Supportive supervision: a model for social work supervisors

Abstract

Social work practice is extremely demanding on the practitioner. Social workers, especially in the public domain, handle high caseloads whilst simultaneously conducting group and community work amidst the demands of administration associated with their jobs. The ever-changing landscapes of social contexts, political contexts, local governments, and health aspects of countries brought forth by globalisation and technological ties exerts increased challenges on social work practice. To deal with these challenges, the profession has commissioned supportive social work supervision to help social workers deal with work-related pressure and stress coupled with their emotional, psychological, and familial problems. Consequently, the study was intended to explore and describe the nature and the extent of supportive supervision amongst social workers and to develop a model for supportive social work supervision.This study was conducted within the Mpumalanga Provincial Department of Social Development. The Mpumalanga Province was well-suited for the study because it offered an opportunity to undertake the study in rural and peri-urban areas, which in turn ensured that the outcomes catered for the needs of social workers in both the rural and urban contexts. n establishing the nature and the extent of supportive social work supervision, a mixed methods research approach, i.e. the QUAN-qual sequential dominant status-design was adopted. The mixed method approach catered for two categories of participants who are social workers and social work supervisors. To collect quantitative data a self-developed questionnaire was administered to social workers. Within the qualitative section of the study,semi-structured interviews were conducted with social work supervisors. The data from the social workers was analysed by means of univariate data analysis, while the qualitative data was analysed by integrating Creswell’s analytic spiral data analysis process and the process described by Marshall and Rossman, with additional comments by Gibbs as discussed in Schurink, Fouché and De Vos (2011:403). From the findings, it was established that although some social workers are supported, there are pockets of social workers who were not supported. It was also evident in this regard that of those social workers who were supported, the support was inadequate. The supervisors revealed that their most critical challenge was inadequate support for social workers principally because they are over worked. The data captured was subsequently subjected to verification. Following the establishment of the nature of supportive supervision offered to social workers, the supportive model for use by social work supervisors to assist their social work subordinates was developed using the intervention design and development (D&D) methodology. Also, throughout the study the following ethical issues were also adhered to: informed consent, violation of privacy/anonymity/confidentiality, harm to participants, voluntary participation and informed consent.