If you’re a supervisor, you’ve probably faced this. 

Walk into supervision, and the supervisee looks at you, expectantly, awaiting you to start the ball rolling. 

You think to yourself:

I thought you were supposed to take charge of your own supervision!

Or you might be a supervisee (the one being supervised). 

You walk into the supervision, with an agenda in hand. It seems enough. 

But at the end of the supervision, you leave thinking… I didn’t seem to address everything I wanted to address! How do I make the best of each supervision?

Or it leaves you with a strange taste in your mouth, thinking: hmm… are these topics that I should even be discussing with my supervisor? 

To be clear..

Firstly, this will cover individual, 1-1 supervision. 

Secondly, I write from the perspective of someone who had his university social work training in the U.K., and later moved to work in Singapore after qualifying. Some of the opinions expressed here may come from different cultures. 

But the principles are the same. 

Thirdly, this guide is meant for both supervisors and supervisees. In each point, I try to make it relevant to both parties. 

With this guide to social work topics for supervision, I hope the checklist of topics gives you (the supervisor and the supervisee) a clearer idea of what to discuss during supervision. Whilst there are different models of supervision, these are topics that are ideal to cover in any session. 

The supervision process 

As you can see from the diagram, in supervision, there are 4 main parts in the process. 

The pre-supervision 

During the pre-supervision, as the supervisee, there are certain good practices to hold to. 

1. Send a supervision agenda to the supervisor 72 hours (3 working days) before the actual supervision. 
   1. In the agenda, include the topics you want to cover, with a brief sentence describing the nature of the issue. 
   2. Include relevant attachments.
      1. For example, if you are talking about difficulties with a client, try including things like the report, the assessment, or the case recording. 
      2. Your supervisor might not have time to read everything, but it’s better to give her a background to the issue. 
2. Block off the time in your calendar. Ensure that your colleagues and clients know that you are not to be disturbed. 
   1. Clear the diary for the supervision. 
   2. This sounds basic, but you’ve probably had the experience where you’re interrupted whilst discussing something important. 
3. Book a quiet room/place. 

As the supervisor:

1. Be clear about the above practices. Some of it sounds basic, but for the newly-qualified social worker, these might not seem common-sense. 
2. Look through the agenda sent through, and suggest other topics you want to bring up. 
   1. For example, a complaint might come in from another colleague about your supervisee’s attitude. 
   2. Add it to the agenda. 
3. Find relevant theories/evidence that you want to share. 
4. Block off your own calendar, your own time, and your own phone calls. 
5. Prepare yourself mentally, 10 minutes before time, by looking through the agenda.

Most importantly, don’t walk in cold. Don’t wing it. 

You can’t. 

You might be busy. But winging it does no justice to your supervisee, nor does it do any justice to you. 

For supervision to truly work out, it needs to be a shared commitment to work through difficult issues. 

Starting the supervision itself

One of the first key conversations to have when you first start supervising is to have expectations laid out.

Clear is kind.

And being clear on both sides, is one of the best ways to start a healthy supervisory relationship.

Clarify basic expectations of both parties

Any supervisory relationship is a relationship. And in any relationship, romantic or not, being clear is vital. 

Contract the supervisory relationship. Don’t just leave it to chance. 

Be clear about:

1. How often you will meet
2. How long you will meet
3. What is expected before the supervision happens 
4. Your and your supervisor’s strengths
5. Your goals
6. Your supervisor’s goals 
7. What will be discussed
8. What will not be discussed 
   1. This adds valuable guardrails to supervision, ensuring that sessions are purposeful and meaningful. 

Colleagues

Firstly, I have to admit that I’m not the best colleague you will have.

That’s why in supervision, I always take the chance to raise difficulties I have with my colleagues.

Secondly, I will ask my supervisor what I can do differently, or if I have done well.  

Therefore, discussing your relationships with your colleagues with your supervisor will help you to have an objective view towards the difficulties you have. Also, it gives you a chance to know how to iron those kinks out.

Frequency of supervision

Knowing that you have someone whom you can openly share yourdifficulties with is important. It gives you a safe place to discuss things. Agreeingon the frequency of these sessions will make both accountable to how often you willmeet.

Organisational difficulties

No organisation is perfect.

That’s why discussing the difficulties you face in the organisation is important. For example, in my previous organisation, I had difficulties with how opaque the management’s objectives were. I did not know what their priorities were. It was hard for me to decide what my own priorities should be.

When you discuss this with your supervisor, you get to see whether this is a problem that only you face or if it’s a prevalent, long-standing problem.

Of course, after studying more about Organisational Development from Tong Yee’s And later, I began to see why the organisation was like this.

Then, you have to think about whether the problem is big enough to cause you to move, or if you want to stay to continue to work things through.

How important is it?

Expectations of you

Knowing what’s expected of you is the bare minimum of any employee. It is important to clarify this in your first few interactions with your supervisor. Meeting those expectations is necessary for you to pass your probation, and to do a good job.

After knowing the expectations of you, you can start making your plan. You can start thinking about:

1. Where you want to go
2. How to get there
3. The obstacles you will encounter
4. How to overcome those obstacles

Expectations of your supervisor

When you first meet your supervisor, you will likely not know what he/she is like. But you know what you are like (I hope!) Thus, you will know what works and does not work for you. When I was working in the UK,it was hard for me to understand the British politeness. I got into a lot of trouble thinking that something said politely to me was only a suggestion,rather than an imperative to do something.

Thus, I realised I needed to be clear to my future supervisor what I wanted of him. I wanted things said plainly to me. Furthermore, I wanted to know whether I needed to do something. Most importantly, I wanted honest feedback.

Case discussions

Lately, I have been working with a teenage girl who has been regularly playing truant at school.

She goes to school once or twice a week. I have tried to engage her whole family by bringing her brother for outings and dinners, inviting her along. Despite my best efforts to engage her whole family, she has ignored my calls and messages. It has been hard for me not to take these rejections personally.

Later, discussing this with my supervisor helped me see that I might be more concerned about her truancy than her mother or herself were. Why was I so invested in the outcome? How do I deal with difficult clients?

When you discuss difficult cases with your supervisor, it helps you to see what you might not see through your own biases. You also start to think of new ways forward.

Workload

We are not superhuman. But sometimes, we behave like we are. We take on case after case, write long casenotes, project after project, thinking that we can complete everything.

It’s no wonder that social work experiences so much more attrition compared to other sectors. Therefore, discussing what you can and cannot manage is important to help your supervisor to see what you can and cannot do.

What’s working well

In our quest to resolve problems in our work, we tend to focus more on the problem. But it might be helpful to look at what’s working well too! Seeing what has succeeded for you helps your supervisor to see how we can take some of the factors behind your success to apply with your struggles.

Wellbeing

When I went through my first placement, my grandmother passed away.

She was someone whom I had loved dearly. It affected me on my placement and nearly led to a placement breakdown.

Consequently, I was unable to concentrate, and I started being quite rough with my colleagues. When my supervisor noticed that something was wrong, she agreed to give me a week off to grieve and recover.

Therefore, discussing your well-being with your supervisor is essential. Don’t keep everything within you, thinking that you have to put on a strong front. Honestly, it is only when you see your weaknesses that you can begin to know your strength.

Being vulnerable really helps, as Brene Brown explains in her Ted talk.

The post-supervision

Always follow up. 

Don’t leave it to chance. 

Write an email summarising the following:

1. What was discussed
2. What was agreed 
3. What the actions are moving forward 

Doing this ensures there is structure to conversation. Too often, you can have a great session with your supervisor, and then be lost 3 days later. 

You forget what was discussed and what you need to do. 

Doing this ensures that the supervision is not wasted, but helpful for you moving forward. 

Because who likes talking all day, and not doing anything?

The informal supervision 

Then there are the coffee-table chats. 

Isn’t it amazing how much can be done over an informal chat? 

Sometimes, it can be tempting to dismiss this. But as Tulgan argues in his book ’27 Challenges Managers Face’, the basics of management 101 are ensuring that 1-1s are properly structured. 

There needs to be structure to the informal chats, however informal you want to leave them to be. 

Otherwise, it will be a waste of time. 

Finally, these social work topics for supervision are merely guidelines. What’s more important is that you are honest with your supervisor about your struggles and successes.