SOCIAL WORK SUPERVISION POLICIES AND FRAMEWORKS: PLAYING NOTES OR MAKING MUSIC?

• Main Author: Engelbrecht, Lambert
• Format: Article
• Language: Afrikaans
• Published: Stellenbosch University 2013-05-01
• Series: Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk
• Subjects: supervision policies; service delivery; social work profession
• Online Access: http://socialwork.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/34

INTRODUCTION Kadushin (1992:230-231) drew a parallel between the supervision of social workers and making music: is supervision just a random sounding of notes, serving to mask incompetence, or is it tuneful music, conducive to social workers’ best efforts? This analogy may be considered to reflect the emergence of new public management measures as an operationalisation of neoliberal ideas, with consequent changes in conditions of service delivery, control and accountability of social workers. These management mechanisms for bureaucratic standardisation in social work have resulted in, for example, the introduction of supervision policies and frameworks in various countries, such as those of the Australian Association of Social Workers (2010), British Association of Social Workers (2011), Aortearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (2012), and the supervision framework for the social work profession in South Africa (DSD & SACSSP, 2012), to name a few.