1.1 Introduction and Rationale

‘Effective professional supervision can play a critical role in ensuring a clear focus on a child’s welfare. Supervision should support professionals to reflect critically on the impact of their decisions on the child and their family. Any professional working with vulnerable children should always have access to a manager to talk through their concerns and judgements affecting the welfare of the child.’   (Working Together)

“Providers must put appropriate arrangements in place for the supervision of staff who have contact with children and families” (Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage)

All staff working in Early Years have a responsibility to safeguard the children in their care. Staff can only achieve this effectively if they:

• are clear about what is expected of them

• have the skills, knowledge, behaviours, values and attitudes to carry out their role

• are fully supported in their role and managed effectively

Supervision is one of the ways in which this can be achieved. This policy sets out how staff can expect to be supervised and provides supervisors with the key elements needed to supervise staff effectively.

1.2 Definition and Functions

Supervision is best described as ‘an accountable process which     supports, assures and develops the knowledge, skills and values of an     individual, group or team’

(taken from ‘Providing Effective Supervision’ – Skills     for care / CWDC 2007)

The main functions of supervision are:

1. Management

2. Learning and development

3. Support

Management

This function should include discussion about:

• The supervisee’s work plan and priorities, including current workload.

• key achievements

• previous actions identified at the last supervision meeting

• individual case/s which have been identified by the supervisee and the supervisor

Learning and Development

This function is to encourage staff to reflect on their own performance, identify their own learning and development needs and develop plans or identify opportunities to address those needs.

Support

The role of staff working to keep children safe can sometimes be demanding and emotionally draining and requires resilience, determination and courage. This function recognises this and offers opportunity to reflect on the impact of the work upon them and prevent issues adversely affecting them and their work.

1.3 Frequency of Supervision

As a general principle and where possible, there should be opportunity for supervision four times a year.

It should also be recognised that due to the pace of the work and change and the frequency of supervision, there may be times when staff have to check something out with a supervisor, obtain a decision or gain permission to do something before the next planned supervision session. This form of supervision is, of course, a normal and acceptable part of the staff/supervisor relationship.

1.4 Agenda and structure

Both parties should agree the agenda items at the start of the session in order to make the most effective use of time. 

All supervision is recorded on a ‘Record of Supervision’ sheet (Appendix 1) where individual cases are discussed; reference to this will be added to the child’s individual chronology. 

The record of supervision includes the discussion points, agreed actions, timescales and who is to undertake the action/s. 

Copies of the record will be available to both the supervisor and supervisee. 

The record will be signed and dated by both parties once the session has finished. 

If there is any disagreement as to the content of the record this should be recorded by the supervisor.

In the event that a supervision meeting has to be cancelled by either party, it will be re-scheduled at the point of cancellation. 

The session will be re-scheduled within 5 working days of the original date, where possible. 

In the event of the supervisor being absent for more than two weeks, it is the responsibility of the supervisee to report to the supervisor’s line manager for alternative arrangements to be made.

At the first supervision meeting an agreement should be made about:

• the purpose of supervision

• the frequency of supervision

• the venue for meetings

• the recording of supervision

• the settings complaints process

The supervisee will be given a copy of this policy to read prior to the first supervision meeting taking place.

1.5 Confidentiality

Supervision is a private but not a confidential process. This means that the records are the property of the setting, not the individual. From time to time, the supervisor will need to discuss the content of the meeting with others. This should always be with the knowledge of the supervisee.

Access to supervision records should be controlled and should be locked away, due to the sensitive information which may have been discussed about individual children.