Reflective supervisions can be a vital tool, for any organisation or environment that works closely with children and young people.

Children can be shouting at us through their behaviour. Frustration, isolation and despair often lie behind what we label as disruption and defiance or simply off-task or absent. Colleagues, teams and organisations cope with stress in unhelpful ways. We are not always our best selves on our tough days. 

To see past behaviour to needs we can meet, we need a reflective culture supported by space to think. This article explains how reflective supervision helps us make sense of behaviour that isn’t helping.

What is reflective supervision?

Reflective supervision is more than a meeting. It is time and space to pause, re-energise, take stock and recommit to ethical action and development.

It is a relationship that support best practice and staff wellbeing. It is thinking space amid our day-to-day challenges.

Reflective supervision supports and promotes, but also depends on and reflects, a wider culture of learning and support that reaches the whole organisation. 

Good quality supervision involves:

• A regular meeting between supervisor and supervisee 

• Protected, respectful space 

• A clear task and agenda 

• An ongoing, insightful relationship between professionals 

 Reflective supervision also includes: 

• Curiosity and Critical Thinking 

• A framework that supports quality 

• Safety, trust and respect – being seen and being heard 

• Flexibility to respond to needs 

• Care for the person in the professional 

• Reflection on and development of the organisation 

• Exploration of the impact of wider context. 

The benefits of reflective supervision  

Reflective supervision benefits everybody – those who receive it, those who give it, the organisation that provides it and, crucially, the recipients of help, support and services. 

Better thinking!

Reflective supervision helps us to think. To think more. To think more productively, more carefully and more creatively.  

Reflective supervision creates and develops reflective capacity in staff members, in teams and in organisations.

This means using our own internal experience alongside observations from others to understand, regulate and develop ourselves, our relationships, and our practice. 

It also means better understanding of how and why others are impacting on us. When we can hear and respond to the needs people are communicating, rather than the surface behaviours that challenge, we know what it is we are helping with. 

Increased reflective capacity means an increased awareness of the impact of what we are doing on other people, which leads to better understanding how we should help. 

Reflective supervisions:   

• Helps us link practice, research and training – best use is made of our resources.  

• Deepens and broadens workers’ knowledge and critical analysis skills – good ideas are used thoughtfully. 

• Enables confident, competent, creative and independent decision-making. 

• Helps workers to build clear plans that enable positive change for recipients of services. 

• Promotes the development of a learning culture within the organisation. 

Better Resilience and Retention!

“Evidence from research shows that good supervision is associated with job satisfaction, organisational commitment and retention of staff.” (SCIE 2012).

Supervision provides time and space to pause, recognise the impact of the challenges faced and overcome, celebrate success, adjust plans and gather energy to do more.

People need to be authentically seen and heard, and when they are to take ownership of their work and get the most they can from doing it.  

• Creates an appropriate, professional space where the impact of complex, stressful work can be acknowledged, and the burdens shared. 

• Makes use of that experience – difficulties are processed, not simply offloaded as rant or gossip. 

• Develops a relationship that helps staff feel valued, supported and motivated. 

• Supports the development of workers’ emotional resilience and self-awareness. 

• Develops clarity of roles and tasks. 

• Supports effective identification and use of next-steps CPD and training. 

• Reduces staff absence. 

Better Teamwork!

The goals of an individual or group supervision session may include to solve problems, plan work and set priorities, learn from others or make decisions.  

Reflective supervision in a group provides a supportive setting for: 

• shared and mutual reflection: 

• • celebration of team and individual achievement, 

• • reinforcement of good practice, 

• • exploring team function, task, identity and competence 

• • giving and receiving strong feedback 

• • surfacing and addressing challenges and barriers 

• pooling of diverse or complimentary skills, experience and knowledge, 

• honing communications, 

• peer learning: improvement in the skills and capability of both individuals and of the group, 

• shared goal setting, 

• effective use of resources 

• teambuilding; trust, mutual understanding and respect, use of each other’s skills. 

• exploring organisational barriers and development. 

Better Relationships!

Our relationships are at the heart of the work we do as helping professionals, educators and leaders.

The relationships we build through reflective supervision demonstrate and transmit the kind of relationships we know help people – our clients, students, residents, recipients and customers.  

Reflective supervision makes for a relational setting, which means people who: 

• Value relationships as central to human experiences 

• Listen properly 

• Celebrate and praise other people 

• See things from different perspectives 

• Manage emotional distance as well as point of view 

• Look for meaning behind behaviour 

• Show curiosity 

• Offer opinions which can be explored and made useful, not destructive judgements of success or failure 

• Offer different idea while being open minded and flexible 

• Share power and encourage others to step up 

• Empower others to change and make changes 

• Value diversity and permit others to use their skills and knowledge 

• Celebrate success and learn from challenges 

• Manage anxiety through noticing and naming what people feel 

• Hold good boundaries – create safety through clarity and ethical consistency, not stress via rigid rules and vague communication. 

Better Work!

These benefits of reflective supervision all lead to the same thing – better work done helping, teaching, leading and supporting the people who need us and our organisations. 

 When reflective supervision is established 

• Communication is active and open 

• Risks are well managed and well taken; thinking is clear, so judgements are good. 

• Opportunities are identified and made use of. 

• Creativity becomes possible, then probable. 

• Co-production and stakeholder involvement is supported 

• Learning is valued and shared. 

• Success is the focus of planning; challenges lead to learning. 

• The resources of an individual, team or organisation are used fully and effectively. 

Reflective supervision in practice

Holridge School had requested support from the Mulberry Bush to work with a child that was challenging them. A support package was put together which included reflective supervision for the team of TA’s directly alongside the child.  

Each supervision the team and supervisor met for an hour. 

In the first session a supervision agreement was made that set out the expectations and responsibilities of all parties and the boundaries of the session, helping create a safe space for thought and reflection. This also give an opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves and share their situation. 

Reflective supervision was a new experience for the Holridge TA’s and initially they felt uncomfortable. The first couple of sessions would start with an update of how things had been over the last bit of time and any practical tweaks that could be made to the provision.  

As time went by the focus on practical strategies and solutions expanded to include helpful theoretical ideas; group & family dynamics and containment. The team were able to become more open and thoughtful. They started noticing how behaviours and dynamics between themselves and the wider team might be affecting the work with the child.   

The TA’s felt able to talk through interactions with the child; to reassess tricky situations. They were empowered to take more risks and so develop their practice.  

The structured time and space they were given supported the TA’s to share learning, as a result they felt that their practice was valued.   

The TA’s had struggled to hold healthy boundaries with other staff and with children; the supervision gave them a chance to see that holding the boundary, even when this felt difficult, supported a sense of safety. Meeting with their supervisor allowed them to hold onto this understanding and apply it in their practice. 

Anchored by the supervision they were able to them start role modelling these qualities naturally to their colleagues. This has impacted on the wider school community, creating a sense of teamwork, stability and containment for the setting. 

There has been a reduction in the TA’s sense that they are ‘done to.’ Morale is better. The TA’s feel more able to unpick the work and differentiate between what is theirs to work through, and when feelings and behaviours are the responsibility of others. They began to enjoy the work once again and they feel less overwhelmed. They are more able to hold on to and celebrate successes.  

The child is experienced less as “challenging” and has begun to settle and flourish.

In Conclusion

Reflective Supervision can help your team work to their full potential and get more out of doing so. Remember, when reflective supervision is established:

• Communication is active and open 

• Risks are well managed and well taken; thinking is clear, so judgements are good. 

• Opportunities are identified and made use of. 

• Creativity becomes possible, then probable. 

• Co-production and stakeholder involvement is supported 

• Learning is valued and shared. 

• Success is the focus of planning; challenges lead to learning. 

If you want to discuss supervision for yourself or your team, or to book a place on a Mulberry Bush Supervision Course, contact Angie [email protected]

If you are interested in more information about our training course, or to discuss bespoke supervision training, contact our Supervision Course Lead, Mike Staines – [email protected] or call on 07741 430548