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Evaluation
of group supervision for Children’s Centre teacher
Group supervision has been available
to Children’s Centre teachers in Birmingham on a voluntary basis for the past two years,
since 2008. It was initially introduced in a Children’s Centre teacher training day and
a group was set up within the heart of Birmingham (HOB). A second group was set up in Birmingham East and North (BEN) after the
success of the first group and to keep travel minimal and numbers of
participants within the group below 8.
Questionnaires were emailed to all
Children’s Centre teachers who have attended the Children’s Centre group
supervision sessions in Birmingham.
The responses were either emailed back or sent by post. 11 responses have been
received out of a possible pool of 14. The questionnaires have been analysed for this report.
Geographical location
within Birmingham
There
is one group with heart of Birmingham (HOB) that is attended by approximately
7- 8 regular attenders. There
is a second slightly smaller group in Birmingham East and North (BEN) that has
4-5 regular attenders and 2 additional members who attend when the date is
suitable. I
attempted to establish a third group in South Birmingham but informal feedback
indicated that the South Network of Children’s Centre teachers acts in this way
and is sufficient and therefore group supervision is not needed.
Attendance at group
supervision
There is a core of attendance at both groups, with most
Children’s Centre teachers opting to maintain involvement after they start
attending, and sending apologies if they cannot attend in order to receive the
email notes and details of subsequent sessions.
Outcomes of group
supervision
The model
of group supervision used with Children’s Centre teachers in Birmingham, and has a tradition of being used
with Headteachers, teachers in special schools. It is therefore used with
professionals who may find themselves in a potentially isolated position. At a
personal level I use this approach on a 6 weekly basis with a number of groups
of Family Support Workers, Area SENCos and Children’s Centre managers.
It builds
upon traditional models of vertical supervision whereby the supervisor could be
viewed to be in a position of power, whereas this model of group supervision
represents horizontal supervision with power is being distributed equally
within the group. Hawkins and Shohet (2006) draw upon
Kadushin’s (1976) work on social work supervision and suggest that there are
three main functions or roles in supervision:
- Educative
- Supportive
- Managerial
With regard to the supportive function
where the group supervision sessions should respond to the supervisees’
emotional response and reaction to their work and this help reduce stress and
the incidence of ‘burn out’. Within the questionnaire this was explored through
the use of the descriptor supportive, cathartic and empathetic. The results
from this survey demonstrate that the group supervision sessions are viewed as
strongly supportive with 8 of the 10 rating group supervision at 10 on this descriptor,
and are shown by the following quote:
“All
members truly support one another and generally care about one another’s well
being”
However
the sessions were less likely to be seen as cathartic and this appeared to be
related to the stress levels of the participant, and one participant did note
the cost on time was high.
In
addition the group supervision sessions appeared to form an important function
linked to networking as shown within the additional comments, and reduction of
isolation as shown by the following comment;
“Being
a CC teacher can be a very isolated position and it really helps to meet other
people doing the job and talk about what you do and are we all going in the
same direction. I can see it helps colleagues who are not working with other
teachers where the expectations others have of them can be challenging.”
In relation to the educative function, the
group supervision sessions are intended to develop the skills, understanding
and abilities of the supervisee, through reflection on and exploration of the
supervisees’ work. Within the questionnaire this was explored through the
descriptors informative and reflective. The educative function was rated
positively at 9-10 by 9 of the 10 participants. The opportunities for gaining
information are valued as shown by this comment:
“Excellent
way of information sharing and keeping up to date with current changes and
developments.”
The
opportunity to reflect was also valued and is demonstrated by the following
comment:
“They allow you to look at things in a
positive way and most importantly they provide time and space to reflect
effectively!”
With regard
to the managerial function which contains the quality
control aspect of the supervision, which ensures that work is appropriate and
maintains ethical standards. Within the questionnaire this was explored through
the use of the descriptor challenging.
Ground rules for group supervision
The descriptors confidential and equitable
were used to examine the effectiveness of ground rules. The descriptor
equitable was linked to whether all participants felt they had an opportunity
to speak and was rated at 8-10 by all participants. The issue of
confidentiality was important to most Children’s Centre teachers with 8 out of
10 seeing this as part of the ground rules. It was also rated at 8-10 by all
participants in the survey. There was a great deal of consistency in the
understanding of the ground rules with many overlaps in understanding
demonstrating that the group ground rules are understood in a similar way by
all.
The suggested ground rules can be utilized
by being collated and used as the basis for all future sessions. The ground
rules would then be:
- Any
topic, feeling, experience can be discussed and confidentiality is
maintained at all times with the exception that if there were real
concerns about an individual/setting in terms of safeguarding then there
is a duty to report back about.
- The
group to help and be supportive by talking through problems and enabling
others to think of possible solutions or formulating a plan of action if
that is what the person would find helpful. The idea is to provide a
support network to assist colleagues in finding their own way of coming to
terms with their issues or concerns or finding a personal way of coping or
improving their current practice.
- Non
judgemental
- Give
everyone a chance to talk and engage in open minded listening.
- Open
honest dialogue, showing sensitivity to colleagues and having a
professional outlook
- Allowing
others to just listen if they want to
- All
queries and questions are allowed even if it sounds silly