Building a Model and Framework for Child Welfare Supervision

Element 7
Support supervisors in their roles as unit leaders and change
agents.
The emerging model for child welfare supervision also empowers supervisors to influence the
agency as leaders and change agents (Cearly 2004; Children’s Rights & NCYL 2007; Dawson
1998; NRCOI 2007; Shanock & Eisenberger 2006). When an organization’s practices and/or
policies exclude supervisors from such activities, it clearly conveys a de-valuing of their pivotal role
in the organization, their expertise, and their firsthand understanding of frontline practice issues and
practitioners’ and clients’ needs and concerns. Therefore, the model necessarily incorporates
• systematically including them in quality assurance activities, program evaluation, and
redesign of information systems, forms, and procedures;
• training supervisors first for all policy and practice changes;
• involving supervisors in the recruitment, selection, and training of new frontline
practitioners (NRCOI 2007; CO DHS 1994; Strand 2008; Dickinson 2007); and
• frequently recognizing supervisors’ own and their units’ accomplishments.
The nature and degree of supervisors’ involvement in the activities Supervisors have their
identified above will vary among organizations, ranging, for example, thumbs on the pulse of
from having supervisors directly provide training to frontline
practice. Supervisors have
practitioners to having supervisors create and implement a training
to take a leadership role—
plan with each practitioner in their unit (CO DHS 1994). However,
through supervisors’ experiences with frontline practitioners, they they have a key role in
have a front row view of practice situations in which agency policy is shaping and developing
not having the desired effects as well as situations for which
policies and practices. –
appropriate policy has not yet been developed. Therefore,
Administrator
organizationally, supervisors are in a critical position to identify
policy issues and needs and propose and advocate for relevant changes. Similarly, supervisors
directly observe the degree to which agency systems, such as information systems, and tools, such
as forms, either facilitate or undermine efficient and effective service delivery.
Agency administrators and managers must recognize that supervisors’ observations, knowledge,
and expertise are valuable resources upon which child welfare agencies can systematically draw in
evaluating programs, policies, and infrastructure and in developing and implementing necessary
changes. Kadushin and Harkness stress, “The supervisor is in a strategic position to act as a change
agent. Standing between administration and the workers, he or she can actively influence
administration to make changes and influence workers to accept them” (2002:75)
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