Constructing an evidence-informed social work supervision model

ABSTRACT

This article aims to pragmatically construct an evidence-informed model of social work supervision from the research findings from social work supervision research. The proposed evidence-informed model consists of five key areas, namely, the construction of social work supervision, supervision of the practitioner, the supervision alliance, the interactional process and the supervision of direct practice. The implications of the proposed evidence-informed social work supervision model for supervisory practice and the international development of social work supervision are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work supervision
• evidence-informed practice
• research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Kieran O’Donoghue is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work, Massey University, New Zealand. His work on social work supervision has been published in international journals in Australia, China, Great Britain, New Zealand and the United States. In 2015, Kieran was awarded the Quality and Innovation Trophy for excellence in research by the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers.

Dr Peace Wong Yuh Ju is a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Social Work, National University of Singapore (NUS). Dr Peace Wong excels in her teaching and was awarded the Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards (FTEA) from 2014 to 2016. Apart from teaching, she manages social work field education and conducts training for social work field educators to enhance their knowledge and skills. Dr Wong actively promotes social work supervision in Singapore by chairing a workgroup to develop Social Work Supervision Guide for the Singapore Association of Social Workers.

Ming-Sum Tsui is Adjunct Professor of Social Work and former Associate Dean, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include social work supervision, social service administration, theory & practice of social work and social work education. He has published more than 130 items of research works, including 12 books and 68 refereed journal articles. In the academia, Ming-sum is serving as the editor, editorial board member or reviewer for 20 academic journals.