For busy social work supervisors to access bite-size learning and development opportunities to help with your CPD.
Here you'll discover summaries of all the blog's articles, together with links to the full articles on the blog itself. Where videos are available, I've linked to those too.
And signing up to the blog means never missing a post and discovering other content and resources as they are released.
Time to reflect and relate to others is an essential component of robust relationship-based supervision and social work and arguably keeps us all safe and well if we can prioritise it.
Having spent many hours with busy social work supervisors and leaders, it is clear that they are committed to their learning and development AND that accessing these opportunities can be a challenge alongside demanding roles and juggling this with all the other aspects of life.
I have learnt that social workers appreciate an opportunity to step out of their practice and spend time alone or with colleagues processing the emotional landscape of the work and the impact this has on them and the people they work with.
Theory + research + grounded examples
The Supervision Space provides succinct and engaging learning opportunities for busy supervisors to access virtually, at a time convenient to them. It will initially come via a regular monthly blog which will focus on an aspect of supervision practice and being a supervisor. Each blog will take about 20 minutes to read.
Key theories and research will be shared as an evidence base to support the focus of the month. I will then share a real example of my own supervision practice to bring this to life. There will be models of practice or concepts shared and a set of complementary reflective questions inviting you to link this to yourself and your own practice.
The reflective exercises and activities will take about 20-30 minutes. There will be a prompt at the end to guide you in doing the activity with your team or other colleagues if you would like to.
Reflective conversation
There will also be some guiding questions to help you have a reflective conversation about your learning with a peer or your own supervisor. This will support you in recording your CPD for Social Work England and will be set out in alignment with their recording system to make it easily transferable.
ARTICLES
I publish articles regularly. All of them are listed below in date order (most recent first). The full articles are available on the blog itself.
VIDEOS
Where videos are available I've linked to them in the article intros below. My YouTube channel is here.
If you have any suggestions for articles or areas to explore, please do reach out to me.
Articles
Videos
Image by Magnific
In the last article, posted 31st July, we started to explore our ‘use of self’ as a supervisor and invited you to consider your own history and biography and what you bring to the role. Doing this can shed light on how you engage with supervisees and help you to model important aspects of relationship-based practice.
In the article on ‘becoming a good reflective supervisor’ in June, we acknowledged that our core social work values of social justice and human rights require us as supervisors to continually review our position in terms of anti-racist, anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice. As part of our reflections on self, it's helpful to review our own unique identity and how these factors may interrelate with individual supervisees.
In this article, we will explore the aspects of self which specifically relate to diversity, and elements of the supervision relationship which can help supervisees to feel that they matter and belong, and help you to consider 'power' and how this plays out relationally. This will include re-visiting aspects of factors suggested by Wonnacott (2011) that shape our supervision style. It will also introduce a development of this model to include the supervisees adaptive response to us.
I start by sharing Wonnacott’s model and a reflection from my own practice to illustrate this. We then consider some theories and research which help us to consider the concept of ‘intersectionality’, before moving on to an exercise for you to reflect on yourself and your team in terms of diversity and what might influence a sense of belonging and emotional closeness and distance. As usual we end on key points and some reflective questions.
Read the full blog post here, and don't forget to sign-up to receive updates on new articles and resources.
This article is also available as a video resource too (and my YouTube channel is here).
In the second article in The Supervision Space (on 12th June) we explored the general concept of ‘becoming’ a supervisor. We considered that in contemporary social work practice, supervisors have to ‘do’ a lot and ‘be’ a lot and highlighted the importance of continuing to develop our self-awareness and insight. This includes reflecting on our uniqueness and the different aspects of our history and biography which shape our identity and how this influences our approach to practice.
As supervisors, it is so important that we are able to continue our exploration of self, in order to support our supervisees to continue this. Modelling self-awareness and reflection contributes to building a good supervision working alliance and influencing effective relationship-based practice.
The next two articles will therefore focus specifically on this and invite you to consider your own history and biography and what you bring to the role. In August we will explore the aspects of self which specifically relate to diversity and elements of the supervision relationship which can help supervisees to feel that they matter and belong. This month we will start with exploring our history and aspects of our personal and professional experiences which have influenced who we are now.
The article starts with a reflection from my own practice and provides a refresher of Jane Wonacott’s ideas on what shapes our supervision style. We then consider some other messages from theorists and researchers before moving on to an exercise you can do to explore your own history.
Read the full blog post here, and don't forget to sign-up to receive updates on new articles and resources.
This article is also available as a video resource too (and my YouTube channel is here).
Image from lead-academy.org
After many years of reading about the evidence base and theory of supervision, I have concluded that it is a complex phenomenon and a social construct which means different things to different people.
This fourth article on The Supervision Space, is the last building block to setting out some of the foundations of knowledge about social work supervision. It follows the other articles on ‘becoming a supervisor’ and ‘supervision as a state of the art’ in England.
This article looks at some models for supervision that I have selected as personal favourites and highlights how these might intersect to form a holistic picture that speaks more widely than just one lens.
The article starts with exploring the evidence and theory base for supervision both internationally and a UK focus. This progresses to take an inclusive lens, exploring models from an anti-racism and neuro-inclusivity perspective. We then consider a model which arguably pulls the heart of these together by focusing on relationship-based supervision. As usual, we end with a summary of key points and some reflective questions to help you to digest the content.
Read the full blog post here, and sign-up to receive updates on new articles and resources as they're published.
This third blog post on The Supervision Space, is intended to be one of the building blocks to setting out some of the foundations of knowledge about social work supervision. It follows the second post in the series, above, which focused on ‘becoming a supervisor’.
This article focuses on messages from research, policy and practice about supervision in England, which is something I consider an art form at its best! It is quite dense with research findings and theory about supervision practice, although is a useful stepping stone of knowledge and shares some key perspectives on contemporary practice.
It explores definitions of supervision, the functions, purpose and what and who it is set out to help. Some of the research is shared in terms of critiques of practice in England and the contemporary picture.
Following a summary of key points, there are some reflective questions to help you process your thoughts and impressions on the knowledge shared.
Read the full blog post here and don't forget to sign-up to receive updates on new articles and resources.
Image by Johnny Grieg
This second blog post on The Supervision Space, is intended to be one of the building blocks to setting out some of the foundations of knowledge about social work supervision.
It specifically focuses on ‘being a supervisor’ as opposed to supervision itself, which will be covered in a separate blog later in the month. From this basis, we will then start to drill down and consider specific aspects of professional development for supervisors.
This blog starts with considering the reality for supervisors in practice and what the research says about the functions of supervision and the supervisor. We then draw on some key principles which I initially set out in an article in 2025 for BASW Professional Social Work Magazine and have developed further here.
Read the full blog post here, and sign-up to receive updates on new articles and resources as they're published.
This first blog introduces The Supervision Space and my vision for developing a range of digital resources for busy practice supervisors and leaders.
The aim is to deliver an accessible - and free - learning offer to do at times that it suits them.
I share some links and key information about our national requirements for CPD and supervision practice in England.
There are also ways for you to feed back to me directly and share your reflections and ideas for future resources. The Supervision Space is for you, so it is important that it is accessible and it matters that it works for you.
Read the full blog post here, and don't forget to sign-up to receive updates on new articles and resources.