The Foundation of Best Practice Supervision
The Foundation of Best Practice Supervision
Although Professional and Clinical Supervision should be a rewarding and inspiring journey for both the supervisee and supervisor, it can sometimes miss the mark.
Supervisors and supervisees often tell me they feel unprepared and unaware of what good supervision practice is. Without the roadmaps of sound frameworks and training they are uncertain how to craft a quality supervision experience. Sometimes it is the distinction between supervision and line management that has become confused.
As a result, supervision can be dominated by an informal chat, a cursory run through the caseload, a problem solving exercise, avoidance or even going on tangents like line management or personal therapy.
So, what does best practice supervision practice look like?
Professional and Clinical Supervision should be a co-created, collaborative learning focussed conversation between a supervisor and supervisee.
It is a process of learning and support, designed to build self-directed learners and workforce capacity through practice skill development and reflective learning.
At its best, supervision is a uniquely designed professional development activity. It emphasises personalised learning, skill and practice development and personal support. Supervision is like a custom-tailored jacket, it’s co-designed with the supervisee to ensure its fit for purpose, in line with the supervisee’s learning needs, learning styles and learning stages.
Supervision is more likely to flourish in an environment that is psychologically safe and where it is safe to learn.
It is clear now that workplaces vary significantly in terms of how safe it is to raise questions, ask for help with learning from mistakes and express different views and perspectives. Workplaces where openness about learning is encouraged and valued are ones that are aligned with best practice.
It is important to recognise that workplaces have different cultures, practices and policies about supervision and workplace learning.
I am in the process of finalising two key resources for workplaces in the area of supervision.
A Best Practice Supervision Quiz
A Whitepaper about Best Practice Supervision
These will be freely available in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, I thought I would leave you with some reflective questions about the state of supervision in your workplace:
What is the state of supervision in your workplace? Is supervision flourishing or floundering?
How well prepared (and trained) are you and your colleagues in professional and clinical supervision?
How aligned is supervision with best practice? Is it developing self-directed learners and building workforce capacity?
What steps does the workplace take to support supervision?