Supervision and Staff Development

All practitioners working in the area of Child Protection should receive advice and support from peers, managers or named and designated professionals.

For many practitioners involved in day to day work with children and families formal supervision with an identified manager is important to promoting good standards of practice and to supporting individual staff members. Professionals in Knowsley are supported through training and supervision to understand their role in identifying new and emerging threats, including online abuse, grooming, sexual exploitation and radicalisation. 

They continue to develop their knowledge and skills in sharing information with other professionals to assist with early identification and use of assessments such as Early Help Assessment process.

The purpose of the practitioner-supervisor relationship should be to:

• Support those practitioners working directly with children and families, promoting good standards of practice;
• Ensure that plans are followed or amended as appropriate, and procedures are adhered to;
• Ensure the practitioner understands their role, responsibilities and scope of their professional discretion and authority;
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the practitioner, and assist in the development of practice skills either personally or by ensuring that appropriate training is made available and attended, as appropriate, by practitioner and supervisor;
• Provide opportunities to reflect on, scrutinise and evaluate the work of the practitioner;
• Be available to provide advice and endorse decisions as appropriate in the safeguarding process.

The supervision of staff working directly with children must include the supervisor reading, reviewing, recording key decisions and signing the case file at regular intervals.

When allocating work to a practitioner, the supervisor must ensure that the practitioner has the necessary training, experience and time to deal with the case properly and is clear what action is required and how that action will be reviewed and supervised.

There is also potential for learning and induction through observation of the safeguarding process, including at a Child Protection Conference. However, parents and children must be able to give informed consent without any pressure. Requests for observers to attend conferences must be made to the Safeguarding Quality Assurance Service (see Local Contacts) with sufficient notice to allow the practitioner to seek the views of family members prior to the conference.

 See also Knowsley Joint Children and Adults Services: Social Worker's Supervision Policy.