Building a Model and Framework for Child Welfare Supervision

outcome of this project was finding strong consensus that the 31 job responsibilities presentedbelow 1 , organized by Kadushin’s three major functions, are current and inclusive.As discussed in the methodology section (see Section III), we viewed defining the keyresponsibilities of supervisors as a critical step in identifying a model for child welfare supervision.We interviewed key informants in various child welfare positions—supervisors, frontlinepractitioners, and administrators/managers. Based on the literature review and discussions withchild welfare experts, we expected the supervisors we interviewed to report that being a leaderand/or a change agent are currently highly valued components of child welfare supervision andthat time for these activities should be protected. Those interviewed instead emphasized theimportance of providing systemic organizational support for supervisors’ clinical supervision oftheir workers’ practice. Their emphasis highlights the critical importance of child welfaresupervisors’ educational and supportive functions as they strive to ensure that frontline practitionerswith a range of educational degrees and prior experience master and apply relevant social workknowledge and skills in their day-to-day practice with children and families.In addition, we found both similarities and differences in supervisors’, frontline practitioners’and administrators’ perspectives regarding the relative importance of supervisors’ jobresponsibilities (i.e., “Most Important,” “Important,” “Not Important”). Although further research isneeded to clarify the extent and implications of these differing perspectives, the differences mayreflect the job-related needs experienced by staff in these three positions. These differingperspectives may contribute to organizations’ difficulties in establishing consensus about thefunctions and job responsibilities of child welfare supervisors. For example, supervisors were morelikely than administrators to rate educational supervision responsibilities as most important, whilecaseworkers and administrators were more likely than supervisors to rate anticipating and managingrisks as among the most important job responsibilities. All three groups were very likely to rate casestaffings/case reviews as among the most important responsibilities. However, when most importantand important ratings were combined, all three groups fully agreed on fifteen of the thirty-one jobresponsibilities (See Table 1).1 Based upon the literature review and our consultation with working group members and other child welfare experts, 30 childwelfare supervisory job responsibilities were identified and subsequently included in the protocols for interviews with keyinformants (see Section III). In analyzing our findings, it became evident that an additional responsibility should be included inthe area of educational supervision, resulting in a total of 31.11