Career clinic: the importance of supervision

career clinic

A: Professional supervision should be viewed as a right and a responsibility, writes Ray Jones. Through supervision there is the opportunity to be reflective about our practice, to promote best practice for our service users and also to continue to develop professionally. It is also a means of bringing accountability back to employing agencies, so that they have a responsibility for the standards of service provided. So both for practitioners, but also for agencies, a priority should be given to the provision of supervision.

But supervision can slip out of the diary when workers and supervisors are under pressure, and indeed this may be inevitable when unanticipated and urgent work demands need a response. However, the regular cancellation of supervision or the failure to plan it into the diary leaves workers and agencies exposed.

It is also a failure when the quality of supervision is poor, leaving practice lacking review and workers without reflective space and guidance. We only have to recall the findings of the Victoria Climbié Inquiry to highlight how damaging poor supervisory practice can be.

When supervision is not happening the first recourse should be to the supervisor, asking that dates for supervision be put in the diary, that the time and space for supervision be protected and, if necessary, reviewing together the content of supervision.

If this is resisted, or the supervision still does not take place, check with colleagues in your team about their experiences. It is likely that there will be shared experience of supervision not happening or being of poor quality. If so, that will be a collective issue to be taken up jointly with the supervisor. From an isolating individual experience there would then be the strength and reassurance of being able to pursue the issue together with the supervisor. But if the supervisor is still then not providing supervisory space it may need to be raised with the supervisor’s manager.

For those organisations that fail to ensure that supervision is used to ensure accountability for what is happening for service users, workers might want to come together by, for example, ­forming a local branch of the British Association of Social Workers or the Social Care Association, or through their trade union, to challenge the organisation’s poor policies, procedures and practice.

We know from the joint reviews undertaken a few years ago of all local councils with social services responsibilities in England and Wales, that it was those organisations that set great store in being learning organisations, and were supportive of staff, that were also the strongest performing in terms of service quality. Supervision was and is central to this achievement. Alone or together we should be pushing to make sure it happens.

Ray Jones is professor of social work at Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, and is a former director of social services and BASW chair

25 september QUESTION

I’m updating my CV as I plan to apply for a new job. I showed my CV to a friend working in recruitment who recommended I “dress it up a bit because everyone does”. She said I should slip in a few white lies such as upping my current salary, inflating education grades and expanding previous job descriptions. Am I likely to get caught out if I do this? We will answer this question in the 25 September issue of Community Care. We will publish readers’ advice too – send it to derren.hayes@rbi.co.uk

➔ Do you have your own career dilemma? Send your comments or ­questions to derren.hayes@rbi.co.uk

Ray Jones 11.9 working lives: career clinic

Receiving professional supervision should be viewed as both a right and a responsibility. Through supervision there is the opportunity to be reflective about our practice, to promote best practice for our service users and also to continue to develop professionally. It is also a means of bringing accountability back to employing agencies, so that they have a responsibility for the standards of service provided. So both for practitioners, but also for agencies, a commitment and priority should be given to the provision of supervision.

But supervision sometimes slips out of the diary when workers and supervisors are under pressure, and indeed this may be inevitable on occasions when unanticipated and urgent work demands have to receive a response. However, the regular cancellation of supervision or the failure to plan it into the diary leaves workers and agencies exposed.

It is also a failure when the quality of supervision is poor, leaving practice lacking review and workers without reflective space and, if needed, guidance. We only have to recall the findings of the Climbie Inquiry to highlight how damaging and dangerous poor supervisory practice might be.

So it is not at all unreasonable for workers to expect to be well supervised. When this is not happening the first recourse should be to the supervisor, asking that dates for supervision be put in the diary, that the time and space for supervision be protected, and if necessary reviewing together the process and content of supervision.

If this is resisted, or the supervision still does not take place, check with colleagues in your team about their experiences. It is likely that there will be shared experience of supervision not happening or being of poor quality, and if so there is a collective issue to be taken up jointly with the supervisor. From an isolating individual experience there would then be the strength and reassurance of being able to pursue the issue together with the supervisor. But if the supervisor is still then not providing and protecting supervisory space it may need to be raised as a concern with the supervisor’s manager..

For those organisations which fail to ensure that supervision is used to ensure

accountability for what is happening for service users, workers might want to come together, by for example forming a local branch of the British Association of Social Workers or the Social Care Association, or through their trade union, to challenge the organisation’s poor policies, procedures and practice.

We know from the joint reviews undertaken a few years ago of all local councils with social services responsibilities in England and Wales, that it was those organisations that set great store about being learning organisations, and were supportive of staff, which were also the strongest performing agencies in terms of service quality. Supervision was and is central to this achievement. Alone or together we should be pushing to make sure it happens.

Ray Jones is professor of social work at Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, and is a former director of social services and BASW chair

25 SEPTEMBER QUESTION

We will answer this question in the 25 September issue of Community Care. We want to publish readers’ advice too – send it to derren.hayes@rbi.co.uk by 18 September.

Do you have your own career dilemma? Send your comments of questions for consideration by our expert panel and your peers to derren.hayes@rbi.co.uk

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