Supervision offered internally within the foundation for social welfare services

Abstract

The research questions driving this research were, ‘What is being offered in terms of supervision internally within the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS) and ‘What are the expectations of supervisees for their internal supervision’. A mixed methods approach was originally planned with a qualitative approach for the first research question and a quantitative approach for the second. The number of participants for the quantitative part of this research was not sufficient for the sample to be representative (48 participants) so this was treated as a pilot project and the research became primarily a qualitative one. Thematic Analysis was used to analyse six interviews with FSWS supervisors from four different services. From the qualitative data obtained, a total of five themes were identified, further sub-divided into eleven sub-themes. The themes were, ‘What is being offered’, ‘Administrative Aspect’, ‘Emotional Aspect’, ‘Educational Aspect’ and ‘Organisational Context’. The sub-themes explored issues and concepts which emerged from these themes over the six interviews. This research found that supervision seems to be prioritising the administrative aspect of supervision because of the operational pressures each service faces. Regarding the emotional aspect supervisors reported that social work supervision is limited with regards to what it can offer their supervisees emotionally, calling this a professional limitation. With regards to the educational aspect supervisors discussed how they would prefer experienced workers rather than constantly having to train new professionals who were seen as not being adequately prepared for their role. Finally, services whose supervision varies from the norm were discussed, along with their shortcomings. Specifically supervision that takes place at Child Protection, Looked after Children and Fostering as the research found that these services had to adapt their supervision approach following the implementation of the Minor Protection Act (Chapter 602) due to the operational and legal pressures this law brought with it.