SUPERVISION

WHAT IS SUPERVISION?
• Supervision is a dynamic enabling process by which individual workers who have a direct
responsibility for carrying out some of the agency’s program plans, are helped by a designated
staff member to make the best use of their ability so that they can do their job more
effectively and with increasing satisfaction to themselves and to the agency.
• Charlotte Towle defined supervision as “an administrative process in the conduct of which staff
development is a major concern. In this process, the supervisor has three functions:
administrative, teaching and helping.”
• The 1965 edition of the American Encyclopedia of Social Work defines supervision as a
“traditional method of transmitting knowledge of social work skills in practice from the trained
to the untrained, from the experienced to the inexperienced student and worker.” On the other
hand, the 1971edition of the Encyclopedia defined supervision in social work as essentially an
administrative process for getting the work done and maintaining organizational accountability.
WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF SUPERVISION?

• The ultimate objective of supervision is to implement agency purposes

and plans, and continually to deepen the quality of the service
through which the agency expresses its purpose: .
.

• The immediate aim emerging from and to be kept continuously

related to this basic overall objective is that through sensitive
guidance and practical help geared to the known requirements of jobs
and needs of workers holding them, their efforts become progressively
more and more effective.
 ASSUMPTIONS

1. The first assumption is that supervision aims towards the agency's control over services and practice.

1.1 Supervision always involves intellectual teaching.

1.2 All supervision has a psychological component which includes emotional support, power or use
of authority, and self-actualization.

2. The second assumption recognizes the fact that supervision is essentially a function of administrative
leadership which is aimed at:

2.1 accomplishment of the administrative goals of the agency rather than therapeutic goals for
supervisees;

2.2 fusion of administrative and teaching activities in one dynamic process; .

2.3 judicious use of administrative power and authority.

ASSUMPTIONS

3. The third assumption stresses the supervisory process as a

learning process when:
3.1 there is acceptance of the learner;

3.2 there is an orderly process of integration of materials from simple to

complex;

3.3 there is giving of specific knowledge to ease anxiety;

3.4 social work supervision requires basic knowledge in the social work
methods through formal graduate training in social work.
 THE SUPERVISORY RELATIONSHIP

1. A relationship of two or more people working together not to meet each other's personal
needs but to administer effective agency services to clients.
2. an interdependent relationship, with both parties having corresponding responsibilities.
3. a professional, not a social relationship. The main purpose of the relationship is to help
workers learn how to give services effectively and to further the professional growth of each other
including the supervisor by enhancing social work skills, as well as trying to discover newer and
more effective ways of working with people.
4. Furthermore, the supervisor-supervisee relationship has crucial significance to enhance
learning in supervision, as teaching in the field is primarily a problem in human relationships. In
general, learning can take place with the best results, when the nature of the supervisor-supervisee
relationship is positive; when each accept each other and are comfortably relaxed with each other.
ROLES AND FUNCTIONS
ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS

The supervisor exercises his administrative functions by:

1. holding the workers to account for a certain quality and quantity
of production;
2. seeing to it that service to client is adequately rendered with
agency regulations and procedures properly carried out;
3. enabling the worker to follow,.PI9c.ed~res and regulations. The
supervisor has to be clear in his communications to him.
TEACHING FUNCTIONS

• Carrying Out Teaching Functions

• Teaching functions are carried out through the following:
1. Planning – the supervisor has to plan work experience for a supervisee
which will give him the opportunity to learn and to progress as a worker.
2. Providing a climate for learning – The supervisor teaches sensitivity to
the needs of the worker at both the intellectual and. feeling level which will
enable the worker to integrate feeling and intellectual functioning in the
practice of social work.
POINTS FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING

1. Start with the familiar and move to the' unfamiliar.

2. Start with the simple and move'on to the complex.
3. Learning should be done in an orderly progressIon.
4. Repetition reinforces learning.
5. Learning by doing increases motivation and provides
opportunities for the correction of misunderstood principles or theories.
6. Recognition of good work stimulates further learning.
PEOPLE LEARN BEST IF:

1. They are highly motivated to learn.

2. They can devote most of their energies to learning.
3. Learning is attended by positive satisfaction.
4. The learners are actively involved in the learning process.
5. The content to be learned is meaningfully presented.
6. The uniqueness of the learner is considered.
HELPING FUNCTIONS

The helping function of the supervisor is done by:

1. Supporting and sustaining the worker through stressful situations.
2. Providing a positive climate for learning.
3. Managing the supervisory relationship in a helping way.
4. Making sure of what he knows about people and their behavior in working with others.
5. Helping workers to identify and modify feelings and other obstacles which are impeding
their progress.
6. Helping the supervisee deal with job-related stress.
7. Developing attitudes and feelings in the workers which are conducive to job performance.
TYPES OF SUPERVISION
TUTORIAL MODEL

• It consists of a supervisor and a supervisee in a one-to-one relationship.

It is probably the most useful model for workers who are inexperienced
and who like the security of relatively close monitoring of their
performance. This is to guide the supervisee in his initial and
inexperienced translation of theory into practice.
• Problems and other difficulties encountered by the supervisee during
the course of his work are discussed during individual supervision.
Supervisory conference are usually scheduled on a regular and
frequent basis – one hour a week affair.
GROUP SUPERVISION

• There is a designated supervisor and 'a group of supervisee. This, model is practiced by
agencies which lack the necessary number of trained supervisors to handle the
supervision.
• The advantage of group supervision lies in the fact that members of the group learn
from one another as well as derive mutual support in the course of discussion.
• Group supervision to be effective is done only with a homogeneous group and all the
members, more or less have some facility of expression. Such a group meets regularly
with the supervisor determining the agenda for the meeting. Cases are discussed both
to provide direct help to the worker involved and to serve as a springboard for the
discussions.
CASE CONSULTATION

• – Here, there' is a designated consultant and the worker

schedules the contacts when he needs them. The worker is
primarily responsible for the focus of the meeting.
• Consultations are, case focused. The worker is responsible for
decisions about the case, and the consultation is always non-
restricting, that is, it must be clear to both parties that the
worker is not bound by the opinions of the consultant unless he
considers them useful.
PEER GROUP SUPERVISION

• There is no designated super­ visor, and all the

members of the group participate as equals.
Consequently, one of the requirements for the
group's success is that the members are mature
and experienced enough to make vital contributions
to case discussion and must share common areas of
competence.
TANDEM SUPERVISION

• This developed out if the peer-group model in this

case two group members decided to function apart
from the group. Neither is designated the supervisor.
Both are experienced workers who respect the ability
and opinions of the other. As a tandem, they meet
informally whenever either has a case for
consideration.
THE TEAM

• This model consists of varied members within the agency

structure. They meet on a regular basis, with the agenda
proposed by the members in advance. Any member has the
liberty to add a case to the agenda for discussion. It is the
task of the team to arrive at the discussions about a case
through the group process during the meeting. The decision in
every case, regardless of which member is responsible for
implementing it, is the team’s.
SUPERVISION OF STUDENTS
 RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE STUDENT SUPERVISOR

1. Planning
2. Creating a Climate for learning
3. Teaching
4. Sensitivity to feelings
AS A HELPER

• The purpose of any fieldwork placement is to further the student's

learning as an intending socia1 worker: the primary task of the
supervisor therefore is to help the student learn, which will
inevitably involve him in accepting responsibility for helping the
student to deal with the difficulties which block progress. In this
sense a Supervisor has to be prepared to take a helping role
and will lean to his knowledge and experience as a social worker to
do so.
THERE ARE THREE MAIN SOURCES FROM
WHICH DIFFICULTIES MAY ARISE FOR
STUDENTS:
1. Dependence
2. Past Life Experience
3. Involvement and Detachment
AS AN ADMINISTRATOR

• As an administrator the supervisor is in position

to help the student look realistically at the
agency, its functioning and policies. Because
he is part of it and identified with it, he will be
able to help the student to identify himself with
the agency, for the first time he is working in it,
 TEACHING FROM RECORDS
1. There should be a regular individual supervisory conference once a week.

2. The student should be responsible for making prompt recordings to be submitted to the field instructor at least
two days prior to the supervisory conference.

3. Recording should reflect what the student sees, hears and feels. What he perceives however would depend
largely on the extent of the knowledge at his disposal and his understanding of the problem being faced by the
client. Contents of recordings may include the following:

1. Data related/relevant to the objective, e.g. the nature of the problem and appropriate history, client’s views
and feelings as verbalized and observe which are required for diagnostic assessment.

2. Significant comments on factors to be considered in the interview.

3. Client’s use of relationship and a description of the interaction between client and student. It is important that
the student make explicit his own contributions and responses, and declares their effect on the interview.

4. Diagnostic statement and treatment plan.

5. Movement or lack of movement should be spelled out.

STAFF SUPERVISION
CONCERNS OF THE SUPERVISOR:

1. availability of resources human and material, and to ensure that these are used to
the best advantage.
2. to monitor and raise social work standards in both the quality and quantity of work
undertaken.
3. to allocate appropriate cases to individual social workers.
4. to ensure that social worker are making realistic decisions about scarce resources
of skill and time.
5. to appraise the total scene (i.e.. the team', commitment and output.
6. to pay attention to the detail of worker’s performance or one’s client’s functioning.
 CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR SOUND
SUPERVISION
Some conditions for Sound supervision are:
1. Agency’s Understanding and Sanctioning of the principles and Practice of Supervision.
The sanction of the agency wherein supervision takes place is all important in establishing the
right climate for supervision. The agency must be clear about its objective and must believe that a
good supervisor improves the quality of social work practice.
2. Supervisor’s Capacity is one of the few learning opportunities available to social workers. How
this opportunity is, will depend on the capacity of the supervisor. To help people learn, he must ask
questions in such a way as to lead to well-considered and appropriate decisions for theoretical and
practical skills and experience as a competent social worker.
3. The Worker’s Capacity
Supervision must start where the worker is his knowledge, skills, experience and everything he
can possibly share in the process.
 FUNCTIONS OF A SUPERVISOR
1. Management
Staff Supervision must strive to:
1.1 obtain suitable conditions to work in for the staff;
1.2 see to it that there is an administrative back-up to enable sound practice;
1.3 declare poor conditions, if any, and work towards improvement through communicating upward the
consequences of unsatisfactory working conditions;
1.4 ensure a steady flow of data about the changing needs of the community, the attitudes of the community
toward the agency, and inter-agency relations. This can be used in formulating agency’s program and policy.
1.5 detect variations in procedure and assist the workers in developing a consistent, yet flexible, application
of agency policy.
1.6 promote the creative participation of the workers in the administrative process by encouraging workers to
examine the effects of policy on their daily practice, to contribute their ideas about changes that are needed.
1.7 Evaluate workloads and make appropriate adjustments between the needs of agency and the capacity of
each worker to manage a caseload.
FUNCTIONS OF A SUPERVISOR

2. Teaching
The supervisor has to get a balance between putting in and drawing out; putting in what is
not yet known yet it is essential to immediate practice; drawing out what is already known
to the worker.

3. Support
Learning cannot be easily accomplished without support. Support enables the learner to
evaluate past practice, consider innovations and alternate approaches. Support means
asking challenging questions by stimulating the worker’s thinking and by the very
recognition that he has the strength and capacity to respond and develop.
SUPERVISION OF
PARAPROFESSIONALS
PARAPROFESSIONALS IN SOCIAL WELFARE

• Sylvia P. Montes once defined the paraprofessionals as “a person who is highly

motivated end committed to share his knowledge, skills and service to selected
individuals, specific groups in a given place or community for humanitarian
cause and civic efficiency,”
• On the other hand Evelina A. Pangalangan defined the paraprofessional as
“the worker assisting the social work staff in direct service functions under the
supervision of the professionally trained worker. He may be a community
leader or volunteer, a graduate of a certificate course in community work, or a
professional of another discipline, who works alongside a trained social
worker under the latter's direction and supervision.”
THE PARAPROFESSIONAL IN SOCIAL WELFARE THEREFORE IS OR
MAY BE:

1. The worker assisting the social work staff in direct service functions
under the supervision of a professionally trained social worker. .
2. A community leader or volunteer: a graduate of a certificate course in
community work, or a professional of another discipline who works alongside a
trained social worker under the latter's direction and supervision.
3. A development worker who does not have formal education in social work
or community development. He performs a multitude of activities-assisting,
supporting, and facilitating the functions of professional workers.
IN REALITY, THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF PARAPROFESSIONALS:

1. The college graduates of allied disciplines or social sciences

who occupy the positions of welfare aides in public agencies. They
are considered paraprofessionals as long as they do not practice their
respective disciplines but assist in social work activities.
2. The community I workers, indigenous members of the community;
auxiliary workers, residential aides without college degrees who have
been co-opted to participate in the delivery of social services. They
may or may not have taken non-degree courses for community
workers.
FUNCTIONS

The paraprofessional:
1. Serves as a bridge, a human link between the agency and the
community and/or those needing its services.
2. Assists in filling up forms, distributes aid, makes home visits,
conduct surveys, computes data, develop simple project proposals,
writes simple reports, maintains records, attends meetings, contacts
leaders, organizes groups, interprets programs, and taps resources.
THE DELEGATED TASKS OF THE PARAPROFESSIONALS IN A
WELFARE AGENCY AS THE MSSD ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. Interviewing 6. Making referrals

2. Conducting surveys 7. Conducting information
campaigns
3. Making home visits
8. Organizing groups
4. Preparing simple project
proposals 9. Filling up or accomplishing
needed forms and
5. Distributing financial and/or
material assistance 10. Writing reports
SUPERVISION OF VOLUNTEERS
WHO IS A VOLUNTEER

• A volunteer is one who gives of his skills, knowledge

and services to an agency without any provision or
consideration of getting a renumeration from the agency.
TASKS AND ACTIVITIES

Volunteer work, in general, can be divided into three types:

1. Executive and policy-making like board membership in an agency;
2. Administrative – occupying the management or executive
position;
3. Direct service – supportive service like typing.
GAMES PEOPLE PLAY IN
SUPERVISION
WHY GAMES ARE PLAYED

• The supervisory situation generates different kinds of anxieties for the

supervisee. In social work supervision it is often directed towards a
change in behavior and perhaps, personality. Change creates anxiety.
The threat of change is greater for the adult student because it
requires dissolution of patterns of thinking and believing to which he
has become habituated. The supervisory tutorial is a threat to the
student’s independence and autonomy. Learning requires some frank
admission of dependence on the teacher; readiness to learn involve
giving up some measure of autonomy in accepting direction from
others, in submitting to the authority of the supervisor-teacher.
 SUPERVISEE’S GAMES

1. Manipulating Demand Level – generally played by intelligent, intuitively gifted

supervisees who are impatient with routine agency procedures. Forms, reports, and
recording excite their contempt. The more sophisticated supervisee introduces it by
suggesting conflict between the bureaucratic and professional orientation to the work of the
agency. The supervisee points out that meeting the client's need is more important than
time spent in recording; writing reports tends to rob time from direct work with the client.
2. Redefining the Relationship – designed to mitigate the level of demands made on the
supervisee, but here the game played depends on redefining the supervisory relationship.
This game depends on ambiguity of the definition of the supervisory relationship. Thus one
kind of redefinition suggests a shift from the relationship of supervisor-supervisee as
teacher-learner in an administrative hierarchy to supervisor-supervisee as worker-client in
the context of therapy.
 SUPERVISEE’S GAMES
3. Reducing Power Disparity – designed to reduce anxiety by reducing the power disparity between
supervisor and worker. One source of the supervisor's power is, of course, is position in the administrative
hierarchy. The supervisor’s expertise, greater knowledge, and supervisor skill is the second source of power
disparity that is vulnerable in this game. If the supervisee can establish the fact that the supervisor is not so
smart after all, some of the power differential is mitigated.

4. Controlling the Situation – designed to place control of the supervisory situation more explicitly and
directly in the hands of the supervisee. The supervisee comes in with a series of questions about his work that he
would very much like to discuss. The better player formulates the questions so that they have relevance to those
problems in which the supervisor has greatest professional interest and about which he has done considerable
reading. The supervisee is under no obligation to listen to the answer to his question. As the supervisee increases
supervisor's level of participation he is, by the same token decreasing his own level of participation since only
one person can be talking. Through the supervisee’s control, both content and direction of conference interaction
are affected.
SUPERVISOR’S GAMES

• Supervisor play games out of felt threats to their position in the

hierarchy, uncertainty about their authority and out of some hostility to
supervisee that is inevitable in such a complex intimate relationship.
One of the classic supervisory games is called "I Wonder Why Your
Really Said That?" This is the game of redefining honest disagreement
so that it appears to be psychological resistance. Another is "One Good
Question Deserves Another."
RESPONSE TO GAMES

• The simplest and most direct way of handling or dealing with the problem of
games introduced by the supervisee is to refuse to play. Refusing to play requires the
supervisor to be ready and able to forfeit self-advantage.
• A second response lies in gradual interpretation or open confrontation.
Confrontation implies a refusal to accept the game being proposed by seeking to expose
and make explicit what the supervisee is doing.
• Another approach is to share honestly with the supervisee one's awareness of
what he is attempting to do but to focus the discussion neither on the dynamics of his
behavior nor on one's reaction to it, but on the disadvantages for him in playing games.