Reflective Supervision: A Best Practice Guide welcomes feedback

Professor Jermaine Ravalier and SWU General Secretary John McGowan presenting the Reflective Supervision: A Best Practice Guide at the COMPASS Manchster 2024 event

SWU and BNU present at the Social Work Show on 7th October 2024

SWU General Secretary John McGowan and Professor Jermaine Ravalier (New Buckinghamshire University) opened learning and development for the day at the COMPASS Manchester event with their joint presentation to a full crowd.  They began with a brief presentation of the extensive research on the role of reflective supervision and shared how the development of a best practice guide might be the beginning of much needed support being embedded in social work environments.

Reflective Supervision: A Best Practice Guide has evolved from the working conditions and employee health longitudinal study undertaken between SWU, BASW, and Bath Spa University which identified the lack of a universal model.  These early studies with social workers in practice outlined the weaning job satisfaction, contending pressures of performance and outcomes compared with ethics, values and better outcomes for both people receiving services and for those services delivering.

The research team identified a clear correlation between effective supervision to provide meaningful support and a safe space for reflection and development and the constraints of performative supervision not conducive to satisfaction or retention. Examining the experiences of social workers who participated in individual interviews, focus groups, along with an expert panel group has enabled the research team to co-produce a practice guide that can be applied flexibly to suit the needs of individuals and employers in terms of retention at a time of a staffing crisis. 

It is clear that social workers are committed to anti-discrimination, challenging injustice, and finding best outcomes for people supported but what will support them to achieve this?

In comes the cycle of “Discovery – Dream – Design – Destiny“.  This idealised sequence connects the vital exploration of challenges in practice and reflecting to identify solutions – invention of aims – co-design of steps towards attainment – and the arrival at the intended goal. 

The guide reasserts the significance of the roles and responsibilities of supervisor and supervisee, contracting the basic parameters of supervision:

  • What is needed / expected
  • Where and how this takes place
  • The frequency
  • Content prepared in advance

The framing of guiding questions also assists practitioners to set the scene to support the maintenance of newly learned skills, from studying at university to become embedded and routine early on in career development and for benefits to be measurable in practice. 

At a time when social work staffing levels are at crisis point, we cannot overlook the significance good reflective supervision has on maintaining workplace psychological health, and the imperatives of this on improving practice alongside the outcomes for people accessing social work support.

Download your free copy of the Reflective Supervision: A Best Practice Guide at:
https://swu-union.org.uk/resources-training/swu-bnu-reflective-supervision-best-practice-guide-2024

Please let us know your feedback on the Guide here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/147CdFiYPzZCoMAry915vYHQaySZ0jptPxDLVJ1N8RLk