OTnews January 2022 | Page 40

It has been enlightening to be part of a group , expanding my professional network and listening to the issues and challenges other people are having , and to consider solutions .”
It has been enlightening to be part of a group , expanding my professional network and listening to the issues and challenges other people are having , and to consider solutions .”
Results of the surveys were reviewed before the following two sessions and changes were made where needed .
An example of this was that participants were feeding back that timings of sessions were overall about right , but for group two there were fewer participants , alongside participants being from the same team .
This encouraged ‘ chatter ’ and the sessions tended to keep to the same time for actual reflection , but still took three hours .
In order to address the disparity in the groups and minimise the potential for disruption , one of the project managers reflected in the session with fewer people , so that there were three reflections in the three hours rather than two . This also provided opportunity to facilitate different reflectors .
Challenges along the way
The intention was for the groups to run every month and for all participants to be available for peer group supervision . The reality was that one month both groups were
© SolStock via Getty Images cancelled at short notice and other sessions were affected due to caseload priorities .
To mitigate the risks of participants not attending , if problems with availability were known with enough advance notice , sessions were rescheduled so that all participants would be available .
A further challenge was that one respondent was missing from each survey . This could lead to bias of results , however sufficient responses were obtained so that general consensus with the pilot groups could be considered .
Feedback and achievements
Overall , participants felt that the outcomes intended for the project were achieved and that peer group supervision was able to help meet support and development needs , alongside participants being able to contribute to the support and development of others .
It provided space for participants to be able to critically evaluate and reflect on their own practice and become more self-aware , with one participant commenting that peer group supervision is ‘ challenging , but it focuses the mind on practice , and it offers an opportunity to consider and reflect on issues that possibly may not be resolved or may feel troublesome ’.
There was a perceived improvement in quality of practice and the opportunity to expand support networks and receive constructive feedback in the varying different roles . The latter was seen favourably , with one participant commenting : ‘ I found the constructive feedback from my peers in the groups extremely helpful and valuable ’.
By the end of the pilot , respondents all strongly agreed that the sessions enabled them to expand their network of support and comments made reflected the value of this , both personally and for professional practice .
One participant said : ‘ It has been enlightening to be part of a group , expanding my professional network and listening to the issues and
40 OTnews January 2022