Supervision is a cornerstone of professional development and practice improvement. Supervision allows practitioners and their managers to reflect on practice, learn from experiences and it can provide encouragement, support and help build emotional resilience. At this year’s Partnership Conference we will explore learning from new initiatives, including emerging programmes of research and innovation in supervision practice across Children’s Services.

1. Building practice supervision in
learning organisations: Partnership
Conference
7 February 2019

2. Twitter
We will be live tweeting
@researchIP
#RiPPartnership

3. Welcome
Dez Holmes
Director, Research in Practice

4. Supervision, practice, engagement
and outcomes
Dr. David Wilkins
Senior Lecturer and Assistant Director, CASCADE,
Cardiff University

5. Supervision, practice,
engagement and
outcomes
Findings from a series of studies
into supervision
Dr David Wilkins
Assistant Director / Senior Lecturer
in Social Work

6. Common
research
questions
across all
the studies
What
is good supervision?
How can we
measure and record
it?
What organizational
factors support it?
What difference
does it make for
families?

7. What do social workers and managers say
supervision helps with?
On the whole, social workers were positive about their
supervisors but negative about the quality and / or utility of
casework supervision

8. What do social workers and managers say
supervision helps with?
Management
oversight and
accountability
Support
and
guidance
Child-focused
Outside
perspective

9. What does your supervision help most with?
Emotional
support
(4%)
Analysis or
professional
development
(5%)
Nothing (7%)
Reflection (8%)
Management
oversight, task
clarity and
timeliness
(65%)

10. What happens in supervision casework
discussions?
• Remarkable degree of consistency across almost all the case
discussions in our study
Verbal deluge
• Extensive update
provided by SW
The problem
• Identify key
problem(s)
Solutions
• Provision of
advice /
direction by
manager

11. What is the
relationship
between
supervision,
practice skills,
family
engagement
and outcomes?
Observed 44 sessions of supervision
Observed (and rated) the SW in a
home visit shortly afterwards
Interviewed SW and family members
(parents and children) about
engagement, goals and outcomes

12. What is the
relationship
between
supervision,
practice skills,
family
engagement
and outcomes?
Categorized the supervision sessions
as either:
High support for practice or
Low support for practice

13. What is the
relationship
between
supervision, practice
skills, family
engagement and
outcomes?
• What is “support for practice”?
• An evaluation of what
the SW has been doing
• Agreement on what the
SW is going to do next
• A sustained focus on
‘how’ and ‘why’
• A sense in which the
quality of practice (or
service) is a shared
responsibility between
SW and supervisor

14. What is the
relationship
between
supervision,
practice skills,
family
engagement
and outcomes?
What practice skills did we look
at?
Care and
Engagement
Empathy
Collaboration
Autonomy
Good Authority
Purposefulness
Clarity about
concerns
Child-focus
Behaviour
change
Evocation

15. What is the
relationship
between
supervision,
practice skills,
family
engagement
and outcomes?
Practice skills are fairly
strongly related to parental
engagement (r=0.3-0.4)
But there is only a
weak link between
skills or engagement
and achieving family
goals (r=0.1)
(Credit:
Professor
Donald
Forrester)

16. What is the
relationship
between
supervision,
practice skills,
family
engagement
and outcomes?
Why?
Because SW is more
complicated than practice
skills
Because people are not
passive recipients of SW
Because most families see
very little of their SW

17. What is the relationship between supervision,
practice skills, family engagement and outcomes?
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Face-to-face meetings over 6 months

18. What is the relationship between supervision, practice
skills, family engagement and outcomes?
For families who
receive 8 or more
visits, the
relationship between
practice skills,
engagement and
achievement of
family goals is much,
much stronger.
Why…?

19. What is the relationship between supervision,
practice skills, family engagement and outcomes?
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Good authority Purposefulness Child focus Clarity about risk Empathy Overall
High support for practice Low support for practice

20. What is the relationship between supervision,
practice skills, family engagement and outcomes?
High support for practice
Moderate support for practice
Low support for practice
Strongly
agree
Agree Not sure Disagree Strongly
disagree
”I agree with my social worker’s goals for my family”

21. What is the relationship between supervision,
practice skills, family engagement and outcomes?
Respectful
curiosity
Child and
family focus
Clarity about
risk or need
Support for
practice

22. Concluding thoughts
Supervision seems to
make a tangible
difference to the way in
which social workers
practiced with families.
More systemic
supervision associated
with better ‘care /
engagement’ with
families (Bostock et al,
2017)
Support for practice
associated with better
use of ‘good authority’,
more empathy and
greater agreement about
goals (Wilkins et al, 2018)
Yet…it is not obvious how
discussions in supervision
make a difference in
practice or the limits to
this association.

23. Concluding thoughts
We have seen very good
supervision sessions
associated with mediocre
practice visits
We have seen mediocre
supervision sessions
associated with very
good practice visits
We have seen
supervisors having
excellent sessions with
one SW and poor
sessions with another
We have seen SWs
demonstrating very good
skills in some visits and
not in others

24. Concluding thoughts
We have seen
supervisors having
excellent sessions with
one SW and poor
sessions with another
You can be a ‘good’
manager and provide
‘poor’ supervision (but
probably not vice versa…)
Clarity of purpose is
essential (for families and
workers)
Might good supervision
protect families against
poor practice, more so
than it enables (by itself)
good practice to flourish?
Yet, how easy is it to
sustain good practice in
the absence of good
supervision?

25. Supervision and decision-making:
why, what, when and how?
Dr. David Wilkins
What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care
Jassi Broadmeadow
Head of Service NWC Safeguarding, Birmingham
Children’s Trust

26. Supervision and decision-
making: why, what, when and
how?
What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care

27. Overview
Why supervision and
decision-making?
What projects do we have
planned and underway?
When will we report
findings?
How? A case study (with
Birmingham Children’s
Trust)

28. Why is
this a
priority
area for
the
What
Works
Centre
?
3. Developing the evidence-base
1. Good supervision is central
to good practice
2. Social workers make life-changing
decisions everyday

29. What
projects
do we
have
planned
and
underway
?
1. Realist review of the literature – in relation to
supervision and other forms of support, what
works, for whom, how and under what
circumstances (to enable good practice and to
help families)?
2. Outcomes-focused supervision (with Birmingham
Children’s Trust). More on this later…
3. Schwarz Rounds – how can we meet the
emotional and social needs of social workers (and
other children’s services staff)?
4. Decision-making and good judgement – what
support and training can be given to social
workers to help them use their best judgement
when making decisions?

30. When
will we
report
findings
?
The What Works Centre for Children’s Social
Care is currently funded until March 2020 – all
current projects will report by then.
But sooner if we can…

31. How?
A case
study
Majority of studies (with some notable exceptions) focus on
supervision as an activity between supervisors and social
workers intended to help the social worker.
In practice, many supervision sessions focus on helping the
organisation.
But…how does supervision help families?
Outcomes-focused supervision (with
Birmingham Children’s Trust)
Supervisor
Social
worker
Child and
family

32. How?
A case
study
Outcomes-focused supervision (with
Birmingham Children’s Trust)
Team A
Supervisors
trained
Family outcomes
data collected T1
and T2
Team B
Supervision
‘as normal’
Family outcomes
data collected T1
and T2

33. How?
A case
study
Outcomes-focused supervision (with
Birmingham Children’s Trust)
Family agrees to
take part
Working alliance
and case
questionnaire T1
Supervision
observation T1
Practice
observation
Family interview
T1
Supervision
observation T2
Family interview
T2
Case
questionnaire T2

34. How?
A case
study
Outcomes-focused supervision (with
Birmingham Children’s Trust)
Why?
• Focus on systemic practice – building on systemic
supervision for our Team Managers
• The need to develop a supervision framework that
complements the vision of the Trust
• Impact for families and children
Challenges?
• Keeping discussions to a minimum between managers and
social workers during the period of research
• Engaging families – valuing their input

35. Outcomes-focused supervision (with
Birmingham Children’s Trust)
How?
A case
study
Moving Forward
● Findings that inform a supervision framework that will
support excellent outcomes for children
● Improve development and skill set of our workforce
● Increase staff retention through high support and high
challenge
● Help to develop emotional resilience and ultimately the
wellbeing of our workforce

36. Supervision and attachment patterns: the
role of attachment theory within the
emotional landscape of social work
supervision
Jo Williams
Practice Supervisors Development Programme –
Delivery Lead, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation

37. SUPERVISION AND ATTACHMENT PATTERNS:THE ROLE
OF ATTACHMENTTHEORYWITHIN THE EMOTIONAL
LANDSCAPE OF SOCIALWORK SUPERVISION
JO WILLIAMS – FEBRUARY 2019

38. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
 Initial Curiosity
 Brief overview of key research
 Findings
 Themes
 Considerations for Practice and
Research

39. ATTACHMENTTHEORY
“A broad theory of social development that
describes the origins of the patterns of close
interpersonal relationships”
(Ravitz et al., 2010, p. 419)

40. INITIAL CURIOSITY…
ATTACHMENT
How infant attachment
patterns and styles…
…transfer to adult
patterns in supervision
specifically

41. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 What is the relevance of attachment
theory; and role of adult attachment
patterns or styles in reflective social work
supervision?
 What is the potential impact of adult
attachment patterns or styles on social
work intervention in the UK?

42. RESEARCH FINDINGS SUMMARY –
SOCIAL WORK
 Bennett et al (2008) – differentiate between ‘general’ and ‘supervision
specific’ attachment style and are mostly unrelated. Students with higher
levels of general attachment avoidance were more likely to develop
insecure attachment-related responses to their supervisor; and
supervision-specific attachment strongly predicted supervisory alliance,
regardless of general attachment style
 Bennett et al (2012) – explored factors which contribute to supervision
related positive affect and negative affect in the relationship, and
supervisory working alliance.The results indicated that positive
associations existed between attachment anxiety and negative affect
among supervisors and between positive affect and supervisory alliance
for all participants

43. RESEARCH FINDINGS SUMMARY –
SOCIAL WORK
 Deal et al (2011) - focused on the concepts of ‘student competencies’,
‘supervision alliance’ and student’s attachment styles. Relationships were
found between students’ anxious and avoidant attachment styles and
student-rated performance
 Draws on the need for supervisors to have an awareness of supervisee’s
attachment styles, behaviours and needs; and how this may impact on
their learning and competency during social work training

44. RESEARCH FINDINGS SUMMARY -
PSYCHOTHERAPY
 Gunn and Pistole (2012) - The study was designed to examine the
supervisee’s attachment to the supervisor and to explore the concept of
‘disclosure’ in supervision, mediated by the supervisory working alliance.
The results indicated that supervisee ‘security’ was positively associated
with supervisory alliance, rapport and client focus; and that supervisee
disclosure is increased by facilitating supervisor attachment security
 Riggs and Bretz (2006) - explored how relational characteristics of
clinical counselling trainees and supervisors influence the supervisory
relationship, using attachment theory as a theoretical framework.The
findings indicate that perceived supervisor attachment style was
significantly associated with the supervision task and bond. Regardless of
their own attachment style, participants reporting secure supervisors,
rated the bond higher than participants reporting insecure supervisors

45. RESEARCH FINDINGS SUMMARY -
PSYCHOTHERAPY
 Watkins and Riggs (2012) – A conceptual literature review – Q:“How
useful is attachment theory in stimulating understanding of the
psychotherapy supervision relationship?”
 The paper suggests an argument against considering the concept of the
supervision relationship as an ‘attachment’ in its purest sense – suggest a
‘leader-follower’ concept
 The hypotheses discussed in the paper bring about ideas for a model for
supervision which is relevant in considering training on social work
supervision and perhaps recommendations from this review

46. FINDINGS - 5 KEY THEMES EMERGED
 Attachment Styles in Supervision generally
 Attachment in the Supervision Relationship
 Issues with Disclosure and a Clinical
Supervision Perspective
 Supervision as a Secure Base
 Supervision Training Considerations

47. ATTACHMENT STYLES IN SUPERVISION
 The most problematic attachment styles for the supervision
alliance is the supervisee’s avoidant/dismissing style. May be
more self-reliant, particularly under stress
 Secure supervisees will engage and access support no matter
what the supervisor style
 Ambivalent supervisees are likely to work hard to access
support and ask questions
 Most studies are of supervisee style and not supervisor
 General attachment style doesn’t determine supervision style
– it is ‘supervision specific’
 Supervision relationship isn’t a typical attachment relationship
in adulthood due to power difference
 Most risky dyad is avoidant: avoidant

48. THE SUPERVISION RELATIONSHIP
 The majority of literature reviewed draws on
the impact of attachment styles on the
supervisory working alliance
 All reported the impact that attachment style
has on the quality of the working alliance,
concluding correlations between secure
attachment and positive perceptions of the
relationship and insecure attachment and
negative perceptions by both parties
 Links to the importance of reflective practice,
relational practice and how this influences
outcomes for families

49. ISSUES WITH DISCLOSURE
 The supervisory working alliance is predictive
of supervisees’ counselling alliance with their
clients (White and Queener, 2003)
 It stands to reason that when a supervisee’s
working model and attachment style are
pathological in nature, serious problems will
tend to emerge in the clinical supervision
process, which have implications not only for
the supervisor-supervisee relationship but also
have implications for the supervisee-patient
relationship as well (Watkins, 1995)
 Insecure styles may prohibit the processing of
feelings or emotion and may be problematic in
terms of case discussion, decision making and
risk assessment

50. SUPERVISION AS A SECURE BASE
 A secure base assists learning, performance
and the development of professional identity,
through providing containment and emotional
availability
 “Just as the circle of security with the caregiver
enables a young child to develop autonomy and a
sense of self, the circle of security within
supervision enables the inexperienced student
(supervisee) to develop a professional sense of
self and confidence.” (Bennett and Saks, 2006, p.
673)
 Places the responsibility on the supervisor
rather than the organisation

51. SUPERVISION TRAINING
 Measuring attachment, affect and working
alliance is fraught with complexities
 Need for supervisors to have an awareness
of supervisee’s attachment styles,
behaviours and needs; and how this may
impact on their learning and competency
during social work training and beyond
 Supervisors versed in attachment theory
would be alert to the differences in
attachment styles and have a basis to
intervene; and thus match their
intervention to the trainee’s supervision-
specific attachment pattern

52. CONSIDERATIONS FOR PRACTICE
 Social work agencies are reliant on social workers
being emotionally and psychologically robust
enough to make sound emotional observations,
judgements and decisions; factors which may affect
this process, such as insecure internal working
models, can be considered in relation to the
capacity of the social worker
 A model of supervision training for supervisees and
supervisors which focuses on a whole system
approach to the provision of a ‘secure base’ – Beek
and Schofield (2016) Secure Base Model could
usefully address this

53. SECURE BASE MODEL (BIGGART ET AL 2016)

54. CONSIDERATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
 Primary research to explore the impact of
supervisor’s attachment styles on the supervision
relationship and working alliance; and
subsequently social work intervention
 Research into “What makes effective social work
supervision?” – And what ‘good’ supervision looks
like, using attachment theory as one element of
this, within the broader context of reflective
practice and relational supervision
 The development of a methodology for
undertaking empirical research to test hypotheses
around how social work supervision influences
and achieves good outcomes for children and
their families; with particular consideration to the
parallel processes which achieve a ‘secure base’

55. QUESTIONS?

56. REFERENCES
 Beek, M & Schofield, G. (2016)The Secure Base Model: promoting attachment and
resilience. University of East Anglia.
 Bennett, S. (2008) ‘Attachment-Informed Supervision for Social Work Field Education’,
Clinical SocialWork Journal, 36 (1), pp. 97-107.
 Bennett, S., Mohr, J., Brintzenhofe-Szoc, K. and Saks, L.V. (2008) ‘General and Supervision-
Specific Attachment Styles: Relations to Student Perceptions of Field Supervisors’ Journal of
SocialWork Education, 44 (2), pp.75-94.
 Bennett, S., Mohr, J., Deal, K.H. and Hwang, J. (2012) ‘Supervisor Attachment, Supervisory
Working Alliance, and Affect in Social Work Field Instruction’ Research on SocialWork
Practice, 23 (2), pp. 199-209.
 Bennett, S. and Saks, L.V. (2006) ‘A Conceptual Application of Attachment Theory and
Research to the Social Work Student-Field Instructor Supervisory Relationship’, Journal of
SocialWork Education, 42 (3), pp. 669-682.
 Biggart, L.,Ward, E., Cook, L., and Schofield, G. (2016) - The Team as Secure Base. Copyright
© 2018 (Team as Secure Base) University of East Anglia (UEA).All rights reserved.

57. REFERENCES
 Bifulco,A. (2003) Attachment Style Interview for Adoption/Fostering (ASI-AF): User Guide.
(Unpublished Document) Royal Holloway University of London
 Deal, K. H., Bennett, S., Mohr, J. and Hwang, J. (2011) ‘Effects of Field InstructorTraining
on Student Competencies and the Supervisory Alliance’, Research on SocialWork
Practice. 21 (6), pp. 712-726.
 Dixon-Woods, M., Cavers, D.,Agarwal, S.,Annandale, E.,Arthur,A., Harvey, J., Hsu, R.,
Katbamna, S., Olsen, R., Smith, L., Riley, R., and Sutton,A.J. (2006) ‘Conducting a
Critical Interpretive Synthesis of the Literature on Access to Healthcare byVulnerable
Groups’, Bio-Med Central, 6, pp. 35 (page numbers not cited, therefore pages have been
referenced as 1-13 within the text).
 Eakin JM, Mykhalovskiy E. 2003. Reframing the evaluation of qualitative health
research: reflections on a review of appraisal guidelines in the health sciences. Journal
Evaluation Clinical Practice, 2003, 9:187-194.
 Gunn, J.E. and Pistole, C.M. (2012) ‘Trainee Supervisor Attachment: Explaining the
Alliance and Disclosure in Supervision’ Training and Education in Professional Psychology,
6 (4), pp.229-237.

58. REFERENCES
 Ravitz, P., Maunder, R., Hunter, J., Sthankiya, B. and LanceeW. (2010) ‘Adult Attachment
Measures – A 25Year Review’, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 69, pp. 419-432.
 Riggs, S.A. and Bretz, K.M. (2006) ‘Attachment Processes in the Supervisory
Relationship:An Exploratory Investigation’ Professional Psychology: Research and Practice,
37 (5), pp. 558-566.
 Watkins Jr., E. (1995) ‘Pathological Attachment Styles in Psychotherapy Supervision’
Psychotherapy, 32 (2), pp. 333-340.
 Watkins Jr., E. and Riggs, S.A. (2012) ‘Psychotherapy, Supervision and Attachment
Theory: Review, Reflections and Recommendations’ The Clinical Supervisor, 31 (2),
pp.256-289.
 White, E. and Queener, J. (2003) ‘Supervisor and Supervisee Attachments and Social
Provisions Related to the Supervisory Working Alliance’ Counsellor Education and
Supervision, 42 (3), pp.203-218.

59. Questions and answers
Dr. David Wilkins
Jassi Broadmeadow
Jo Williams

60. Break

61. Supervision: Ofsted’s expectations
and the role of the regulator
Yvette Stanley
National Director (Social Care), Ofsted
Nimal Jude
Strategic Lead Social Work Lead, Social Work England

62. Questions and answers
Yvette Stanley
Nimal Jude

63. Reflective supervision for police
officers
Michael O’Connor
Service Manager, Camden Youth Offending Service
and Associate Inspector, HMICFRS, Camden Council
Dr. Richard Grove
Clinical Psychologist and Team Leader for Project
10/10, Islington NHS Foundation Trust

64. camden.gov.uk
February 2019
Camden YOS and CandI NHS
Foundation Trust-Reflective
Supervision for Police Officers
Michael O’Connor-Camden YOS Service Manager and HMICFRS
Associate Inspector
Dr Richard Grove-Clinical Psychologist and Team Lead for Project 10/10

65. camden.gov.uk
• Understand the need for reflective supervision
across the safeguarding partnership-outcomes for
children and staff
• Why supervision for the police?
• How did we achieve this?
• Intended outcomes?
• Inspire you to give it a go with your police force!
Our hopes for today

66. camden.gov.uk

67. camden.gov.uk

68. camden.gov.uk
• Shift in policing demand
• Complexity of dealing with vulnerability as opposed to Serious
Acquisitive Crime
• Trauma/ACES informed policing-Public Health approach in Wales
• The value of supervision
– Reflective practice-The golden thread between supervision and
outcomes
– ‘Self’ in policing
– Staff wellbeing-sickness and stress (Wallbank, 2016)
Why reflective supervision for the
police?

69. camden.gov.uk
Dealing with trauma and complexity - Comments
from HMICFRS Child Protection and JTAI
Inspections
‘We get to see OHU once a year, but this is just to check that you are still able to do your
job’
‘If I went to a sudden death or a Road Traffic death, I would get support, but not for thinking
about my day to day job’
‘An OHU referral isn’t an option, unless you are off sick’
‘We don’t have time to reflect on our work, we just go from job to job and then go home’
‘We previously went to the pub to relax after a shift, but even this has stopped now’

70. camden.gov.uk
You wouldn’t send a builder on to a building site
without a hard hat…
So why do we allow the police to
deal with daily trauma without the
right ‘equipment’?

71. camden.gov.uk
• The amygdala (primitive brain) takes 12 milliseconds to
receive information
• No in-depth information is gathered – data is sent ‘quick
and dirty’
• Known as the body’s ‘alarm system’
• It is a powerful reaction as it primes the entire body for
action
• Subsequent actions are hard to control – primitive
• Links to Kahneman’s (2011) System 1 thinking
Functioning in a ‘stressed’ state

72. camden.gov.uk
• Modern day stressors are perceived by the body as a
‘danger’
• During a perceived threat, the body’s stress reaction
causes the adrenal glands to release adrenalin. After a
few minutes cortisol is released
• Once in the brain, cortisol remains much longer than
adrenalin, where it continues to affect brain cells
• Over-secretion of stress hormones adversely affects
brain function
Why does this matter in policing?

73. camden.gov.uk

74. camden.gov.uk
•The neo-cortex holds all our modern learning and
information
• It takes information 25 milliseconds to reach a connection
(double that of the ‘primitive’ system)
•This type of thinking is slower and less instinctual, but is
overridden by the primitive brain if danger is sensed
•This is what Kahneman (2011) called system 2 thinking
•Restorative resilience supervision encourages less primitive
thinking
Slowed Thinking - Cortex Engagement

75. camden.gov.uk
ompassion
atisfaction
urnout
tress
Key: 22 or less Low
23-31 Average
31+ High
Impact on professionals - Police supervision
base lines

76. camden.gov.uk
• We could see that there was a need to support this stretched and overworked
service
• We began to have informal conversations with officers we knew
- “what you have to put up with day in day out is a lot, what kind of support
do you get?”
- “how have things changed over the time you’ve been working for the
police?”
- “do you think enough is done to help those officers that are overwhelmed
by stress?”
- “gone are the days that you’d go to the pub after a shift”
- Not reinforcing the use of alcohol in this idea, but recognising that there
was value in peer support, and processing experiences through talking
with someone who “gets it”
So what did we do with all this information?

77. camden.gov.uk
Understand their ‘lens’ to helping
• Understand their lived experience of the same children and families
• Validating the reality of their experiences and their emotional reactions to these
experiences
Inspection Frameworks, Methodology and organisational pressures
• Recognising the unique stresses and pressures this service is under – we are not telling
them how to do their job
• Highlighting how supervision has helped other professionals and de-mystifying the
processes we are trying to introduce to them – adapting our language and approach to
make the concept of supervision accessible
Relationship, relationship, relationship
• Showing them that we believe it to be the shared responsibility of health and social care
to support other support services – we notice them, we value them, we want to help
Presenting the idea

78. camden.gov.uk
• Equality – everyone has assets and something to offer
• Accessibility – we are building something together, so let’s agree on some
shared language and understanding
• Reciprocity – ensuring that people receive something back for putting
something in, and building on the desire to feel needed and valued
• Promoting a shared ownership of the training provided us with the opportunity
to navigate around the idea of “us” and “them” – we aren’t coming here to do
something ‘to’ you, or ‘for’ you, but ‘with’ you. If it’s not working, we all share
responsibility, and if it is working we all share the plaudits
Co-production

79. camden.gov.uk
Supervision - The golden thread between
practice and outcomes

80. camden.gov.uk
As we move towards more trauma-informed working across the UK, we must ensure that
we are supporting our workers not only to understand trauma and it’s impacts, but to
process how gaining this new information leaves them feeling – if you give someone
information without allowing them space to make sense of it, you could cause more harm
than good.
• We are proposing trauma training, with an additional confidential space for processing
and reflecting on some of the subject matter covered during the training
• We expect this to result in improvements in staff well-being, and a reduction in staff
burnout, absenteeism and presenteeism
• The pilot intends to use the Professional Quality of Life routine outcome measure
(Proqual), to measure impact of the sessions on officer wellbeing and job satisfaction
Why and intended outcomes

81. camden.gov.uk
The quality of any society
will be evident in the way
that it treats its most
vulnerable citizens

82. Stories from another planet
Penny Sturt
Independent Trainer, Research in Practice Associate
and Registered Social Worker

83. Stories from another planet
Penny Sturt

84. What a social worker has learnt about schools and
schools have learnt about supervision

85. Support is informal

86. Why supervise and what is it?

87. Supervision
• Is a professional conversation with clear boundaries

88. Using supervision in schools – individual or group?
Individual supervision
• To pastoral leads
• To DDSL
Group supervision
• To class teams
• To safeguarding team
• To pastoral team
• To Emotional Literacy Support
Assistants (ELSAs)

89. Challenges in education

90. Managing impact; importance of self-care and self-
awareness

91. Prioritising time
This Photo by
Unknown Author
is licensed under
CC BY-SA

92. Managing transitions

93. Quotes from the supervision in schools pilot
Professional development
• “ upervision has given me
confidence in my ability to make
judgements and decisions”
Emotional support
• “It is at times a very isolated role
and supervision has helped me to
feel supported”
• “You can discuss issues and not
feel that you are alone”

94. Experience
Sensing
Reflection
Feeling
Analysis
Thinking
Plans &
action
Doing
Management
Support
Development
Mediation
Students
Staff
School
Stakeholders
©T.Morrison & Jane
Wonnacott 2009
Agreement
Recording
Review
Policy

95. W h v …
• To introduce supervision to
every school in the country!

96. Penny Sturt
@practicematters

97. Questions and answers
Michael O’Connor
Dr. Richard Grove
Penny Sturt

98. Lunch

99. Breakout workshops
‘The invisible hand’ – how
supervision keeps the child in
focus across the multi-agency
network
What Works Practice Learning
Circle: using appreciative inquiry
to facilitate learning from
successful situations
Improving child care social work:
the contribution of a cognitive
and affective supervision model
Using the Bells that Ring-
systemic model of supervision on
the Practice Supervisor
Development Programme

100. Break

101. Trauma-informed supervision
Ola Sijuwade
Tiger Impact Team Manager, Barnardo’s

102. Trauma - Informed Supervision
Ola Sijuwade – Barnardo’s – Tiger Services

103. Rub your tummy and pat your head

104. The ‘TIGER’ approach - Trauma-Informed Growth and
Empowered Recovery - builds on the expertise Barnardo’s
has developed over the last 25 years to improve the lives of
sexually exploited children.

105. • I see a tiger
• I think I’m in danger
• I feel afraid
• I run
Immanual Kant (Peltier, 2010)
Helping Practitioners connect the dots……

106. Evidence based trauma practice:
The five (plus our sixth*) pillars of the framework are:
1. Engagement
2. Promote a sense of safety
3. Promote calming
4. Promote sense of self– and efficacy
5. Promote connectedness
6. Promote hope
Stevan E. Hobfoll (2007)

107. Evidence based approach:
• A space that is conducive to therapeutic work
• Lean into the discomfort
• Help wrap a narrative around traumatic thoughts and memories

110. Vicarious Trauma:
APA PsycNET

111. Trauma –
Informed
Organisations

113. With enormous thanks to those who have contributed to TIGER:
Cognitive model of trauma: David Trickey at The Anna Freud Centre
Expert coaching: Helen Tiffany at Bec Development
Development: Vicky Cole and Caroline Macrory at Barnardo’s
Values and inspiration: Lynn Gradwell, London Director at Barnardo’s
The TIGER approach and training course was created by Jessica Juon on behalf of
Barnardo’s London Region
TIGER Training; day 1

114. “These are all the bad things that have
happened to me, and as I walk along the road
to school they fall in front of my eyes (he
moved the bin along and paper fell out). And
as I go to sleep they fall into my dreams (he lay
the bin down and paper tumbled out)…
...But when I come here and talk to you, we
take each piece of paper out [he took each of
the pieces of paper out], un-scrunch it [he un-
scrunched them], and we read it through
carefully…
Then we fold them up neatly and place them
back in the bottom of the bin [he folded up
each piece of paper neatly and placed it in the
bottom of the bin] This means that they don’t
fall out the top, and I have more room in my
head to think about different things.”

115. In the borrowed words of A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh
“…you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish
inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and had
other people looking at it”
6. Hope

116. THANK YOU

117. Relationship-based practice and
supervision
Tom Stibbs
Principal Social Worker, Brighton and Hove City
Council

118. Children 2010-2015
Brighton and Hove City Council
Relationship-Based Practice and Supervision
Research in Practice Partnership Conference
February 2019

119. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
• What is our model of practice?
• How does supervision support this?
• Is it working?

120. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
What is our model of practice?
• Relationship-based practice
• Social work relationship is at the heart of a network of
relationships – the Team Around the Relationship
• This requires small teams of social workers who support families
across the service and know each others cases and can work
collaboratively - the pod:
1 FTE Pod Manager
Up to 2 FTE senior social workers
Up to 5 FTE social workers
At least 1 social worker in training
Business Support Officer

121. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
The team around the relationship
• Whole system change
• Theory of change: if social workers feel supported and contained they can
build relationships with families and use these relationships to facilitate
change with families based on their practice expertise
Supported by six principles:
1. Continuity of relationships between social workers and families
2. Consistency of relationships between social work teams and families
3. Collaboration between practitioners
4. Social workers being purposeful partners in change for families
5. The organisation supporting a learning culture, and
6. A transformation of the organisational culture from a blame culture to a
relationship-based one that inspires trust and confidence

122. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
What is relationship-based practice?
Our definition of relationship-based practice – a ‘meta position’:
• Human behaviour is complex and multi-faceted
• Not a practice framework based on a single skills set
• Common elements across well-indicated ‘interventions’
• ‘Containment of anxiety’ supported by specific knowledge and skill
contingent on the child or family’s particular situation
• Complex situations require complex responses
• This is the theory of change at the practice level
• Approaches: trauma-informed, systemic, attachment and secure base
model, restorative and strengths-based, and AMBIT

123. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
Why is supervision important?
1. Supervision as a container for professional anxiety
2. Supervision as a container for organisational anxiety
3. Supervision as a means to help social workers think about families in a
purposeful way
• an’t do 3 without 1 and 2
• Our supervision model is a key part of becoming a relationship-based
organisation and helping social workers to be the best they can be might
mean they can help families be the best they can be (after Forrester)

124. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
How do we implement these principles?

125. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
Is the supervision model working?
 Is supervision providing containment for social workers so they
can provide purposeful support?
 Yes – social workers seem to be contained
“ w k ’ h gh, h y j y w k g gh
and Hove ” (Ofsted)
85% of social workers said that they felt safe and supported.
99% agreed that they felt trusted to make decisions in their role to
affect positive change. (Your Voice)

126. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
Is the supervision model working?
 Is purposeful work happening with families?
Proxy indicators suggest improvements:
2016-7
26
average
number of
care
applications
per quarter
2018-9
15
average
number of
care
applications
per quarter

127. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
Is this because of, or despite, the supervision model?
Inconsistencies in model: Your Voice (social work health
check) – average positive social worker feedback on:
1:1 supervision RPGs Group supervision
90% 80% 70%

128. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
What works in group supervision?
• Protect the space
• Preparation, prioritisation and space for cases
• Clear decision-making and tracking of progress
• Flexibility within an explicit structure
• Workers h g g h h ’ thinking
Feedback from an observation:
• Both / and – process and reflection – head and heart
• Having your back – containing organisational anxiety?
Feedback from a pod:
• The team as a secure base

129. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
Secure base model of the team (after Biggart et al)

130. Children 2010-2015Supervision - purposeful containment?
Threats to group supervision
 Inconsistency
 Time
 Skills
 Duplication of processes
 Th wh , ’ f
 Supervision as a source of professional anxiety –
instruction not reflection
 Supervision as a source of organisational anxiety – the
spectre of performance management
 Lack of focus on progress for families
 Managers and leaders, containing the containers

131. Questions and answers
Planning for change
Ola Sijuwade
Tom Stibbs

132. The invisible hand: a parent’s
experience of supervision and
supervisors
Annie
Surviving safeguarding

133. Reflections
Dez Holmes
Director, Research in Practice

134. Evaluation forms
› Please complete your evaluation form
– on both sides!

135. Thank you