Systemic supervision in statutory social work in the UK: systemic rucksacks and bells that ring

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a perspective on contemporary supervision outlining an innovative model of live systemic supervision implemented across a local authority children’s social work service. Following the Reclaiming Social Work model and the Munro Review of Child Protection, systemic approaches have become popular in English statutory social work. This intervention is distinct in that its focus was on developing and embedding systemic supervision through live mentoring. This approach enables different theoretical perspectives to sit alongside each other and inform practice. The paper explores four constructions of supervision as organisational development, as practice-based research, as ‘training to transgress’ and as adult learning. Using Proctor’s model, which allocates roles, a structure and a reflecting process within team supervision, the programme sought to embed change through the supervision and live mentoring of supervisors. The programme aimed to promote team resilience, reflexivity and relationship-based practice alongside a robust stance on risk. The paper describes the model of supervision and its application before discussing the issues raised in its implementation. We consider its relevance in other settings across professional boundaries.

KEYWORDS:

• Social care
• reclaiming social work
• supervision
• systemic practice
• systemic supervision

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Paul Dugmore has a dual role at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust – managing the portfolio of social care, leadership and management and undertaking clinical work as a social worker in the Child, Young Adult and Family Department. His social work career spans over twenty years as a practitioner, manager, lecturer and trainer. Paul obtained a teaching fellowship at Middlesex University in 2012 and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is undertaking a professional doctorate in social work and is an accredited international trainer and intervener in the evidence-based Video-feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD).

Karen Partridge PhD is a Consultant Systemic Psychotherapist and Clinical Psychologist currently working in course development at the Tavistock Centre, London and in independent practice. Formerly Head of Systemic Psychotherapy at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Co-Director at KCC, a systemic training organisation in the third sector. Her interests include consultation and training in staff groups and organisations and the interface between therapy, community and organisational interventions, action research and social justice. Karen is an AFT accredited systemic supervisor and has been developing courses, teaching and supervising health and social care practitioners for over thirty years.

Indeep Sethi is a qualified social worker and obtained a Masters in Social Work from London Southbank University in June 2006. She has extensive experience of working with vulnerable Children and their Families, predominately in Child Protection and Looked After Children services, with a wealth of experience in assessing and managing risk. Indeep is an experienced manager; supervising, supporting and developing social workers. She has always had a passion for providing good quality supervision, understanding the need for a positive, trusting relationship between supervisor and social worker, and offering a safe and reflective space to explore and identify ways to keep children safe.

Monika Krupa-Flasinska is a qualified social worker. She obtained an MA in Social Pedagogy from the University of Marie Curie-Sklodowska in Lublin, Poland in 1997. She has significant experience working within multi-diverse communities in London, Poland and India. Monika has extensive experience of working with risk and complexity in a statutory Children and Families settings. She has supervised, mentored and developed many student social workers, developing a particular interest in reflective supervision and practice. Monika has an interest and some experience in working within social work academia and research, taking part in the Change Project on Reflective Supervision run by Research in Practice.

ORCID

Paul Dugmorea http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4806-7645