Publications from ODSW Social Work Supervsion | Página 68

Workshop 5: Harnessing Supervisees’ Feedback to Enhance Supervision Practice: Sharing on AWWA’s FSC’s Supervision Review Journey

Floor Discussion
As the idea of conducting an internal supervision review was a very unique project
undertaken by AWWA FSC, many of the participants of the workshop had queries with
regards to how it was implemented in the agency. Participants asked about the problems
AWWA faced while implementing the review and how it was overcome. They also asked
about supervision in the agency and about the impact that the supervision review had on
the organisation. Ms Chen elaborated that there had to be clear messaging from the
agency that the review was not taken as a form of assessment or appraisal. Having
supervisors conduct the focus group discussions for other supervisor’s supervisees also
ensured confidentiality of the viewpoints raised. Although change was difficult, supervisors
made a conscious effort to provide support to each other, and often reminded each other
of the purpose of such a review. There was strong colleague support in AWWA, and the
supervisors would help each other process and reflect on the feedback they received.
In addition to being something that was supported by the management, the review helped
to impact practice as it exposed certain issues that the agency was facing and made them
more “real” and important to deal with. It also helped to reinforce the culture of mutuality
since feedback was collected from supervisees. Furthermore, they also shared that the
focus group discussions were enriching experiences for both parties as it was not only
about collecting feedback but also about generating ideas.
Concluding Remarks and Sharing
To sum up the workshop, Ms Chen shared that the supervision review was a task that
AWWA FSC was glad to have partaken, and believed that it has helped to shift its culture
to one that is more open, and welcoming in terms of feedback. The participants were then
encouraged to share existing supervision practices in their respective agencies. One
participant shared that one practice his agency has is for each worker to have two
supervisors: an admin supervisor who does the appraisal and is able to serve as a
moderator, and a clinical supervisor who is in charge of providing feedback on clinical
practice. Other practices included tapping on funding to engage an external party to
review the supervision process from both party’s perspective, and having peer supervision
for supervisors. It was suggested that agencies have a supervision manual.
Ms Chen then requested for participants to share some of their key takeaways from the
workshop. Participants shared that they were more convinced of the importance of
soliciting feedback from supervisees in order to strengthen supervision. They also shared
that they gained a clearer understanding of how one could go about a review of
supervision practice. The sharing from the workshop also encouraged them to be more
courageous in receiving feedback from supervisees and gave them a sense of assurance
that one could get a good outcome from a review of supervision.
Citations
Munson, C. E. (2002). Handbook of Clinical Social Work Supervision. (3rd Ed.). Binghamton,
NY: The Haworth Social Work Practice Press.
Toh, J. (2014). Making What Matters to Supervisees Count for Supervisors in the
Supervisory Process. In Lim, C. & Sim, E. (Ed), Clinical Supervision: Clinicians’ Perspectives
and Practices: Towards Professionalising Counselling (pp. 139-164). Singapore: Counselling
and Care Centre.

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