Challenges in
PROFESSIONAL
SUPERVISION
by the same authors
Best Practice in Professional Supervision
A Guide for the Helping Professions
Allyson Davys and Liz Beddoe
ISBN 978 1 84310 995 2
eISBN 978 0 85700 384 3
of related interest
Critical Supervision for the Human Services
A Social Model to Promote Learning and Value-Based Practice
Carolyn Noble, Mel Gray and Lou Johnston
ISBN 978 1 84905 589 5
eISBN 978 1 78450 043 6
Practical Supervision
How to Become a Supervisor for the Helping Professions
Penny Henderson, Jim Holloway and Anthea Millar
Foreword by Brigid Proctor and Francesca Inskipp
ISBN 978 1 84905 442 3
eISBN 978 0 85700 918 0
Supervision as Transformation
A Passion for Learning
Edited by Robin Shohet
Foreword by Ben Fuchs
ISBN 978 1 84905 200 9
eISBN 978 0 85700 509 0
Mastering Social Work Supervision
Jane Wonnacott
ISBN 978 1 84905 177 4
eISBN 978 0 85700 403 1
Passionate Supervision
Edited by Robin Shohet
Foreword by Peter Hawkins
ISBN 978 1 84310 556 5
eISBN 978 1 84642 749 7
Challenges in
PROFESSIONAL
SUPERVISION
Current Themes and Models for Practice
Liz Beddoe and Allyson Davys
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia
First published in 2016
by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
73 Collier Street
London N1 9BE, UK
and
400 Market Street, Suite 400
Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
www.jkp.com
Copyright Liz Beddoe and Allyson Davys 2016
Front cover image source: Thinkstock.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.
Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Beddoe, Liz, 1956- author. | Davys, Allyson, 1952- author,
Title: Challenges in professional supervision / Liz Beddoe and Allyson Davys.
Description: Philadelphia : Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015041869 | ISBN 9781849054652 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Social workersSupervision of. | Social work administration. | Supervision of employees.
Classification: LCC HV40.54 .B434 2016 | DDC 361.0068/3dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041869
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84905 465 2
eISBN 978 0 85700 843 5
Contents
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Stephen Jones, our editor from Jessica Kingsley, and his team for having faith in our proposal and our ability to contribute further to this field. We have very much appreciated your support. We also acknowledge the dedicated work of Sue Osborne, who read our drafts and assisted with preparation of our manuscript and Craig Berry, graphic designer, who assisted with our diagrams.
Finally, we wish to acknowledge and thank our families for their supportive acceptance of the time and focus involved in completing a writing project of this kind.
Introduction
Contemporary Themes
in Professional Supervision
We are fast becoming a world committed to supervision and its enhancement. (Watkins and Milne 2014, p.673)
These optimistic words provide a great starting point for a new book on professional supervision. We are pleased to have the chance to write a second book as there are many opportunities to contribute to the enhancement of supervision. We have appreciated the positive feedback and critique offered on our first book, Best Practice in Professional Supervision: A Guide for the Helping Professions (Davys and Beddoe 2010), and hope that it continues to be useful. This new book provides us with a very welcome forum in which to address some facets of supervision in greater detail and to update some material on the main debates about supervision. The books title, Challenges in Professional Supervision , reflects our view of the environmental climate in which the helping professions operate and the challenges posed within that environment. The challenges we refer to are present both in health and social care workplaces and in supervision itself as a contested practice. Supervision continues to develop as a tool for support and development but holds the potential to be rendered a tool for surveillance and control (Adamson 2011; Beddoe 2011, 2015). In this introduction we will begin to explore both the environmental challenges and the many opportunities available to develop supervisory practice and so enhance outcomes for service users, carers and workers in health and social care.
The environment in social services and health care is increasingly complex and subject to constant change in many dimensions. These changes include the impact of the increasingly stringent fiscal environment and the accompanying policies of austerity that have followed the global financial crisis. In many countries which have traditionally supported public health provision and a welfare system offering income maintenance, social housing and support for social services, the contracting out and privatisation of services has become more common. The health and social care professions are also changing. Increasing regulation and surveillance sit alongside the development of highly managerial systems. The self-regulation regimes that were intended to ensure that professions would safely manage their own standards and ethics and deal with individual issues of unacceptable practice now compete for influence within intensely managed work environments that require practitioners to develop sophisticated strategies for managing ethics in practice (Kline and Preston-Shoot 2012).
Social problems and health inequalities have been intensified in this environment; a reluctance to add to social housing stock in many countries along with rising rents and property values have led to overcrowding, homelessness and related health concerns. Demands on professionals to meet growing needs places additional stress on busy, stretched practitioners. And yet it is in this complex environment that supervision has grown in importance. This is significantly influenced by two factors: first, mounting concern for staff wellbeing and second, the nature of practice in the risk-averse environment of public accountability we wrote about in Davys and Beddoe (2010). This new book will explore the major debates and innovations, addressing the concerns of a range of professions including nursing, social work, counselling and the allied health professions. The book is designed to be a companion volume for Best Practice in Professional Supervision , or to stand alone as a useful book for those experienced supervisors looking for new ideas.
