Building a Model and Framework for Child Welfare Supervision

Child welfare supervision should also be planned rather than provided in a crisis or an “on-the-run”approach (Collins-Camargo 2006:82-83; Kadushin & Harkness 2002: 143-146; North CarolinaDivision of Social Services and the Family and Children’s Resource Program 2008:5). Regularlyscheduled supervisory time “can help workers better prioritize issues and plan their own days…when workers know their planned time with their supervisor will be protected as much as possible,they begin to develop lists of questions” (North Carolina Division of Social Services and the Familyand Children’s Resource Program 2008:5). In addition, regularly scheduled supervision facilitates afocus on educational and supportive supervision rather than on crisis management.Recent state supervision initiatives have explored the use of experienced frontline staff as mentorsto less experienced caseworkers and of “coaching units” for new frontline practitioners (Robison2006). A supervision model should also allow for flexible supplemental resources, such asstructured crisis debriefings (Salus 2004).Element 6Clarify expectations for ongoing evaluation of frontlinepractitioners.Shulman emphasizes that a supervisor’s evaluation of a worker’s performance “is one of the mostimportant elements of the supervisor’s role, and when handled well, it makes a major contributionto the worker’s development and to client services” (1993:203). However, when formal evaluationsare handled inconsistently throughout an organization with regard to frequency, format, supportiveatmosphere, and substantive focus, child welfare supervisors’ efforts to shape supervisees’ jobperformance and address performance problems are seriously undermined. When agencyexpectations regarding the evaluation of frontline practitioners’ performance are not explicit andconsistently applied, supervisors have neither the process nor the authority to identify and addresssupervisees’ performance difficulties. When the organization does not provide supervisors with theprocess and authority to address supervisees’ performance difficulties, they do not have the meansto impact the quality of service that children and families receive. Therefore, a model for childwelfare supervision should identify specific criteria and standards for performance evaluations offrontline practitioners that relate expectations to agency objectives, are consistent with the agency’spractice philosophy and model and include individual professional development plans.21