Vol. 9, No. 1
October 2003

Agencies Can Support Family-Centered Supervision

• Enable supervisors to attend training and pursue other opportunities for professional development.

• Give supervisors time to work with their staff. “Being readily available to provide case consultation—’spur of the moment’ as well as in regularly scheduled one-to-one reviews. All too often, supervisors are overwhelmed with tasks that are disconnected from the hands-on supervision of workers. To support quality practice, workers must have access to a skilled mentor.” The most likely person to fulfill that role is the supervisor (Safekeeping, 2003).

• When hiring supervisors or child welfare staff, use interview questions designed to explore the applicant’s beliefs about family strengths and the role they believe families should play in resolving child welfare issues. This will help you select individuals for whom the family-centered approach seems a natural fit.

• Agency administrators must apply the family-centered principles to their work. This means listening to and respecting supervisors, helping them develop plans to address the challenges they face, and celebrating their successes