A golden thread? The relationship between supervision, practice, and family engagement in child and family social work

Abstract

Within the social work profession, supervision is highly valued. Yet it is not clear how supervision supports good practice or how supervision makes a difference for children and families. In this study, using paired observations of group supervision and family meetings alongside interviews with parents, we explored the link between supervision, practice, and engagement. Considering each data set separately, we found a range of skill levels within the supervision discussions and in the meetings with families. Parents reported generally high levels of satisfaction with the service and in relation to their individual worker. But more importantly, we found a “golden thread” between certain elements of supervision, more skilful practice, and improved parental engagement. We discuss these key elements in detail and consider what these findings tell us about good supervision and what difference it can make for families and children.

How do we assess the quality of group supervision? Developing a coding framework

“…Interestingly, Wilkins et al (forthcoming) supervision coding framework has also been applied to group supervision. In an exploratory study, Wilkins et al (2018) explore the relationship between what happens in group supervision and how parents experience and evaluate the service they receive. In this study, they paired data from observations of group supervision with observations of direct practice.…”

“…This paucity of research knowledge has wider and more profound consequences in practice; without an evidence-based understanding of what models and practices within supervision are most helpful to social work practice, social work agencies will continue to be at a loss as to how to best utilize the supervision space to support their workers and service users (Wilkins et al, 2018). Furthermore, practitioners and service leaders cannot implement intended service and practice changes to any degree of reliability if they are not equipped with the means to assess and evaluate whether changes are actually taking place and formatively review progress.…”

“…As systemic practice continues to be rolled out by social work service providers across the UK and Europe (Aaltio and Isokuortti, 2018;Cameron et al, 2016;Dugmore et al, 2018;Laird et al, 2017;Wilkins et al, 2018), these findings are significant in providing a foundation for beginning to refine our understanding of systemic social worker practice and what mechanisms support its implementation and effectiveness (Bostock et al, 2017;McNeish et al, 2017). For practitioners, the findings of the current study also provide a platform upon which to develop and understand systemic supervision within their own organizations and teams.…”

From Snapshots of Practice to a Movie: Researching Long-Term Social Work and Child Protection by Getting as Close as Possible to Practice and Organisational Life

“…However, while revealing some important long-term institutional patterns, none of these studies researched the effects of organisations on the quality of face-to-face practice. Similarly, the literature on staff supervision in social work illuminates different approaches to and processes of support (Davys and Beddoe, 2010), and has only begun to explore the link between supervision, the quality of practice and service-user outcomes (Wilkins et al, 2018).…”

Iriss ESSS Outline: Newly qualified social workers, supervision and child protection

“…However, there is limited evidence linking supervision with outcomes, either for practice or for children and families ( Wilkens et al 2017 ). The evidence below looks at how both practitioners and managers experience supervision, and also includes an initial investigation on how supervision can influence outcomes for families (see Wilkins et al 2018 ). The study focuses on the daily lives of newly graduated professionals in child protection services.…”