How can professional supervision supports performance

Supervision can be more or less frequent, longer or briefer by prior arrangement, if either supervisor or supervisee feels this is necessary to achieve performance objectives or targets. The supervisor is responsible for convening supervision sessions.

Both supervisor and supervisee should plan supervision and treat it as a priority. Supervisors are responsible for rescheduling any cancelled sessions at the earliest opportunity. The meetings must be held in private although it may on occasions be appropriate to invite another Manager or Consultant.

Whilst the continuous, consistent and relational aspect of professional supervision is acknowledged and valued there may be circumstances where this is not possible for example, the prolonged absence of a supervisor through illness.

In such circumstances alternative provision will be made to ensure staff receive the support required. This will be done in consultation with individuals as necessary. Where staff require external supervision as part of the conditions of maintaining professional registration they must provide their line manager with details of these arrangements, including the dates of planned supervision and when this has occurred.

The contract between the supervisee and supervisor should clearly outline the responsibilities and expectations of both parties. This should be discussed, agreed and signed off at an early point in the supervisory arrangement. Evidence that this contract has been discussed should be included within the content of supervision records, and reviewed if there are any changes to the contract e.

At the end of the supervision, the record should be signed by both supervisor and supervisee as an accurate reflection of the meeting. The supervisee is entitled to receive a copy of their supervision records and it is their responsibility to store these safely.

If the staff member believes that information contained in the supervision record is inaccurate, incorrect or misleading about a matter of fact, they may ask for it to be corrected or changed. The cycle highlights how supervisors and supervisees can be influenced by their experiences of supervision:.

The eight areas are: intervention, skills competence, assessment techniques, interpersonal assessment, client conceptualisation, individual differences, theoretical orientation, treatment goals and plans, and professional ethics.

Helping supervisees identify their own strengths and growth areas enables them to be responsible for their life-long development.

Supervisors might take on a role of "teacher" when they directly lecture, instruct, and inform the supervisee. Supervisors may act as counsellors The Discrimination Model also highlights three areas of focus for skill building: process, conceptualisation, and personalisation. Conceptualisation issues include how well supervisees can explain their application of a specific theory to a particular case--how well they see the big picture--as well as what reasons supervisees may have for what to do next.

For example, my usual body language might be intimidating to some clients, or you might not notice your client is physically attracted to you. The Discrimination Model is primarily a training model. Adlerian, solution- focused, life- space, behavioural, etc. The situation is analogous to the sports enthusiast who believes the best future coach would be a person who excelled in the same sport at the high school, college, and professional levels.

During the opening stages the supervisee and supervisor eye each other for signs of expertise and weakness. This leads to each person attributing a degree of influence or authority to the other. The mid-stage is characterized by conflict, defensiveness, avoiding, or attacking. Resolution leads to a "working" stage for supervision.

The last stage is characterized by a more silent supervisor encouraging supervisees in their tendency toward independence. Supervisees can participate as co-therapists to maximise modelling and increase the proximity of reinforcement. Supervisees also can engage in behavioural rehearsal prior to working with clients. Group therapy and a practicum were the core of these experiences.

The most important aspect of supervision was modelling of the necessary and sufficient conditions of empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard. Therefore, if counselling is structural, supervision should provide clear boundaries between supervisor and therapist.

Strategic supervisors could first manipulate supervisees to change their behaviour, then once behaviour is altered, initiate discussions aimed at supervisee insight.

Bernard and Goodyear summarised advantages and disadvantages of psychotherapy-based supervision models. When the supervisee and supervisor share the same orientation, modelling is maximized as the supervisor teaches-- and theory is more integrated into training. When orientations clash, conflict or parallel process issues may predominate. Summary Are the major models of supervision mutually exclusive, or do they share common ground?

Models attend systematically to: a safe supervisory relationship, task-directed structure, methods addressing a variety of learning styles, multiple supervisory roles, and communication skills enhancing listening, analysing, and elaboration. As with any model, your own personal model of supervision will continue to grow, change, and transform as you gain experience and insight. These are the minimum requirements and as manager you will also need to supervise staff on other occasions.

As manager you are responsible for the effectiveness of the team and for the quality of their work. It is important as manager to remember that supervision is not just about these areas but through supervision you will improve communication between you and your staff which can motivate and retain staff in the workplace. Care Quality Commission — Outcome 14 Regulation 23 Supporting workers With this outcome the CQC will be looking to see whether the provider has suitable arrangements in place to ensure people are kept safe, and their health and welfare needs are met, and that staff are competent to carry out their work and are properly trained, supervised and appraised.

Have a staff appraisal system incorporating training needs and a personal development plan in place Purpose To comply with The Health and Social Care Act Regulated Activities Regulations Regulation Scope Lead effectively to support staff. Supervision aims to identify solutions to problems and improve practice.

These have combined with increased inspection and surveillance of professional practice alongside calls for more staff training and supervision.

Less attention has been given to examining the cultural aspects of social care organisations that may have contributed to such failures and the potential roles that front line managers play in promoting or mediating organisational culture within their individual relationships with front line staff.

Professional supervision is cited within the social work literature as one of the most effective tools for facilitating and supporting individuals to contain and work with the anxiety that naturally arises within social work. Through its different functions, supervision provides an opportunity for managers to engage staff with the vision of the organisation and its standards. Closer analysis of this data gave a glimpse into the different roles that managers perform within the supervision context and discusses some of the strategies managers used to communicate or mediate aspects of organisational culture to individual staff and support them in their stressful jobs.

Some tentative recommendations are made regarding the importance of prioritising particular functions of supervision and for managers in providing space for staff to reflect critically on the context in which they work. It was evident that some social workers had to ask for supervision whilst others received mandatory supervision.

As noted in the literature review, Morrison stated that supervision is not always of a structured nature; however it is clear in the findings that whilst only two of the social workers had a supervision contract or session agenda made out, most of them were receiving structured and regular supervision.

Supervisory Relationship From the findings it was evident that the supervisory relationship is crucial to the overall experience of positive supervision. A good open relationship between supervisor and supervisee will lead to a more productive session and more honest and helpful feedback. The findings showed that qualities such as trust, honesty, positive attitude, openness and listening are central to a good relationship.

It was also clear that most of the social workers did not want to become too complacent in their supervisory relationship as this may lead to bias opinions and feedback. Again from the findings, some social workers felt in order to prevent complacency, they preferred to change supervisors at stages throughout their practice. Effective and Ineffective Supervision Most of the social workers felt that for supervision to be positive, you need firstly the right environment, this would be a quiet room allowing both supervisor and supervisee the opportunity to reflect honestly and openly on their work with no interruptions.

And secondly a good supervisor, this would be one that has specific training and knowledge in the field of supervision thus being adequately prepared to offer structured supervision. Hawkins and Sheet note that the need for skilled supervisors, good training within supervision and for theory and research in social work has increased. From findings, it was clear that in some social work settings training for supervisors was available. The findings also showed that preparation on both parts was essential for effective supervision.

Both the supervisor and supervisee should come to the session with a plan of what they would like to achieve. One participant said they prepared a brief of their current cases in which advice and feedback was needed.

Another participant noted that supervision is fifty-fifty so both must come prepared. Finally a willingness to learn and accept criticism would also be beneficial to a positive outcome.

Page and Wosket emphasized that the supervisee will learn better from constructive criticism as the process would be an educational one. Overall Role of Supervision The findings alluded to the fact that supervision plays a key role in good social work practice.

Not only does it benefit the service offered to the client but also contributes to effective professional relationships.

For example, one social worker proposed that supervision can offer social workers a chance to reflect on their work within the team which can help them to better their teamwork skills. The research in this area shows that supervision is crucial for personal development and growth as a social worker. Gould and Baldwin stated; supervision has been considered crucial to professional development and effective practice.

This was conveyed by the responses of the participants in this research. In the past, regulators had a distinct tendency to be very specific in their requirements of providers, that is, they published detailed specifications for the structures and processes of care services. However, the provider is not given free rein to produce acceptable outcomes by any means they see fit; the provider must prove that the structures and processes they use are designed to, and likely to, produce the outcomes required.

The CQC do not leave things to chance; it will not satisfy them to find that a satisfactory outcome has been achieved at any one time. The provider needs to show that they monitor the supervision process, and regularly review its output to look for opportunities for improvement of that output. That is, the examination process is itself examined. It is up to the provider to now demonstrate that their supervision process, as designed and carried out in practice, produces the desired outcome, and that the process itself is continuously improved to produce continuously improving outcomes.

The intention of supervision is that the management of the service satisfies its responsibility to ensure that all workers in the service are working to the required organisational standards, using the skills, processes, tools and equipment, and approaches that the service has designed in order to achieve the outcomes that it wants to achieve.

This process is not about qualifications and training courses. As stated above, the new regime allows providers to achieve their outcomes by any demonstrably sound and proven method, thus allowing them to respond much more sensitively to the ever varied and changing needs of the service user.

Therefore the provider cannot rely on third party endorsement of its workers in the form of qualifications. No longer is there an unintended implication that the supervision process is focused on direct carers, and by implication only care.

By placing the standard within the 'support for workers' section, the CQC clearly indicate that supervision is about all workers, and about all aspects of their performance, and is not confined to their care practice. This could be as frequent as every shift when experiencing problems bordering on or contained within disciplinary procedures. Separate Supervision from Appraisal One final point; both old and new standards sow the seed of confusion between 'supervision' and 'appraisal'. As the QCS policy points out, these two processes, while related, are quite different in intent and content, and it enhances the success rate of both if they are clearly delineated and kept separate.

In contrast, to continue the metaphor, in a supervision the worker and supervisor will sit opposite each other, clearly demonstrating that this process is about assessment and monitoring of performance by a supervisor, and the discussion will centre around the recent performance of this worker, where it needs to improve, and how it is to be improved. The outcome of appraisal is likely to set some of the standards against which the worker will be supervised during the following year.

Appraisal is forward looking, supervision is backward looking. If supervision techniques and mannerisms are used in an appraisal, that appraisal is likely to not meet its objective, and conversely for supervisions. Supervision must not be confined to only employees of the service. Everyone working within the service, whatever their employment status for instance agency staff, independent contractor or volunteer impinges on the outcomes, and therefore must be supervised.

Organisations are likely to achieve this aim through workers who are skilful, knowledgeable, clear about their roles and assisted in their practice by sound advice and emotional support from a supervisor with whom they have a good professional relationship. The secondary aim should be for the wellbeing and job satisfaction of workers, not simply because satisfied workers may be more likely to remain in their jobs, but because a duty of care for staff working in difficult and challenging roles is important in its own right.

Despite the many of models of supervision, few, if any, are based on empirical research. This is ironic since many supervisors actively seek to promote evidence-based practice. It is widely assumed by policy-makers, educators and practitioners that supervision is a good thing. But does the available research support this assumption? This research briefing aims to assess the evidence.

It begins by summarising what we know. The review undertaken for this research briefing updates the evidence base to and extends previous reviews by focusing on outcomes for organisations and service users in addition to workers.

The briefing extracts information about the nature and focus of the supervision as described in the studies. It also assesses the quality of the evidence and its relevance for social work and social care practice in the UK. Coercive power is a negative form of the above-punishment,disciplinary procedures.

Legitimate power when the incumbent has authority. Information power-has special knowledge which is valued by the other staff or supervisees.

Have a clear set of expectations and clarify with each supervisee. All resources available and check regularly to see how they are doing. Give regular feedback to all. Tasks set to match their skills. When I personally give a supervision on a member of my staff I make sure that they realise it is a session for support and not for anyone to say how badly they are doing. I feel that a supervision should be supportive and encouraging.

It is a chance for the member of staff to air their views and any concerns that they have. I would build a rapport with all staff in order to establish boundaries and good working relationships. Clarify a clear set of expectations which each member of staff. I make sure that policies and procedures are available for everyone. All staff sign the confidentiality agreement which works both ways. Anything said to a member of staff in a supervision is not repeated to any other member of staff.

Unless it is something that can be used as an example for other staff, this would then be used but without mentioning them. The supervisor performing the supervision must clarify the boundaries of their responsibility and their accountability to their supervisee.

This should include any formal assessment required. The supervisor is responsible for setting and maintaining the boundaries between the supervision relationship and other professional relationships, eg training and management. Supervisees should be seen in appropriate surroundings providing privacy, security and comfort. A supervision agreement will be negotiated between the supervisor and supervisee, using the Supervision agreement form.

The agreement will state the frequency, length, location, content and process of supervision and a time when the agreement will be reviewed. It is recommended that six monthly reviews occur to update the agreement. Ensuring that supervision is beneficial is the shared responsibility of the supervisor and supervisee.

Agree with supervisee sources of evidence that can be used to inform professional supervision. As a manager we have an policy in place on how we inform the staff regarding supervision. This is done through the written letter addressed to individuals and we make sure that the individual receive the letter by signing a form left with a senior in charge.

As a manager l will inform or agree or speak to the supervisee about things or issues I need from them is: to be prepared for the supervision meeting by noting down issues they wish to discuss, to reflect on their work practice and be open and honest about any difficulties they are facing, to acknowledge their successes at work and steps they have made in reaching their goals. Also things that I have responsibility for are: to do the things that I have agreed to do, i.

One way of doing this is to encourage supervisees to analyse their own work and its implications. Reflection is important because it empowers staff to assess their own performance. Positive feedback has long been recognised as a critical element in high performing workplaces.

A major cause of an increasing attrition rate in many organisations, is generally ineffective or inappropriate feedback and lack of effective employee management. Employees are the most important assets of any organisation, playing a major role in its success or failure. However, ineffective feedback can affect the productivity of the employees and ruin the entire work environment. To avoid this, it is essential to employ a mechanism that helps employees understand their strengths and weaknesses in a constructive manner.

A good feedback for their performance can increase the productivity, enthusiasm, and satisfaction levels among the employees.