different fields of social work practice in Western Canada. The participants included 15 supervisors with a graduate degree and 12 supervisors with an undergraduate degree. The supervisors completed a brief questionnaire that was followed by a structured interview. Supervisors were asked how they came to be social work supervisors. Thematic analysis of the supervisors’ responses revealed three pathways to supervision: task exposure, supervision by happen chance, and deliberate decision. The responses suggested that additional focus on supervision might be included in undergraduate education and that universities, professional associations, and employers pay more attention to succession planning.     

No time to think: protecting the reflective space in children's services

Over the past few years, first line managers in child care have faced mounting pressure on their time from both the national performance management agenda and the professional demands associated with the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families and Working Together to Safeguard Children: A Guide to Inter‐Agency Working to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children. This paper briefly discusses the policy context surrounding this period of unprecedented change and focuses on the potential erosion of the reflective space in supervision as first line managers struggle to cope with the ever‐increasing expectations. An argument is made for the creative use of multi‐agency action learning/ research projects within the workplace to supplement individual supervision and promote reflective multi‐agency child care practice; some examples of successful projects are given. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reflective Supervision for Child Protection Practice – Reaching Beneath the Surface

This paper describes a model of reflective supervision for child protection practice that is informed by psychoanalytic theory. Eileen Munro promotes the idea of depth in practice, referring to the skills and knowledge required to undertake the work. Her reports highlight the importance of supervision to provide a thinking space for practitioners where reflection can take place. This paper will explore the importance of supervision in more depth and describe how psychoanalytic ideas can help us understand the complexities of our work with families, anchoring us to a solid theoretical base and helping to make sense of the maelstrom of feelings that are stirred in us as well as in our colleagues and clients.     

Self-managed Supervision

The growth of professional supervision in social work has been accompanied by complex attempts to theorise key elements of supervisory practice and highlight the need to further examine what constitutes supervisory support in current regulatory environments. Changes in human service organisations resulting from new public management generate a need to theorise broader patterns of support available to human service workers. This article draws on an electronic, mixed-method self-reporting study of advice and support-seeking behaviours of 193 human service professionals in 3 South Australian organisations. The findings indicate the fluidity of current professional supervision practice, with workers seeking professional wisdom, identifying practice direction, and debriefing with a range of colleagues within and outside their organisation. Accordingly, the article confirms that supervisors should no longer be thought of as the sole providers of professional advice and support for human service workers and conceptualises the workers as active agents shaping their own learning.     

Maintaining front-line workers in child protection: a case for refocusing supervision

This paper suggests that a refocusing of supervision be seen as one possible strategy for lowering high attrition rates among child protection workers. Research findings from a qualitative study undertaken in two rural regions in the State of Victoria, Australia illustrate that the current model of supervision gives insufficient attention to the emotional intrusiveness of the work, to building resilience in workers and the implications of adult learning theory. An argument is made for a refocusing of supervision which moves beyond task, encompassing much of what is already known from the supervision literature. The supervisor can be thought of as a messenger who must send and receive messages to and from workers. What message is sent and how supervisors respond to what they receive are critical if the objective is to retain front-line staff. Critically, the supervisor must affirm both the merit and necessity of exploring the impact of feelings and thoughts on action and perception. A key message for supervisors to deliver is the value of individual workers to the organization, leading to increased self-esteem and self-efficacy. The paper also argues for adult learning via reflective supervision. This change to supervision involves a fundamental shift in organizational priorities and an acceptance throughout of the impact of anxiety on all those working in this field. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social Work Supervision of Staff: A Primer and Scoping Review (2013–2017)

Supervision of staff has a rich history within the social work profession, and is widely valued internationally for the support, knowledge, and skill it is perceived to provide. Moreover, quality supervision is championed for ensuring good client care. However, supervisors practicing within the social work profession have not typically had access to best practice information, nor accessed the parallel research related to the supervision of staff. A supervision primer provides an orientation to the supervision literature, including definitions and disciplinary perspectives. This sets the stage for a scoping review of social work supervision articles for the purpose of supporting supervisors in keeping current, locating, understanding, and applying literature to their practice. Seventy-nine conceptual and empirical articles first-authored by social workers were published in 36 journals between 2013 and 2017. The volume, location, context and nature of these articles are presented, pointing to an increased social work presence in the literature. Implications for supervisory practice, scholarship, and research are discussed.     

Owning (up to) Reflective Writing in Social Work Education

Reflective learning has an established place within social work education but there has been little debate around the nature and purpose of reflective writing as a distinct genre in the context of written academic assessment. Where writing has been discussed in relation to reflection it has been for the purposes of supporting learning rather than academic assessment. This paper draws upon research undertaken with a group of social work students and tutors at The Open University UK together with the work of Watson, both of which identify student difficulties with reflective writing. Research from the field of academic literacies is presented to open up a debate within social work education about the place of reflective writing as a tool for learning and assessment. In doing so, it shares the experiences of one institution, The Open University UK, of working towards greater clarity in the teaching and assessment of reflective practice through writing.     

The reflective diary: an experiential tool for enhancing social work students’ research learning

There has been substantial discussion internationally about the need for social work students to integrate research into practice. Little has been written, however, about teaching methods that address the cognitive and emotional challenges students experience in their efforts to develop research competencies. Many students believe that research does not apply to the ‘real’ world of practice and are anxious and fearful when they begin a research course. Using a retrospective review of students’ assignments, this article describes the use of reflective diaries in teaching MSW students from a university in the USA skills for practice-based social work research. Reflective diaries provide a safe forum for students to actively engage with the challenges they experience while taking a research course and take ownership of their learning needs. The diary entries provide instructors with windows into their students’ learning processes that enable them to create scaffolding opportunities that support students in developing confidence in their research skills. This article describes the pedagogical philosophy behind reflective diaries, details of the diaries assignment, and benefits of this learning tool for students and instructors. The authors offer recommendations for incorporating reflective diaries into social work research courses and implications for evidence-based practice.     

Reflective practice and learning from mistakes in social work student placement

ABSTRACT

Student placement is a fundamental component of social work education and an important space where to build critically self-reflective practitioners. Students learn from their reflection on their experience and their mistakes are a powerful opportunity to go behind the surface of events and understand the essence of the profession. This article will present some results from the analysis carried out on the reflective writing of a group of social work students who describe and reflect on the most significant mistakes they made in their field practice using a reflective framework developed for errors and failures. The main results of this experience are illustrated with special focus on the impact and on the emotions, the relationships with service users and the assessment of the cases. Students are often so concentrated on looking at their responsibility that they become almost blind to the systems and interactions that contribute to the negative outcomes of their actions. Social work education programs should emphasize the importance of structured reflective habits and promote the culture of responsibility instead of the ‘blame culture’, that is probably the strongest obstacle to learning from mistakes and preventing their repetition in the future.     

Social Work Field Educators' Views on Student Specific Learning Needs

Each year a significant proportion of students withdraw from placement in time to avoid penalty, while others fail. This article reports on a small field education research project that identified common learning issues for first placement students. Eighteen experienced supervising field educators (FEs), participated in semi structured focus groups, and identified repeat areas of difficulty in student learning that they had managed as supervisors. They also identified strategies that had been efficacious in supporting student learning. The research undertaken in 2010–2011 identified three specific themes relating to difficulties in student learning: specific student characteristics that required additional support; the university/FE partnership; student proficiency in using supervision. The findings suggest that a students' right to privacy must be considered in the provision of educational support, and that support is most effective when there is a strong partnership between the FE and university. In addition, further development of field education pedagogy may be needed to embed theory and skills related to the use of supervision and reflective learning.     

What makes it so hard to look and to listen? Exploring the use of the Cognitive and Affective Supervisory Approach with children’s social work managers

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on the findings of an ESRC-funded Knowledge Exchange project designed to explore the contribution of an innovative approach to supervision to social work practitioners’ assessment and decision-making practices. The Cognitive and Affective Supervisory Approach (CASA) is informed by cognitive interviewing techniques originally designed to elicit best evidence from witnesses and victims of crime. Adapted here for use in childcare social work supervision contexts, this model is designed to enhance the quantity and quality of information available for decision-making. Facilitating the reporting of both ‘event information’ and ‘emotion information’, it allows a more detailed picture to emerge of events, as recalled by the individual involved, and the meaning they give to them. Practice supervisors from Children’s Services in two local authorities undertook to introduce the CASA into supervision sessions and were supported in this through the provision of regular reflective group discussions. The project findings highlight the challenges for practitioners of ‘detailed looking’ and for supervisors of ‘active listening’. The paper concludes by acknowledging that the CASA’s successful contribution to decision-making is contingent on both the motivation and confidence of supervisors to develop their skills and an organisational commitment to, and resourcing of, reflective supervisory practices and spaces.     

Case Management for Community Practice

This article concerns an approach to supervision for statutory youth casework. The model involves caseworkers recording a video of their meetings with their clients and sending it to an external supervisor. The supervisor selects video clips. They then hold an online meeting where they review the clips, and the supervisor gives feedback based on a standardized model. The caseworker then uses the feedback in their future practice and the cycle is repeated. 16 statutory youth caseworkers and 6 supervisors from three municipalities in Denmark participated in semi-structured interviews regarding their experiences with the video supervision and feedback model. The interviews focused on facilitating and inhibiting factors with regard to the use of the model. A thematic analysis was conducted. Communication regarding the law, giving clients space to find their voice, and paying heed to how each relationship was progressing were emphasized as central focus points. Advice had to be concrete and achievable and come from supervisors with statutory experience. Participants highlighted the significance of viewing practice directly via video footage. Film clips used for feedback needed to be short and well chosen. The technology, logistics and infrastructure, including management support, were important. Findings were used to develop the model.     

Self and social work: Towards an integrated model of learning

My experiences as a social work practitioner, DipSw tutor and research student form the basis for this article which uses a narrative, auto-ethnographic approach to illustrate the complexities and potential of reflective learning. A theoretical account of the nature of reflective learning and the reflection process is outlined before an autobiographical account which provides an example of the reflective learning process. The key themes of holistic approaches to learning, the significance of the self and multiple subjectivities, the personal in the professional and the importance of attending to the process and content of learning are explored. Examples of shortcomings in the current learning environment are included and drawn on to highlight the potential for more reflective approaches within the DipSw tutorial system. I suggest that given the anxiety-provoking nature of the situations they face, student practitioners need to embrace reflective learning if they are to avoid becoming restrictive, routinised and ritualistic in their practice.     

Work-based Supervisors: The Neglected Partners in Practice Learning

The introduction of the Degree in Social Work programme in 2003 prompted considerable diversification in arrangements for practice supervision, teaching and assessment. A small scale exploratory study was undertaken into a model which utilises work-based supervisors, working in tandem with off-site practice teachers who are primarily responsible for the assessment of student social workers. The study focused on exploring the experiences of work-based supervisors and off-site practice teachers working to this model. The findings pointed to increased anxiety and confusion about roles amongst work-based supervisors and off-site practice teachers. Work-based supervisors described themselves as the ‘neglected partners’ in the learning process, taking on most of the work, but with limited recognition, reward or status. Work-based supervisors valued the new range of professional development opportunities to support them in their role but had difficulty in accessing these due to other professional commitments.     

Infusing Clinical Supervision Throughout Child Welfare Practice: Advancing Effective Implementation of Family-Centered Practice Through Supervisory Processes

Child welfare supervision is fundamental to advancing the quality of practice when seeking to ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of children. Child welfare supervisors serve administrative, educational, and support functions as they oversee frontline caseworkers and direct service providers. Clinical supervision, a dialog-driven process of case review and consultation is situated within the educational function. The process of clinical supervision is essential to child welfare practice, because it prompts reflection and builds analytical thinking skills needed to address complex situations involved in child protection. Despite increased recognition regarding the importance of clinical supervision, child welfare supervision continues to focus primarily on administrative tasks. Organizational climate and external pressures push this administrative agenda. In addition, many child welfare supervisors lack experience, training, and therefore competency in facilitating clinical case reviews. Strengths-Based Supervision (SBS; Lietz 2013) is a model of clinical supervision that was developed to (a) increase child welfare supervisors’ intentionality regarding the importance of infusing clinical supervision into child welfare supervision and (b) advance the skills needed to implement this practice effectively representing one solution to this ongoing challenge.     

Practice supervisors’ perceptions of social work students and their placements – an exploratory study in the Norwegian context

Practice placement has been a basic component in Social Work Programmes for many decades in Norway as elsewhere, and supervision of students has been a valued role for social workers. Here, we have carried out a pilot study of nine supervisors from various practice settings, dealing with their experience with and views about supervision of students. The aim was to get more knowledge of student supervision today and the meaning of student supervision in different practice settings. We found that the content of supervision depended on the agency context. Supervision embodies core agency values. There was a lack of common ground between supervisors and the school of social work, and between supervisors and the students.     

Social Constructionism and Supervision: Experiences of AAMFT Supervisors and Supervised Therapists

A phenomenological research process was used to investigate the supervision experience for supervisors and therapists when supervisors use a social constructionist perspective. Participants of the one‐to‐one interviews were six AAMFT Approved Supervisors and six therapists providing counseling to individuals, couples and families. The findings suggest supervisors were committed to their self‐identified supervision philosophy and intentionally sought out congruence between epistemology and practice. The shared experience of therapists indicates they associated desirable supervision experiences with their supervisors’ social constructionist perspective. Our findings also indicated that supervisors’ and therapists’ understanding of social constructionism included the more controversial concepts of agency and extra‐discursiveness. This research has taken an empirical step in the direction of understanding what the social constructionist supervision experience is like for supervisors and therapists. Our findings suggest a linkage between epistemology and supervision practice and a satisfaction with the supervision process.