THE SUPERVISION OF CHILD PROTECTION WORK

It has frequently been recommended that statutory child protection ser vices in Great Britain need greater provision of specialist supervisio n to support front line social workers. This qualitative study, based in social services departments in London, used the focus group method to explore the provision of supervision by team managers in a very pre ssurized work environment. The study highlights the difficulty of prot ecting adequate supervision time but shows how supervisors can use the ir skills to conduct case related discussion concerned with developing professional skills. 'Inquisitorial' and 'empathic-containing' functi ons are identified and an approach is proposed for combining them in t raining courses for child protection supervisors. The paper recommends that supervision training needs to be expanded, to be more precisely targeted, and that outcomes need to be rigorously and appropriately as sessed.