Liz Beddoe_Keynote_IASW Conf 2016

Social work supervision for
changing contexts: Themes from
theory and research
Liz Beddoe
University of Auckland, New Zealand
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Greetings from my colleagues in the school of
Counselling, Human Services and Social Work
My journey
@beddoeE
Practice
Teaching
Research
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MY AIMS
To briefly explore the nature
of changing professional work
with reference to theories of
professionalism
To consider the impact of the
climate of austerity on
supervision
To consider the research
agenda for supervision
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Trouble ahead for supervision?
Changes in professional
work
• Intrusion of non-clinical management into clinical
decision-making (Lymbery 1998; Coburn 2006).
• Stability no longer a virtue
• Loss of professional autonomy in managed
environments (Evetts,2009)
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Climate and people
• Expectations of reflexivity – ability to cope with
constant change
• High stress environments – compulsory resilience
• Austere practice, austere supervision (Ruch –
webinar, 2016)
Symbolic shifts
• Language used even in our own associations can
symbolize a shift from 'doing' social work to
'managing' it.
• The intensifying of management talk -outputs ‘quality’ imitates the knowledge claims in
classical professional models (Noordegraaf & Schinkel,p.112)
• Major impact on conceptualisation of
supervision from professional to managerial
Technologies of control &
surveillance
• Technologies of control such as evidencebased practice and clinical governance
• Managerial bureaucracies are asserting greater
control than ever of the professions (Coburn
2006).
• Professionals as operatives (Noordegraaf &
Schinkelp.112) to be managed
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Two perspectives
• Manthorpe et al., note the presence of a kind
of dyadic approach in the discussions of
supervision in social work, with supervision
grasped either as largely introspective (a
therapeutic model) or as its antithesis, an
instrumental tool for surveillance and the
soft exercise of power and authority.
(2013, p.3)
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Does it have to be one or
the other?
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Middle ground
• Acknowledge the role of regulation
• Need for supervision that is pragmatic and can
survive the working environments we are in
but holds on to protecting that reflective
space
• Importance of ongoing research
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Supervision philosophy
As a dialogue which ‘shapes a process of review,
reflection, critique and replenishment for professional
practitioners’.
‘…a professional activity in which practitioners are
engaged throughout the duration of their careers
regardless of experience or qualification…participants
accountable to professional standards/defined
competencies & organisational policy and procedures’
(Davys
& Beddoe, 2010,p.21).
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Messages from research
• International Delphi study to explore the
research agenda for supervision
• Ideas for collaboration were born at a
concerned in Stockholm in 2012
• Researchers:
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The 3 main challenges facing social work supervision
in your country?
Rank
Challenges identified
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Time and workload constraints
1=
3=
Lack of valuing of reflective supervision
Inadequate training for the supervision role
Loss of funding for supervisory roles due to cuts
3=
Impact of managerialism and risk thinking /surveillance
4=
Organisational culture not supporting
Lack of focus on mission on social work
2
4=
4=
5
Lack of consistency of provision/models
Insufficient research on supervision
Most urgent issues for
research
Rank
Issue for urgent research
1
Exploring the relationship between supervision and client
outcomes
Exploring relationship and process and evaluating models
Researching how supervision can improve decision-making
/critical reasoning
Explore effectiveness of supervision in supporting staff
Explore training for supervisors
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3
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4=
Professional agency &
autonomy
• Many respondents expressed concern about the loss of and
threats to professional discretion and autonomy in
supervision.
• These concerns stretched beyond threats to professional
identity- encompassed strong fear of the demise of
professional agency with supervision as a forum for critical
reflection
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Autonomy & Agency
• the loss of professional self-determination and
autonomy needed for professional strength This
could be understood to involve supervision aligning
itself with neo-liberal trends
• An understanding of professional agency is needed
especially for creatively developing one’s own work
and working contexts, for learning at work and for
bargaining the professional identity (Eteläpelto et al.
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2013).
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Supervision as emancipatory
• ‘There remains a strong belief, however, in
supervision as an emancipatory support for
professional self-respect and identity. It is the
potential loss of professional autonomy that may
be seen as a major tension’. *
• As supervisors it is our job to manage that tension
*Karvinen-Niinikoski, Beddoe, Ruch & Tsui (in press)
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Advocacy for supervision
in hard times
A professional conversation to:
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• Support effective professional practice
• Reinforce resilience & self-care
• Facilitate personal professional
development
• Encourage lifelong critical reflection on
practice
Build, sustain, transform
Career long supervision
Main functions of
supervision
restated
BUILD
SUSTAIN
TRANSFORM
BUILD
• Build professional identity
• Guiding the integration of theory and
practice
• Focusing on learning in supervision
• Balancing the management of risk at
personal / professional/ service
delivery levels
• Modelling ethical practice in complex
contexts
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SUSTAIN
Containment of emotion and stress and
fostering emotional awareness
Self-care and intellectual refreshment
practitioner & supervisor for
professional growth
Develop the emotional competence of
both parties
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TRANSFORM
• Building a strong relationship in which
challenge can occur
• Supervisee as learner not subordinate
• Supervisor as facilitator and teacher
• Curiosity and exploration
• Humour and creativity
• Creative use of live observation and
feedback
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Conditions for good supervision
Relationship building
Empathetic respect
Sensitivity to diversity Recognising cultural
frameworks
The management of authority and power
Having the skills and knowledge to give and
receive supervision
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What are the barriers?
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Organisational climate
Fetishizing the management of risk
Persistence of traditional bureaucracy
Fear of seeming incompetent
Fear of judgement
Mismanagement of power & authority
Time
Finally …..
Keep these questions to the forefront:
1. How has my supervision today helped sustain
professional competence and belief in the
practitioner's agency in complex work?
2. How do we address change at all levels in
supervision- self, client/patients / work
organisation/ socio-political climate?
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Questions & Feedback
Thank you
for Thank you
listening
Contact me
e.beddoe@auckland.ac.nz
Web: https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/lbeddoe
Blog: https://socialworkresearchnz.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @BeddoeE
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References
Beddoe, L. (2011). External supervision in social work: Power, space, risk, and the
search for safety. Australian Social Work, 65(2), 197-213.
Beddoe , L. (2015). Social work supervision for changing contexts. In L. Beddoe & J.
Maidment (Eds.), Supervision in social work: Contemporary issues (pp. 82-95).
London: Routledge
Beddoe, L. (2015). Supervision and developing the profession: One supervision or
many? China Journal of Social Work, 8(2), 150-163.
Bradley, G., & Höjer, S. (2009). Supervision reviewed: reflections on two different
social work models in England and Sweden. European Journal of Social Work, 12(1),
71 - 85.
Coburn, D. (2006). Medical dominance then and now: A critical reflection. Health
Sociology Review, 15(5), 452-443.
Davys, A., & Beddoe , L. (2010). Best practice in professional supervision: A guide for
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the helping professions. London: Jessica Kingsley.
References 2
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Davys, A., & Beddoe , L. (2015). Interprofessional supervision: Opportunities
and challenges. In L. Bostock (Ed.), Interprofessional Staff Supervision in Adult
Health and Social Care Services (Vol. 1, pp. 37-41). Brighton, England: Pavilion
Publishing
Evetts, J. (2009) ‘New professionalism and New Public Management: Changes,
continuities and consequences’, Comparative Sociology, 8: 247–66.
Karvinen-Niinikoski, S, Ruch, G. Beddoe, L.& TSUI, M-s “Professional
supervision and professional autonomy” in Blom, B., Eversson, L & Perlinski,
M. (Eds) The social care professions in Europe. Bristol: Policy Press. Accepted
February 2016.
Lymbery, M. (1998). Care Management and Professional Autonomy: The Impact
of Community Care Legislation on Social Work with Older People. British
Journal of Social Work, 28(6), 863-878.
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References
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Manthorpe, J., Moriarty, J., Hussein, S., Stevens, M., & Sharpe, E. (2015). Content
and purpose of supervision in social work practice in England: Views of newly
qualified social workers, managers and directors. British Journal of Social Work,
45(1), 52-68
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Ruch, G. (2016) . Ruch, G. (2016). Containing the container: Understanding the
role of supervision in child and family social work. Webinar:
http://listenagain.stir.ac.uk/media/keep/withscotland/listenagain.php
Townend, M. (2005). Interprofessional supervision from the perspectives of both
mental health nurses and other professionals in the field of cognitive behavioural
psychotherapy. Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing, 12(5), 582-588.
Tsui, M.-s., O'Donoghue, K., & Ng, A. K. T. (2014). Culturally Competent and
Diversity-Sensitive Clinical Supervision. In C. E. Watkins & D. L. Milne (Eds.),
The Wiley International Handbook of Clinical Supervision (pp. 238-254).
Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Some of my publications
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Beddoe , L. (2010). Surveillance or reflection: Professional supervision in ‘the risk society’.
British Journal of Social Work, 40(4), 1279-1296. 8
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Beddoe, L. (2011). External supervision in social work: Power, space, risk, and the search for
safety. Australian Social Work, 65(2), 197-213.
Beddoe, L., Ackroyd, J., Chinnery, S.-A., & Appleton, C. (2011). Live supervision of students in
field placement: More than just watching. Social Work Education, 30(5), 512-528.
Beddoe , L., & Maidment, J. (Eds.). (2015). Supervision in social work: Contemporary issues.
London: Routledge
Beddoe, L., & Howard, F. (2012). Interprofessional supervision in social work and psychology:
Mandates and (inter) professional relationships. The Clinical Supervisor, 31(2), 178-202.
Davys, A. M., & Beddoe, L. (2015). ‘Going live’: A negotiated collaborative model for live
observation of practice. Practice, 27(3), 177-196.
Davys, A. M., & Beddoe, L. (2015). ‘Going Live’: An exploration of models of peer, supervisor
observation and observation for assessment. Practice, 1-18.
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