Doctoral Degrees (Social Work)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Social Work) by Author "Nortje, Madelein"

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    Guidelines for social work supervision from a developmental approach
    (University of the Free State, 2022) Nortje, Madelein; Reyneke, R. P.
    English: Supervision plays an important role in the efficacy of service rendering and the professional development of social workers. Effective supervision should be grounded in theory and aligned with the national approach to social welfare. In South Africa, the Developmental Approach should be engrained in supervision practices to be aligned with the National welfare approach. Ultimately, supervision must focus on the deliberate development of the social workers to become more competent professionals, and the fundamental goal would be to provide excellent professional services to the service user. The focus of this study was to explore the implementation of supervision using the Developmental Approach, identify good and bad supervision practices, and develop guidelines for appropriate developmental supervision practices. The mixed-method research design (QUAL-quan) was used and involved social workers and supervisors from five provinces in the qualitative phase. During semi-structured interviews, current practices of supervision were explored. The objective of the quantitative phase was to involve more respondents to corroborate the information gathered during the first phase. Unfortunately, the response rate 1for the qualitative phase was extremely low, and the results cannot be generalised. The quantitative information does, however, provide important insights and support the information from the qualitative phase. The findings from the study revealed that supervisors do not use the Developmental Approach during supervision. Various challenges present themselves in the implementation of developmental supervision. The combination of limited conceptualisation of the Developmental Approach in supervision, a lack of knowledge among social workers and supervisors of the Developmental Approach and numerous structural issues in terms of resources and the realities of society hamper the implementation of the Developmental Approach. The study further revealed that, in many instances, the Developmental Approach, the national approach to social services, is not implemented in social work practice. The results show that supervisors carry out supervision without a thorough knowledge and understanding that underpins the theory of supervision, and their actions haphazardly attend to the supervisee's needs. Conducting supervision in this manner will negatively impact the development of the social worker and consequently hamper service delivery. The study resulted in developing guidelines for supervision that will promote the integration of the Developmental Approach in supervision.The aim of the guidelines is to ensure constructive realignment of supervision practices with the national approach to social services. Other recommendations include the following: • Social workers and supervisors must realise that social work is a profession, and that relevant theories should inform their practice. • Social workers and supervisors must have appropriate and professional knowledge of relevant theories, practice models and approaches and refrain from intuitive actions without a proper theoretical foundation when making decisions. • Social workers and supervisors must be proficient in applying theory in practice, and relevant theories, models and approaches should inform all services to service users and supervision of social workers. • Practice standards focusing on outcomes defined in terms of specific skills contributing to the effectiveness of social workers should be implemented. • The outcomes of supervision must be clearly defined according to a framework based on the professional skills required of a social worker. • The implementation of the proposed guidelines should acknowledge the current experience level and the expectations of the social worker. • The expectations of each social worker should be adapted according to the level of experience, and outcomes should promote progressive development. • Accredited training for supervisors should be implemented according to indigenous theories, techniques and approaches that specifically focus on supervision.