7.1 Supervision Policy

Individual performance management within Peterborough City Council Children's Social Care involves two elements:

• Supervision - a regular one to one meeting between the supervisor and supervisee in order to meet organisational, professional and personal objectives;
• Performance and Development Review - an annual meeting, the aims of which are for the individual and the supervisor to review objectives set out the previous year, set measurable objectives and/or targets in line with their team objectives and/or targets for the coming year, and have the opportunity to identify future learning and development needs.

There are three interrelated aspects to supervision

• Line Management - which is about accountability for practice and quality of service, including specific responsibility for case management decisions on cases held by supervisees. This includes managing team resources, delegation and workload management, performance appraisal, duty of care, support and other people management processes;
• Professional supervision This is sometimes described as case supervision. Professional supervision can take place with workers or groups of workers to enable and support practice. A key aspect of this function is reviewing and reflecting on practice issues, identifying strengths and areas for development. This may include reviewing roles and relationships, evaluating the outcomes of the work and maximising opportunities for wider learning;
• Continuing professional development of workers to ensure they have the relevant skills, knowledge, understanding and attributes to do the job and progress their careers. Constructive feedback and observations of practice should be part of the learning process for workers and supervisors.

Within the three main aspects of supervision sit four critical functions of the process. These functions are interdependent, that is one function cannot be effectively performed without the others. An over-emphasis on, for example, management will leave the supervisee feeling that they are being overly controlled and that the purpose of supervision is to "check up on them". An over-emphasis on support could result in important discussions about workload, decision- making, and accountability being neglected.

Each function is described in detail below.

• Line Management
  
  This function is to ensure that the work for which the supervisee may be held accountable is carried out to a satisfactory standard. Discussion during supervision should include:
  • An acknowledgement by the supervisor for the overall accountability and responsibility for the decisions made on cases held by supervisees;
  • The overall quality of the supervisee's performance  and work outputs/outcomes;
  • The policies and procedures relating to their work and that these are understood and followed;
  • The role and responsibilities of the supervisee and that these are clearly  understood, including the boundaries and limits of their role;
  • The development and monitoring of action plans, targets and objectives;
  • The monitoring of the supervisee's workload.
• Learning and Development
  
  This function is to encourage and assist staff in reflecting on their own performance, identify their own learning and development needs and develop plans or identify opportunities to address those needs.
  
  The learning and development function will be achieved through:
  • Helping supervisee's identify their preferred learning style and barriers to learning;
  • Assessing development needs and identifying learning opportunities;
  • Giving and receiving constructive feedback of performance;
  • Providing opportunities for live feedback and shadowing;
  • Encourage the supervisee to reflect of learning opportunities undertaken and applying that learning to the workplace.
• Support
  
  This function recognises that, from time to time, supervisees may require both practical and emotional support to carry out their role; this may be because of particular situations, specific incidents or personal issues that may temporarily impact on their work performance. By offering support within the supervision context supervisees should be given the opportunity to reflect on the impact of the work upon them and prevent issues adversely affecting them and their work.
  
  This will be achieved through:
  • Creating a safe environment within supervision where trust and confidentiality are maintained;
  • Clarifying the boundaries between support and counselling;
  • Enabling and empowering expression of feelings in relation to the work role;
  • Monitoring the health of the supervisee and referring to occupational health where appropriate.
• Negotiation
  
  This function is to ensure that the relationship between the supervisee, their team, the organisation and other agencies with whom they work are effective.
  
  This will be achieved through:
  • Briefing senior managers about key issues through agreed alerts procedures;
  • Dealing sensitively but clearly with concerns and complaints about colleagues and others with whom they work;
  • Consulting and briefing staff on changes and developments that affect their area of work;
  • Advocating between workers or team and other parts of the agency or with outside agencies.

However, it is recognised both locally in Peterborough and more widely through the work of the Social Work Task Force and through the work undertaken by the Children's Workforce Development Council that supervision is much more than these one to one sessions: it is an on-going process that takes place in many different settings and in many different ways.

The two methods of supervision aside from formal one to one sessions are outlined below. For the majority of staff, group and ad hoc supervision have a place but cannot and should not replace planned, formal, recorded, one to one sessions.

• Group supervision
  
  Group supervision should not replace individual supervision, but can be used to complement it. It will involve a group of staff; all involved in the same task, meeting with a supervisor to discuss issues about their work or the way they work together as a team. This may be done in the context of a regular team meeting or as a separate session to look at specific issues.
• Unplanned or "ad hoc" case discussion and decision making
  
  The pace of work and the infrequency of supervision means that staff often have to "check something out" with a supervisor, obtain a decision or gain permission to do something in between formal supervision sessions. In addition, staff who work closely with their supervisor will be communicating daily about work issues, problems arising, and changes in policies or procedures.

Unplanned or "ad hoc" supervision is, a normal and acceptable part of the staff/supervisor relationship. There are, however, three points to be borne in mind when considering unplanned or ad-hoc supervision.

• Any decision made with regard to a child or family should be clearly recorded by the supervisee on the child's electronic record in the form of a Case Note. Information relating to more than one child in the family should be copied on to all the children's electronic case files so that each child has a contemporary record of any decisions made with affect to the whole family;
• Any decision made by senior staff with regard to a child or family in which they are not the named supervisor  for that case worker must also be clearly recorded on the child's electronic case file record  in the form of a Case Note. The designation and role of the senior staff member on that day must also be clearly recorded;
• Where supervisees and supervisors work closely together this does not negate the need for one to one supervision on a regular basis.

The frequency of supervision should reflect:

• The minimum requirements as recommended by the  Social Work Task Force[2];
• The supervisee's  level of experience and competence;
• Any particular circumstances that apply to the supervisee that means they may require more frequent supervision (e.g. a difficult piece of work, the levels of risk associated with work, personal difficulties or relationships, performance issues, performance issues or levels of stress).

When establishing the supervision agreement the following issues should be discussed and set out in the agreement:

• The purpose of supervision;
• The frequency of supervision;
• The venue for the supervision (this should always be in a private room where others cannot easily overhear);
• Any specific responsibilities of both supervisor and supervisee;
• The recording of supervision, including where records will kept to safeguard confidentiality, whether records will be typed or handwritten, how quickly the records will be given to the supervisee;
• The arrangements for any ad-hoc or unplanned supervision including the adding of case notes on to the child's electronic case record;
• The complaints and review process;
• Practical arrangements e.g. the process if supervision has to be cancelled, anticipated length of supervision sessions;
• The arrangements for agenda setting e.g. both parties agree the agenda at the start of the supervision session.

Recording standards

• The detail included in the formal supervision record is a matter of judgement for the supervisor. In general the record should be detailed enough so that the issue, including the rationale for any decisions taken can be revisited, if necessary, at a later date and still be understood. As a minimum, a short summary of any case discussion and the decisions or action points arising from it, must be recorded;
• All records must be legible;
• All case work decisions must be recorded on Record of Supervision Case Discussion form and a copy made for the children in the family discussed within a maximum of one week. Decisions affecting only an individual child of a family should be recorded as such and only included on their personal electronic case record;
• Signed copies of an individual's supervision record must be kept by the supervisor and should also be kept by the supervisee.  This is to both safeguard the supervisor and the supervisee in the case of investigations e.g. disciplinary or complaints investigations and to ensure that records are not altered in any way. Both parties may also choose to keep electronic copies of each document but this should be clearly recorded in the Individual Supervision Agreement;
• Supervisors should aim to give a copy of the record of supervision to the supervisee for signature within two weeks;
• All records should clearly detail any decisions that have been made, and the reasons for these, any agreed actions including who will take responsibility and the timescale for carrying out these actions. (SMART);
• All personal supervision records should be signed by both parties. If there is disagreement as to the content this should be recorded by the supervisor.

Access to supervision records should be controlled and all records should be locked securely so that others who do not have a legitimate right to see the records cannot access them.

Supervisees should be aware that other than themselves and their supervisor other will, from time to time, access records.  these might include

• Senior Managers (e.g. for quality assurance purposes);
• Investigating officers (e.g. for disciplinary purposes);
• Inspectors (e.g., Ofsted inspections);
• Performance Management and Quality Assurance staff (e.g. for audit or quality assurance purposes).

The quality assurance process ensures that the standards of supervision as outlined in this policy are being followed and that:

• All staff are being supervised professionally and effectively;
• All staff supervision sessions are recorded;
• Individual Supervision Agreements for all staff are being developed, used and reviewed.