Recruiting and retaining children and families' social workers. The potential of work discussion groups

Current difficulties with the recruitment and retention of children and families' social workers have been formally acknowledged. However, although initiatives which focus on remuneration and career progression are clearly welcome, research and evidence from practice highlights how social workers themselves place high value on the availability of good quality supervision. Yet, questions remain about whether first-line managers have the time or are even in the best position to offer this support. This article draws on the experience and evaluation of one particular model of supervision — 'work discussion groups' —and explores its impact with residential social work staff and teachers as well as the potential for further developments of this kind

Supervisors’ Experiences of Providing Difficult Feedback in Cross-Ethnic/Racial Supervision

Seventeen clinical supervisors were interviewed regarding their experience of providing difficult feedback in cross-ethnic/racial supervision, and their responses were analyzed using consensual qualitative research (CQR). European American supervisors described supervisees of color who had difficulty in their clinical work with culturally different clients. These supervisors then shared with supervisees their concern that supervisees’ interpersonal skills may negatively affect their clinical and/or supervision work. Supervisors of color described European American supervisees who exhibited insensitivity toward clients of color in session or during supervision. These supervisors shared their concern that supervisees’ lack of cultural sensitivity may negatively affect their clinical work. These contrasting feedback experiences had a profound effect on supervisory relationships and the processes within supervision

Guest Editorial

This is an editorial which introduces original papers produced on the theme of the supervision of social work practiceThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Practice: Social Work in Action on September 2015, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09503153.2015.1048053This guest editorial introduces the special edition on the supervision of social work practic

Self awareness of the supervisor in supervision

Teaching self awareness is an important and sensitive task in the supervision of the clinical casework student. However, lack of self awareness on the part of the supervisor may lead to a serious impaction of this learning process, and unfortunately, there is no institutionalized process for reviewing lack of supervisory self awareness as there is for students. Some occasions in which problems in supervisory self awareness are likely to occur are: the supervisor who has difficulty in responding appropriately to the student's dependency demands in supervision, responding either by withdrawing from the student or being overprotective of him; the supervisor who is threatened by students whose character styles are very different from his own; and the supervisor who views client behavior from the perspective of a value system very different from the student's.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44357/1/10615_2004_Article_BF00760155.pd

Coaching, supervision and the social work zeitgeist

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Practice on 20/3/2013 available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09503153.2013.775237With reference to local authorities in England, this paper acknowledges the intensified critique of the managerial context in which social work is carried out. It recognizes that professional supervision has been in jeopardy, as principles of corporate line management have overshadowed the approaches of the past, and most particularly the supportive components. However, recent developments have reinvigorated the interest in relationship based social work as well as relationship based supervision. Surprisingly or not, it is executive and business coaching that is seen as offering fruitful techniques for front line managers and practitioners, with the possibility of encouraging the progress of this particular trend

What does supervision help with? a survey of 315 social workers in the UK

What does social work supervision help with? There are many different models of supervision and an increasing amount of research. Much of this is concerned with the content of supervision and how supervisors (and supervisees) should behave — and these are important concerns. But even more important is the question of who or what supervision helps with. Supervision is widely considered to have many different functions but in the context of UK local authority social work, must ultimately prove itself as a method for helping people who use services. This article reports on a survey of 315 social workers from UK local authorities. Most reported that supervision helps primarily with management oversight and accountability. However, the small number of practitioners who received regular group supervision and those who received supervision more frequently said it helped with a much broader range of things

The impact of emotions on practicum learning

Nine mature aged, experienced practitioners enrolled to gain a BSW qualification in social work were interviewed regarding a course requirement to complete the first placement. At the time of interview no recognition of prior learning for previous experience in the field was made possible for these students. As educators we had experienced considerable hostility from students who believed they should be exempt from completing this course requirement. This paper reports on interviews with the nine students, where we consider how student sentiment about completing the practice learning component might impact upon their learning experience. As anticipated, some students expressed strong negative views about being on placement. However, others were much more positive about the experience. These mixed views prompted us to explore further the relationship between emotion and practice learning. The article begins with a review of the literature concerning mature student engagement with tertiary education, followed by an overview of theory and research related to the ways feelings and emotion influence learning. Using passages from the interviews, expressions of participant anxiety, anger and excitement about the practicum are discussed with the view to extending discourse about practicum learning to include consideration of emotional intelligence and investment.<br /

The transition into adoptive parenthood: adoption as a process of continued unsafe uncertainty when family scripts collide

Our prospective study investigated couples’ expectations of adoptive parenthood and explored how these changed with their actual experience of parenthood. Six heterosexual couples were interviewed just before placement began and six months after the children had arrived. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse both sets of interview data. Expectations of adoptive parenthood mostly transformed smoothly into adoption experience for couples but challenges were experienced when family scripts collided and a continued feeling of unsafe uncertainty then prevailed within these newly formed family systems. Family script collision seemed a particular problem for couples adopting sibling pairs. To further professional practice in working with families over the transition to adoptive parenting we suggest that professionals keep in mind a framework that includes: Internal and external world influences on family members, Intergenerational issues, Family scripts, and the Structural challenges of adoption (IIFS)

Geographic patterns of choice among peers

Editors of key journals in six specialties were asked to name experts in their specialty from whom they would like to receive manuscripts and whom they would like to use as referees. The people so named were asked for their choice of experts, and similarly for the persons they nominated. The analysis of geographical factors revealed a similarity between nominations and citations. Most of the nominees were from the U.S., followed by the UK and other industrialized and traditionally scientific nations. The U.S. scientists have a higher probability of being nominated than their proportion in the world scientific population might suggest. Nominators in most of the countries had a distinctive preference for nominating their own countrymen, with the exception of the Soviet Union.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24241/1/0000504.pd

Simulating a nomination procedure

A snowball sampling procedure is simulated by computer. In snowball sampling, a small first-round sample of respondents, in this case editors of journals in several specialities, are asked to name second-round respondents to be contacted for a similar request for a third round, etc. In our survey, respondents were asked to nominate peer scientists for their contributions and expertise in their specialty. We used the simulation to estimate the effect of the number of rounds on the fraction of experts likely to be named, and to investigate the effect of other parameters. We found that it would take many rounds before every expert in a specialty is nominated. The simulation considered the effect of specialty subdivisions and showed how the distribution changes as the sample increases.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24938/1/0000365.pd