Developmental Supervision
By Joe DaRocha

Introduction

Supervision of front line child protection staff needs to be an evolutionary process that should not be permitted to stagnate. Ideally, it is a process that mirrors the worker‘s own growth; that will lead towards increasing levels of learning and competency. In essence, supervision is developmental, being the key learning opportunity for workers at every stage of skill acquisition.

There are three distinct stages in promoting worker growth through Developmental Supervision; Directional, Transitional and Consultative.

Directional Supervision

Directional Supervision is entirely driven by the supervisor. It is the "shopping list" approach to instructing and directing workers. Simply put, the Supervisor gives clear and concise directions based on the information workers have presented. In this process the supervisor must ensure that workers gather as much information as possible in order to form an assessment.

The supervisor, at this stage, must be cognizant of the fact that workers may lack either the necessary information required, or be unaware as to what information is pertinent for case assessment.

Therefore, the supervisor engages in a high degree of questioning, in an attempt to seek out all the information the worker has or lacks. This Supervisory questioning when conducted in an intrusive and authoritative manner defeats the goal of information gathering and hampers worker growth.

It is important for the supervisor to explain to workers the supervisory process that is being utilized. Workers must be informed that the questioning is not a fault finding process, but an information gathering and assessment exercise. What is important is that workers pay close attention to the questions the supervisor is asking and why these questions are being asked.

Once the necessary information has been collected, the Supervisor undertakes the second step in Directional Supervision; which is to issue task centered directions to the workers. These directions outline exactly what workers are to accomplish. Directions given to workers must contain the following elements;

Clarity and Comprehension
Workers must understand exactly what to do. They must declare that they understood the directions given and the reason for pursuing the stated directions.

Time Reference
Workers must be given a time line to complete the stated instructions.

Concise
The instruction list must be short and not overwhelming.

Rationale
The Supervisor needs to provide workers with an explanation for the instructions given. This is a learning opportunity where the supervisor provides child protection workers reasons for the direction being pursued. The reasons are framed in the context of the child protection mandate and the agency‘s vision of service.

Consent
Although not always necessary, it is crucial that workers consent to what they are being directed to do. The workers' consent brings them closer to understanding the agency‘s mandate and enhances their learning to a greater degree.

Reporting
The worker needs to be informed as to when to return to the supervisor for further direction, clarification or presentation of new information. The Supervisor should not assume that once the workers complete the instructions given they would, by nature, return to the Supervisor.

The directions given to the worker are that similar to a "shopping list" – obtain the following and then report back.

This type of supervision is designed to give those not skilled or experienced in Child Welfare a starting point for practice. It is linear learning; a hands on approach to conducting child welfare practice within a narrow, externally driven context.

Worker growth matched with the supervisor‘s assessment of worker capacity will determine when Directional Supervision needs to be discarded. In general terms, however, most workers should be ready to move away from Directional Supervision by the end of the first year of practice.

Transitional Supervision
As the supervisor assesses that the child protection worker has obtained a level of knowledge and skill which enables a greater degree of autonomy, Transitional Supervision is adopted as the supervisory practice.

Transitional Supervision provides workers with the first opportunity towards professional self reliance and worker centered learning. It allows the worker greater autonomy in the formulation of case solutions (i.e. service plans, interventions, goals) while heavily relying on the skills and knowledge workers have acquired thus far.

In Transitional Supervision, the Supervisor retains a component of Directional Supervision but increasingly incorporates the workers knowledge and experience in each supervisory exchange. The defining component of Transitional Supervision is the supervisor‘s question to the worker of "What do you think we should do?"

The supervisor regularly asks that workers reflect on their knowledge and experience in a search for solutions to the presenting situation.

The emphasis is not that workers "get it right" on every occasion but that they are able to apply training, acquired skill, experience and their knowledge to date to make an attempt at, or present a solution. In essence workers are being asked to transfer their learning to the current situation.

Transitional Supervision is not an exclusive exercise in asking workers to attempt solutions based on their experience but seeking and incorporating opportunities to engage in learning. On several occasions, in this phase of Developmental Supervision, the supervisor will need to revert to Directional Supervision as there will likely be situations not previously encountered or that do not fit into any previous learning framework.

As the worker‘s knowledge grows, the supervisor increases the frequency of requests to formulate solutions. Ideally, the supervisor begins to transition workers to more independent, self reliant skill sets.

Consultative Supervision
At this stage of the child protection workers' development, the supervisor takes on the role of consultant. Here, the supervisor‘s main responsibility is to augment worker solutions or decisions.

At this level, it is expected that child protection workers can either (in some select cases) make decisions independent of the supervisor or (in most cases) provide the supervisor with a "recommended" service plan, intervention or case direction.

Workers have attained a level of skill where they can make routine decisions on cases without supervisory input. It is essential, however, that the supervisor emphasize the difference between independent decision making and those decisions that require supervisory input as dictated by provincial standards or agency policy.

To provide workers with the illusion that the supervisor is purely a consultant would be dangerous. It would allow them to become too narrowly focused on their solutions and not expose them to the wider issues that the supervisor, being more experienced and objective, can provide; however, the supervisor, must also respect and acknowledge the workers‘ expertise. In so doing, supervision becomes largely an interdependent exercise, where both supervisor and worker rely on each other for information and ideas.

Nonetheless, the supervisor aims at providing the worker with ownership of the case and the decisions associated with them. The supervisor creates in supervision an expectation that the worker will provide recommendations for service direction or intervention; and even if worker recommendations are not implemented, workers are validated for contributing nonetheless.

The operative question for the worker in consultative supervision is; "What do you recommend we do?" The workers‘ recommendations need to be sup-ported by the worker‘s own assessment, service goal and interpretation of obstacles, dynamics and resources that may help or hinder the intervention.

The supervisor reviews the workers‘ assessments and corresponding solutions and when needed, provides a wider vision for workers to incorporate or consider in their recommended plan; "That‘s a good plan, but have you thought about this….." or "What will happen if the plan doesn‘t work?".

The supervisor, as a consultant, challenges the workers to think more globally and include other perspectives or ideas not previously thought of; integrating differing interpretations, research, theories, training and past learning. The supervisor also assists that workers view the case from differing perspectives and ensures that their recommendations or solutions are consistent with the agency‘s mandate and current practice. Ultimately, the supervisor works towards improving the quality of the worker‘s own solutions to case questions.

Developmental Supervision - Issues and Obstacles

Stagnation
One danger in supervising child protection workers is allowing them to remain at the Directional or Transitional stage of supervision. When this occurs the worker‘s development stagnates. The result is a worker who may have years of experience but unable to formulate an independent decision or recommendation on a case.

In the absence of any work performance issue or external obstacles, a worker with two or more years of experience who is unable to provide a service recommendation on a file, may have been prevented from growth and learning through stagnant supervision.

The supervisor holds the primary responsibility for maintaining the professional growth of workers. Training, learning and skill development must be supported by Developmental Supervision, if not, the worker‘s ability to provide service suffers significantly.

Developmental Supervision and Worker Performance

When a learning deficit related to knowledge or skill has been identified; the supervisor can use Development Supervision as part of a work performance plan. The Work Performance plan may indicate the need to return workers to an earlier stage of supervision, with a set timeline for progression. This allows the supervisor to re-start the worker‘s learning and move them forward in a more planned and defined fashion.

Developmental Supervision and Stage Transition

Transition from one stage of supervision to another should be a clear and defined process for workers. Supervision transitions need to be identified as goals and reflected in the worker‘s performance evaluation.

Some Supervisors may not consciously want their workers to evolve towards a more independent, self directed stage of supervision. They may view this as threatening and may even prefer to have workers dependent on Directional Supervision.

A supervisor who believes this holds on to a misguided idea of "control", subscribing to the belief that by "knowing" (controlling) all that workers do prevents them from making any clinical errors. In fact the opposite may be true.

Workers highly dependent on their own supervisor‘s direction are not given the opportunity to professionally develop, be exposed to different approaches and benefit from the variety of experience inherent in the field. Such Workers become prone to error as their ability to problem solve and engage is not their own but rigidly instilled by a superior. This becomes a significant threat to service when the "controlling" super-visor leaves his/her position abandoning to the agency a team of automatons incapable of independent assessment and stunted in their learning.

Conclusion

Developmental Supervision is a method in which a child protection worker moves progressively through three distinct stages of supervisory consultation towards knowledge acquisition and skill development. In each stage, Directional, Transitional and Consultative the supervisor conducts a careful assessment of the progress of each worker and determines the timing for a transition to a more clinical, assessment-based interaction with the supervisor.

As a general guideline, the stages of Developmental Supervision may be viewed as;

Directional
For staff 0 – 1 year experience in child welfare

Transitional
For staff 1 – 3 years experience in child welfare

Consultative
For staff 3 years + experience in child welfare

References

The Children‘s Aid Society of Brant. Supervision Manual. October 7, 2008

Tropman, John (PhD), Kathleen Coulborn Faller (PhD) & Sarah Feldt, MSW. Essentials of Supervisory Skills for Child Welfare Managers. University of Michigan School of Social Work. Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Salus, Marsha K. Supervising Child Protective Services Caseworkers. US Department of Health and Human Services. 2004

Salus, Marsha K. & Diane DePanfilis. Child Protective Ser-vices: A Guide for Caseworkers. US Department of Health and Human Services. 2003.

About the Author

Joe DaRocha, MSW, is a Children‘s Services Supervisor at the Niagara Family and Children‘s Services.

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