Enlightening Professional Supervision in Social Work: Voices and Virtues of Supervisors

270 Pages·2022·4.666 MB·English

by  Manohar Pawar, A .W. (Bill) Anscombe

Manohar Pawar
A .W. (Bill) Anscombe
Enlightening
Professional
Supervision in
Social Work
Voices and Virtues of Supervisors
Enlightening Professional Supervision
in Social Work
Manohar Pawar • A. W. (Bill) Anscombe
Enlightening Professional
Supervision in Social Work
Voices and Virtues of Supervisors
Manohar Pawar A. W. (Bill) Anscombe
School of Social Work and Arts; Australian Centre for Christianity
Gulbali Institute for Agriculture, and Culture;
Water and Environment Gulbali Institute for Agriculture,
Charles Sturt University Water and Environment
Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia Charles Sturt University
Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia
ISBN 978-3-031-18540-3 ISBN 978-3-031-18541-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18541-0
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2022
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Acknowledgments
This book is about the voices and virtues of social work practitioners and supervi-
sors. First, our appreciation and thanks go to all the social worker participants in our
study, who voluntarily and generously shared their rich experiences, insights, and
wisdom and enlightened us about their practice and commitment to changing the
lives of people and communities. Their narratives inspired us to write this book, and
we sincerely thank each one.
We would also like to acknowledge a larger research project entitled Virtuous
Practitioners: Empowering Social Workers, which was funded by the Australian
Research Council’s Discovery Project scheme (DP140103730) and its other co-chief
investigators, Richard Hugman and Andrew Alexandra, for their contributions. We
are also thankful to Simone Engdahl, Kris Gibbs, Debra Noy, Zhaoen Pan, Nikki
Scott, Jessica Russ-Smith, and Amelia Wheeler for offering research assistance for
the project. The project’s earlier outcomes include two books: Empowering Social
Workers: Virtuous Practitioners (Springer, 2017) and Virtue Ethics in Social Work
Practice (Routledge, 2021). This is the third book from the project focusing on
professional supervision in professional social work.
Writing this book would not have been possible without Special Studies Program
(SSP) leave provided by Charles Sturt University (CSU). We are grateful to
Executive Dean John McDonald, Faculty of Arts and Education, CSU; Acting Head
of School Wendy Bowles, School of Social Work and Arts, CSU; and the SSP com-
mittee for supporting the SSP application. We also thank our colleagues in the
School of Social Work and Arts for supporting our work. We are grateful to Mark
Filmer, Research Editor, CSU, for his editorial contribution to the book. We thank
CSU’s Human Research Ethics Committee for approving the research proposal
(protocol no: 2014/057).
Janet Kim and her team at Springer have done a great job in carefully coordinat-
ing and producing this book, and we thank them for their cooperation throughout
the publication process. We also thank the blinded peer reviewers of the book pro-
posal for their valuable suggestions, which have further enriched the book.
v
vi Acknowledgments
Finally, and most importantly, we appreciate the love and support of our families.
Although help has come from many quarters to write and publish the book, we
are solely responsible for any errors or shortcomings.
Manohar Pawar
A. W. (Bill) Anscombe
Contents
1 Professional Supervision: An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Professional Supervision in Professional Social Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Motivation for Writing This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Rationale for and Significance of Professional Supervision
in Social Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Concept, Nature, Types, and the Main Features of Professional
Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Professional Supervision for Student Social Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Post-qualification Practice Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Supervision by the Line-Management/Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Group Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Peer Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Supervision in the Tertiary Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Independent Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Mentoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Coaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Some Basic Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Mode of Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Role of Professional Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Objectives of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Research Methods Followed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Organization of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Conclusion and Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2 Changes and Challenges in Social Work: Implications
for Professional Supervision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Social Work as a Global Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The Promise and Politics of Social Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
vii
viii Contents
Changes and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Colonization, Neocolonization, and Decolonization . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Deprofessionalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Populism, Nationalism, and Welfare Chauvinism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Digitalization and Online Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
The Sustainable Development Goals, Climate Change,
and Disasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Implications for Professional Supervision in Social Work . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Conclusion and Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3 Contexts of Supervision: Organizations and Practice Settings . . . . . 49
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Organizational Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Government Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Non-government Organizations (NGOs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Social Work Practice Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Social Protection and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Health and Hospitals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Private Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Child Welfare and Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Family/Domestic Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
School Social Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Research Leading to Advocacy and Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Rural and Remote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Line-Management Versus Non-line-Management
Professional Supervision in Organizational and Practice Settings . . . . . 66
Conclusion and Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4 Models of Professional Supervision in Social Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Purpose- and Goal-Based Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Path-Based Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
A Line-Management Supervision Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
A Non-line-Management Supervision Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
A Mixed Model of Line and Non-line-Management Supervision . . . 76
A Contract Model of Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
A Model of Supervision in Private Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Digital/Online Supervision Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Casework, Clinical Practice, and Therapy-Oriented Supervision
Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
A Reflective Learning Model of Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Peer Group Supervision Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Contents ix
Group Supervision Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
A Model of Systemic Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Portfolio Model of Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
An Appreciative Supervision Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
A Cultural Competency Supervision Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
A Critical Conversations Model of Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Feminist Supervision Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
The Integration of Purpose and Path-Based Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
A Comprehensive Model of Social Work Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Evidence-Informed Model of Social Work Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Conclusion and Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5 Critical Dilemmas and Challenges in Professional Supervision . . . . . 99
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Line-Management Supervision Versus Non-line-Management (External)
Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Difference Between Line-Management and Non-line- Management
Professional Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Supervision in Private Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Face-to-Face Supervision Versus Digital Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Difference Between Social Workers and Non-social Workers
and New and Experienced Supervisees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
The Role of Professional Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
The Issue of Teaching/Developing Qualities/Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Conclusion and Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6 The Process, Essentials, and Content of Professional Supervision . . . 115
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
The General Process of Supervision Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Supervisee-Focused Open, Flexible, Informal,
and Conversational . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Clarification of Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Recapitulating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Structured/Contracted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Supervisee-Led . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Two-Way Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Task/Issue/Goal-Focused . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Reflective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Essentials of Professional Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Being Clear at the Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Focus on Practice/Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Balancing Between Work Issues and Private Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Focus on Workplace Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Focus on Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
x Contents
Focus on Positives/Strengths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Identifying Themes/Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Focus on Values and Ethics/Links to Professional Ethics . . . . . . . . . . 124
Accountability/Responsibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Offering Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Being Present/Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Sharing Own Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Empathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Relationship and Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Asking Curious Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Using Theory, Sharing Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
The Main Theme or Core Content of Professional Supervision . . . . . . . 129
Self-Care/Safety for the Worker and the Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Maintaining Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Personal Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Difficulties with and Conflicts Around the Organization . . . . . . . . . . 131
Client/Practice Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Feeling of Inadequacy in Work Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Critical Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Modeling Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Professional Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Learning/Training and the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Conclusion and Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7 Supervisors’ Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Supervisors’ Perceptions of Supervisees’ Expectations from
Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Availability, Support, and Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Space for Ventilation/Debriefing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Have a Plan, Direction, or Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Have Answers and Problem-Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Learn Something More than What They Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Facilitate Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Looking for Affirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Providing a Different Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Honest Feedback and Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Accountability and Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Therapy and Counseling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Do Not Know What to Expect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Expectations of Supervisors from Supervisees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Come Prepared and Bring Agenda Items for the Meeting . . . . . . . . . 145
Follow-Up from the Previous Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Talk About Issues from Various Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146