Publications from ODSW Social Work Supervsion | Seite 39

Closing Address

Closing Address
Ang Bee Lian
Director of Social Welfare
Ministry of Social and Family Development

Introduction
Ms Ang began by expressing the joy and hope that she felt when she saw the number of
participants at the conference. She expressed great encouragement at seeing so many
committed supervisors. She acknowledged the work of Anthony Yeo in identifying the
importance of building up the next generation and the work he put into building up
Counselling and Care Centre (CCC). Ms Ang shared that supervision is pertinent as it is
about building and supporting another generation.
Importance of Support
Ms Ang illustrated the importance of support through the example of social workers
working in the disability sector. She shared that social workers in the disability sector can
often feel very alone, due to them being few in number. A team – TWG – has since been
formed, rising to the occasion to do something to support others in the disability sector.
They work in multi-disciplinary teams and organise case conferences among themselves so
as to mentor the younger workers and to conduct peer supervision among themselves. Ms
Ang expressed confidence that TWG would be able to lead in some of the work in the
disability field. In addition, she encouraged the participants to link up any social workers in
the disability sector they know with TWG.
Reflections on the Conference
Ms Ang reflected on some of the key takeaways from the 1.5 day seminar. She brought up
the illustration of the chopsticks used by Professor Tsui on the first day. Professor Tsui had
used chopsticks as a representation of the working relationship between the supervisor
and supervisee. Ms Ang shared that it struck her that the two chopsticks shown by
Professor Tsui were aligned and straight. However, she felt the relationship is rarely an
equal one. She used a picture of chopsticks of unequal length to illustrate her point. She
shared that though the chopsticks are of different lengths, they are in fact in a functional
relationship. She also emphasized that the aim of supervision is to improve client outcomes
and their lives.
3 Things Moving Forward
Ms Ang shared that there are 3 main things that will take place after this conference.
Ongoing Training
Firstly, there would be a greater effort to build supervision through on-going training at
SSI. She expressed that there will be at least one training per year on supervision.
Work Groups and Discussions
Following the end of the seminar, there will be two work groups formed. She expressed
that there is a lot of energy and wisdom amongst those gathered here and that there are
many things that can be gained and offered from among the participants. Ms Ang urged
those gathered to participate in the work groups and discussions.

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