Why Invest in Supervision for School Staff?
What is Supervision?
Supervision is a joint endeavour in which a practitioner, with the help of a supervisor, attends to their clients, themselves as part of their client-practitioner relationship and the wider systemic and ecological contexts, and by doing so improves the quality of their work, transforms their client relationships, continuously develops themselves, their practice and the wider profession (Hawkins & McMahon, 2020; 1).
In line with this description, supervision is noted to have three main functions, including:
Developing the supervisee’s skills, understanding and capacities (‘developmental’);
Supporting the supervisee to develop their resilience by tapping into internal and external sources (‘resourcing’);
Safeguarding the individuals supervisee’s work with by improving the quality of supervisee’s work (‘qualitative’; 2).
Why is There a Need for Supervision in Schools?
Working in schools can be an immensely rewarding role and all staff working in schools play an important role in shaping the cognitive, social and emotional development of children and young people. In the context of this, school staff often juggle multiple tasks and demands and are at the forefront of supporting many of the most vulnerable children and young people in schools. We understand that workloads, deadlines, working with and having empathetic relationships with children and young people with increasingly complex needs can all negatively impact the mental health and well-being of school staff and their capacity to carry out their work.
Recent statistics published by the National Education Union (2022; 3) indicate that there has been a significant rise in the number of teachers intending to leave the profession, with 44% of England’s state-school teachers planning to quit by 2027. This is reported to be due to high workload and workload stress with over half (52%) of teachers saying their workload is either ‘unmanageable’ or ‘unmanageable most of the time’, up from 35% in 2021, and with two-thirds of teachers in state-funded schools in England reporting that they feel stressed at least 60% of the time.
In the context of this, the importance of taking good care of school staff, both practically and emotionally, is being increasingly recognised for both personal and professional reasons. Research positively correlates the health and educational outcomes of children and young people with the wellbeing and competence of school staff (4) and recent legislation (5) identifies the importance of promoting staff wellbeing and mental health in promoting effective schools.
What Does the Research Tell us About the Benefits of Supervision for Schools?
Supervision has been identified as a key part of career long continuing personal and professional development for professionals working in the helping professions (1). Recent research that has specifically explored the impact of supervision within the school context has identified a range of benefits that supervision can provide for staff working in schools. This has included:
Individual level supervision for senior leaders and SENDCos in schools can provide a safe space and non-judgemental environment in which to reflect, evaluate and resolve difficult and often complex issues and was identified as a valuable tool to help build professional resilience (6).
Group supervision for school staff working with children with social, emotional and mental health needs can support the reduction of stress through providing opportunities for offloading, sharing and validating of emotions and experiences and fostering a greater sense of camaraderie between colleagues (7).
Individual and group supervision for teachers can empower and support teacher professional development and the school culture’s change toward participatory school for all students and foster communal support through strengthening collaboration, promoting a change in the work culture of a school, and developing a communal work approach (8).
As such, good quality supervision for staff working in schools can be an effective way that schools can support the mental health and well-being of their staff.
Sources:
Hawkins, P., & McMahon, A. (2020). Supervision in the Helping Professions Fifth Edition. London: Open University Press.
Hawkins, P., & Smith, N. (2013). Coaching, mentoring and organizational consultancy: Supervision and development. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
National Education Union. (2022). State of Education: The Profession. https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/state-education-profession
Lever N, Mathis E, Mayworm A. (2017). School Mental Health Is Not Just for Students: Why Teacher and School Staff Wellness Matters. Report on Emotional and Behavioural Disorders in Youth, 17(1): 6-12.
Department for Education. (2021). The Education Staff Wellbeing Charter. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1034032/DfE_Education_Workforce_Welbeing_Charter_Nov21.pdf
Reid, H., & Soan, S. (2019). Providing support to senior managers in schools via ‘clinical’supervision: a purposeful, restorative professional and personal developmental space. Professional Development in Education, 45(1), 59-72.
Willis, J., & Baines, E. (2018). The perceived benefits and difficulties in introducing and maintaining supervision groups in a SEMH special school. Educational Review, 70(3), 259-279.
Alila, S., Maatta, K., & Uusiattu, S. (2016). How Does Supervision Support Inclusive Teacherhood? International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 8(3), 351-362.