Rachael Green
Welcome everybody. Hello my name's Rachel Green. Hope I'm coming to you clearly. A huge thank you too for you for joining today's session on our best practice supervision guidelines and videos. Rachel Green is my name. I'm the Exec Director of the Centre for Workforce Excellence here in the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, and a huge welcome to you all.
I'd like to begin by acknowledging I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri land and pay my deep respects to the elders and custodians of the lands that I am on and to the lands that you are dialling in from as well. I'd also like to extend that respect to all Aboriginal people here today, to our Aboriginal colleagues out there in the sector and Aboriginal organisations who are leading critical work in this space, that we are all working or are passionate about right now.
At the forefront, as we always acknowledge, when we're talking about these issues, I'd also like to acknowledge victim survivors who may be joining us and really keeping at the forefront of our minds to those who have been impacted to those lives who have been lost. It has been a very difficult year, and a real call out to people who are managing that, and managing our, those of you working in the sector right now, doing the really critical work that we need in relation to this.
This information session is coming well timed at the end of the 16 days, um, we had a very, very hot walk as a number of you will probably attest to and been there for, but it was a really important and significant 16 days with I think a lot of reflections going on at every level. Um, you know you know country in relation to the issues right now.
Supervision is a critical part of the work that support, that is required in relation to supporting the work that you all do, and that's required to support the workforce.
Jane Wonnacott said that ‘paying attention to improving supervision can have far reaching effects and be the most cost effective way of turning around an organisation’.
We know research talks about supervision. It's critical support in relation to retention um and that these group and individual supervision hasn't really powerful impact on people's energy and capacity to keep working in the sector, really critically important for new workers and early career, people early in their career. But it's critical at every point, of course.
The census that we ran a couple of years ago now 18 months ago, one quarter of the workforce reported that supervision would improve their confidence in performing their role. When all the social worker back in the sector a long time ago now, I certainly felt that working in sexual assault, and it was a really critical part of both feeling building confidence, but also feeling that on the right track and felt supported by an increasing thinking about learning and the translation of practice, the theory into practice, to support feeling more confident and skilled.
So to build on this. This is a work that we've has been underway for a period of time and a lot of you have been in engaged, engaged in relation to this work. These guidelines, now out and about, have been developed in close collaboration with peak bodies and a number of you I'm sure that are here. The real aim is to strengthen, promote consistency across sectors. Um include expert contribution from many. We particularly wanted to call out honey, Daphne Yarum, the CEO of Yoowinna Wurnalong Aboriginal Healing Service and her team, who helped write the sections on cultural empowerment, critically about cultural load. And will be involved in doing some more development of specific and tailored videos around this.
It's been really positive in terms of the impact, so, the guidelines have been online since July, they've been more than 9000 visits to the website, more than 680 downloads. We've distributed more than 1000 hard copies and very willing to, so just let us know if you need more of those and we really hope that this demand is signalling both at their meeting a need for which they were developed, but also, you know, addressing and supporting, and supporting and improving practice and generating discussions out there.
Um, the guidelines are one part of it though, they are very much about the what and building on the theory and the evidence in relation to the what. But critically, we are now focused on the how, and part of this today is about to get to that - how do we support and build that practice, which we know takes confidence and practice to do.
We've got Anita Morris, Natalie Tillinger here today, the Department’s Statewide Principal Practitioners in Family Violence and in Child Protection. They'll speak more about this in a moment.
I just want to say a couple more thanks though before we get into the detail of it, this has been an exercise in drawing on the deep expertise. So as I said, the Sector Working Group, which included Aunty Daphne Yarum, but Family Violence Principal Strategic Adviser representation, Peak Bodies Safe and Equal, SAS Vic, No to Violence and the Centre of Excellence in Child and Family Welfare all contributed. The Victim Survivor Advisory Council members, a real shout out to you for your input and expertise um, in supporting what has now been, now been released. So thanks a huge thanks. Lots of hard work to get these right, and I feel like they're hitting the mark.
So today we're going to show two of the five short videos and hear guest speakers talk about how they use them. Um and to talk more about the tools and how to you know, how to use them in practice. But we're really keen to hear how how we can do this more, how we can tailor this even further. We'll also hear from a trainer, about how they recently incorporated the guidelines into their supervision training.
We're keen to hear questions, so please just keep popping questions in the chat as we go. Thank you to those who also put up questions when you registered to. So we'll try and get to all of those today. So now moving on to the guts of the session. Delighted to have Anita and Natalie here as our facilitators.
Um Anita Morris. Camera, now, come on. Hello, Anita. Statewide, as I said, Family Violence Principal Prac at DFFH, been in the role ever since it was set up, post the family Violence Royal Commission as one of those critical recommendations. Social work trained and experienced trainer facilitator, including customising and co-facilitating MARAM training for child protection and providing advice across all MARAM guides and development. And co-developing and facilitating the AASW’s Introduction to supervision training, so fantastic to have you here Anita and all that, thank you for all you've done.
Natalie Tillinger, clinical psychologist and the Statewide Principal Practitioner for Children and Families. Natalie is responsible for leading and supporting the development of the practice across the children of family sector and plays a critical role in the Office of Professional Practice here in the Department. So over to you both. Thank you.
Anita Morris
Ohh, thank you Rachel. Such a lovely introduction and hello and welcome to everyone joining us today. As Rachel said, I'm Anita. I'd like to acknowledge also that we are meeting on traditional lands at the Kulin nation and I'm joining you from Wurundjeri Country today. I pay my respects to elders, past and present, and I extend that respect to any Aboriginal people who are in this forum with us.
I've had, I suppose, a career-long passion for supervision, which brought me to this piece of work that we're going to launch for you all today. And that passion really aligns with my current role and many roles that I've had, but particularly in practice leadership. I remember all of my wonderful supervisors and the way that they've really supported and sustained me and helped me to grow and hone my professional judgement and my practice wisdom over the years. I continue in this role to provide supervision for others, and I really want to make sure that when I'm doing that, I'm supervising in a way that's informed by best practice, contemporary knowledge and skills and our workforces, I would say need it now more than ever as there's some really gritty and ambiguous social problems in the world that impact children, families, individuals and communities. And I think what I reflect on more and more is that through the generations and echoing, as Rachel mentioned to echoing Wonnacott. But I suppose taking it a step further. Um than transforming organisations. I think that supervision can actually turn around and transform lives, and I think we need to always hold that in mind.
I was very privileged to support the development of the guidelines, along with many, many other stakeholders, as Rachel said, and then the opportunity to bring them to life through the videos and today's forum. Supervision is at the core of best outcomes for practitioners, but for clients as well, and I think, what I would say is when practitioners feel safe and supported, they can really work in a way that models regulation, demonstrates curiosity and empathy, walks alongside people as they navigate some of that complexity I spoke to. It validates and supports clients to experience safety, wellbeing, agency and resiliency, and that's what we would want for all people. Practitioners want to know that they're doing their best work, informed by the contemporary evidence base. And so with that in mind, I'm really excited that we can share the outcomes of this important work with you today. And I'm going to hand over to my colleague Natalie.
Natalie Tillinger
Thank you, Anita and Rachel to. I too would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the Kulin nation on which I am joining from today.
And I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and I extend that respect to any Aboriginal people who were joining us today.
In preparing for today I really thought deeply about supervision and what it means to me, and I can with confidence say that supervision has been central to my practice in the field over the past 18 years. Reflecting on the early days of my career, especially, I count the most significant time of my both personal and professional growth to have occurred in the context of supervision. And to this day supervision, both my own as well as the supervision and facilitation of reflective practice that I provide to others, is something that I consider as being essential to undertaking the work well. The role of supervision in providing the space to consider what we as individuals bring to the work. How the work may impact us, as well as that opportunity to reflect on our own experiences and learn from them, is equally as important to the craft of doing the actual doing. So with all of this in mind, it was my absolute pleasure to be invited to contribute to the Best practice supervision guidelines project, and I am equally thrilled to be a part of today's launch.
The Best practice supervision guidelines captured the importance of supervision as being central to developing and sustaining our workforces. We know our sector has a highly skilled, dedicated and resilient workforce who for many years have embraced the importance of supervision and reflective practice.
And as Rachel mentioned, the Centre for Workforce Excellence team has worked closely with the sector and victim advisory, Victim Survivor Advisory Council to develop 5 videos based on content from the Guidelines and they are the Introduction to the guidelines video, the Roles and responsibilities video, the First supervision session which is broken into three videos: one discussing what we mean by supervision. One on discussing a supervision history and one on discussing a supervision agreement. Then there's of course the Sharing lived experience video as well as the Reflective supervision video.
Alongside these videos, the Centre for Workforce Excellence have developed discussion guides, which include suggested discussion questions and the discussion guides have been developed for training reflection purposes and to really help the sector engage with the videos and the guidelines. We would now like to show you the trailer for this work.
Anita Morris
So following that trailer, I'm going to spend a little bit of time now talking about the one of the videos, the Role of organisations supervisor and supervisee. Uh, when the Centre for Workforce Excellence was developing the Guidelines, the sector was seeking real clarity in terms of actually asking for a table that just outlined all of the roles and responsibilities that related to the organisation, the supervisor and the supervisee. And so what this resulted in was close collaboration with the peak body Safe and Equal and a 5 page table. So when the Centre for Workforce Excellence were asking about which video topics to focus on, this particular topic on the roles and responsibilities was suggested early on by the Sector Working Group. So we're just going to show you that video now. I think, yes.
Role of organisation, supervisor and supervisee Video transcript https://www.vic.gov.au/media/989449
Anita Morris
So now I'm delighted to introduce Steve Herd, Steve's Manager, Clinical Leadership at the Men's Referral Service at No to Violence and Steve's pronouns are he/him.
Steve came to social work later in life and is proud to say he's worked in the family violence sector now for over 15 years, mainly with men who use family violence at the Men's Referral Service and men's behaviour change groups. Steve brings a well-rounded background because he also spent several years in the alcohol and other drugs sector building capability of responding to family violence whilst promoting and embedding MARAM, and a year spent in Raven Hall prison working with prisoners. Recently, Steve returned to No to Violence as the Manager of Clinical Leadership, where he provides clinical supervision to men's family violence counsellors.
So I've got some questions for you, Steve this afternoon. And the first question to you is how would you incorporate this content into supervision training and a discussion around roles and responsibilities?
Steve Herd
Yeah. Thanks, Anita. It's a pleasure to be here.
Let's just look at what the resources are. First up, we've got the the Guidelines, the video and discussion guide, and so the the Guidelines provide a really nice foundational understanding of what the aspects of clinical supervision are about.
Plus, I'm really impressed with the range of resources in the document too that all resources and references that can help us extend our reading and and knowledge base. And then the video, as you say, is a series of videos depicting aspects of supervision, but also supervision in action.
Then the discussion guide, which great prompts for the different roles in our organisations than organisational leaders, supervisors and supervisees. So they can be used in different settings of our choosing depending on the context of our organisation and the makeup and the opportunities that we have coming together as different groups, whether that's in team meetings, in communities of practice, in peer supervision or just in that line management meetings as well. And some things to really consider though is probably being a more important now. Things like what was said in the video around having a shared responsibility between the organisation and the supervisor and supervisee, there's not just one who drives it, but all should have a range of knowledge around their responsibility and be proactive in that.
And perhaps one of the activities one could do in a in a mixed training session, if you can mix up the the managers, supervisors and supervisees at the one time, is ask them to consider what their particular role is and then ask them to reflect on what do you expect of the other roles. So managers might then have preconceived ideas as to what supervisors or supervisees may have responsibilities for, etcetera, but then asked them the reverse question of considering your role again, what do you think the other roles expected of you? So what can you give to that in terms of your own responsibility, and that helps to sort of clarify expectations around what my role is, what my responsibility about my role might be as well.
Other activities that can be done in that group training session is some brainstorming, especially around that idea of what contributes to effective and beneficial supervision. And that comes out of the discussion guide as a nice setup activity. So once we have those activities sort of embedded, then we can spend the time in a very interactive and collaborative kind of space. I would also ask the group of that the comment that Anu made in the in the video about radical listening. I was.
I was drawn to that the term, I, I hadn't heard before. I've heard obviously the active listening and adaptive listening, but I'd really like to yeah, get a group a mixed group to really unpack what they think radical listening might mean for them and their particular role.
Anita Morris
Yeah, it's great when the learning is as much for supervisors, that is, as it is for supervisees and language changes overtime so I think it's really helpful when we are exploring different ways of understanding what we're doing in supervision.
One of the things that was also picked up on, so Janine referred to intersectional feminism, and I wondered if you thought that would resonate with the training participants.
Steve Herd
Well, I think it does. My my experience with feminism being a an older white male ohh is is at a distance. And when I was first drawn into the family violence field through working with men, it was through the the feminist framework, which taught me a whole range of things around the equality and patriarchy and and gender or gender inequality. And then through that time, through those last 15 years, 10-15 years, there's been more thinking and understanding around the intersections of our different identities, the personal and political overlaps. Oh oh, it really broadened uh, what can be seen as how identity being barriers to how we want to progress in life and and seek opportunity and and enact that opportunity. But what, but exploring the barriers that that come along with that. And so I think that, and, and I think most people in this profession have probably a similar, well a a deeper meaning to what intersectional feminism might be. For me, I'm continuing to explore it. And I have had a really nice conversations with my supervisees about what they mean by intersectional feminism. And I guess that the general approach to them as how we unpack that, is to look at the separate words around feminism and equality and gender, and then the intersectionality meaning, the different identities, which could draw on our yeah, gender, age, ability, etcetera, but also extends ourselves towards other aspects of discrimination and oppression and ultimately gets us talking about power, pretty readily. And then that really sets us up, especially in my role in my organisation where we deal with men who use violence who actively use power.
That power is an ever present quality throughout the all the different strands of our organisation and our work. And so again, that kind of question, even though people may not be familiar with the the term, can actually help brainstorm some great ideas in a group setting to help sort of achieve some kind of group understanding. But for me it's an ongoing, it's an ongoing quest, an ongoing discussion.
Anita Morris
And I suppose it helps when we're working in services and systems, helps people really start to unpack the some of the structural and systemic discrimination and barriers that people experience, in the very service responses that we are trying to make trauma-informed and responding to people, you know, according to their own unique risks and needs. But I'm also thinking about if we sort of draw that concept of intersectional feminism to how we connect it to the concept of supervision and out why supervisees engage in the work that they do. Did you have any thoughts about that?
Steve Herd
Yeah. I’ll start sort of where, where you left off and where I left off previously. And that's just around looking at, looking at power and how power is used for good or how power could be used to create harm as well. And we talk about, you know, power between the supervisor and supervisee. We talk about the supervisee and, and their clients. In our setting we often talk about the use of power by our client to us in our organisation, but also on to his, well their family and their individuals just to ascertain impact and discuss impact. Um, there's also, yeah, organisational power that comes, comes down on us, not unique in any organisation to have hierarchies et cetera. So that's an ever present and quality to keep putting in perspective as to what power there is in the organisation versus the power I'm using as an individual in my role, in my role perhaps the supervisor versus a supervisee and the discussions evolve further around power but also bring up other qualities around values and ethics of the individuals. Ohh so really helped me reflect on what my values and ethics are in the work as well, but I'm having a a conversation with the supervisees and exploring that in a, in a, in an equal and collaborative setting. And we also talk about advocacy and justice around our work, again, translating that to how we work with men who use violence can mean different things to different people. But certainly our advocacy work can be for the system, for our clients to, to get more support, but also for what advocacy their families need to get the support they need, obviously.
And we try and instil where we can, it's not always successful or apparent, but tapping into the ethics or justice of our client and seeing how their behaviour may enact that justice or speak against it. So how we how we tread that conversation is to keep exploring elements of power. Keep reflecting on it. Perhaps supervisees get more insight into how they can engage with their clients, but also further carry on with that cycle of learning and the cycle of reflection and practice improvement.
So I think ultimately as a bit of a summary, Anita, it's, it's around an ongoing conversation.
Anita Morris
Indeed, and I suppose as part of that, and you know, you've certainly spoken to that concept of power through this, um, through this conversation, but also the conversations in supervision. So I'm thinking about that concept of ‘power with’ as opposed to ‘power over’. And I guess as part of that, even just you know, we're learning about concepts here. So that concept of ‘power with’ - what would you, how would you describe it? And then what do you think around that supervisory relationship and concepts of power?
Steve Herd
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I guess that let me sort of start off with that idea of ‘power over’ where where I guess the keyword is, is being controlling and controlling and being the decision maker. And again, there's real parallel with the our clientele. Ohh, but how weird. I mentioned just a bit, a bit earlier just around collaboration, but it's about setting up a collaborative relationship with supervisee. That's my from my perspective as a supervisor. And having a shared decision making and being clear on what, what boundaries there are to that decision making as well.
But, but a few examples on that are around working through the supervision agreement. Are there are there nearly 20 odd questions there or 20 topics to talk about? I've, I think I've refined it down to about 16. I thought, do we need all of these questions or what's the value? But since I've been going through them with my supervisees, there, there is most definitely value, it really prompts for those conversations that we wouldn't have had before. And the way I set, set up doing an agreement is I do it over sort of two or three sessions. So that leaves time to interweave, obviously, the clinical practice that's going on and that clinical supervision needs that the supervisee has at the time and we just allocate time in this session to cover both of those topics. Uh, but the but going through the agreement really sets up our relationship in terms of power and use of power and conflict.
Ohh and really a common theme that comes out of that is a consistent approach that pretty well all our supervisees um ohh prefer is a reflective one, where we discuss options and the clinical judgments left up to them and then my role is to perhaps pose and provoke other thinking, but also yeah go through the supervision elements of exploring assumptions and biases as to why we, as to why those options might be better than other options. But certainly yeah without over, over it discussing it now that there are other boundaries to that in terms of our practice.
Other, another way to demonstrate that is identifying a particular learning need that a supervisee may have. Or no actually maybe not a learning need, but a learning interest that may actually fall out the mainstream practice. But to help keep them enthused and and energised. Yes. Well, let's identify that as a learning need over the next 6 or 12 months and then I can support you and me and we can sort of learn it a bit more together and continue to reflect on how it does actually probably relate to our practice. So it's really tapping into their own individual interest as opposed to, you know, the the model of care that that we need our clinicians to, to enact and reflect on. So there are a couple of examples that they can help build collaboration rather than having a, a master servant kind of relationship.
Anita Morris
I really liked um when you said explore together and I think it is being led a lot of the time by supervisees. It reminds me of a quote from Carolyn Gilbert about reflective supervision along the lines of ‘don't impose on me what you know. I want to explore the unknown and be the source of my own discoveries’. And you know that idea, that concept of walk alongside, I think is so valuable and sets up such a nice partnership dynamic so that there's supervisor um understands where they start and finish.
And that is about, I think a lot of the time, enabling supervisees to lead.
And I guess with that it can be a little bit tricky because supervisees are often, you know, perhaps not as experienced in the workforce perhaps not feeling as empowered in the way that they approach things and so when you have a situation where not all organisations or programs actually prioritise supervision in the way that, you know, we're promoting it through these videos, how do you think the videos may be able to empower supervisees to prioritise or the training participants I suppose that are learning about supervision, to prioritise supervision within different contexts?
Steve Herd
Is certainly the the video does point to a whole lot of positives around what the benefits are of of supervision, and they're not just all for the supervisor or for the supervisee. It's was mentioned that the organisation has a lot to benefit from. So I think keeping a focus on what the what the common benefits are around having a a, a a learning culture at the organisation, enacting, staff well, where the organisation is concerned about staff wellbeing and typically staff retention. And it allows us to improve and incrementally improve our best practice and therefore we have improved outcomes for clients. So it's those range of positives that hopefully allow supervisees to, to, to, to grasp an attitude of learning, but also be safe in that sense of vulnerability, around asking for help and support in certain areas.
Yeah when I came into the family of violence space I thought the idea of a clinical supervision was just an absolute privilege. It was a space I could sit and learn. Take a breath, block out what's going on and have a have a very safe conversation. Perhaps that's more reflective of the supervisors I've had. Ohh and how they approached me and welcomed me into the work and I'll probably look back and think my my my practice was of a certain standard then, but they certainly were very encouraging and and again, that's where I learned the idea of incremental improvement. We start where we're at and we build upon it from there. So as far as encouraging supervisees yes, treat it as a safe place. That should be a safe place and you've got a right to feel safe in that environment. And then there's OK, there's accountability for both parties.
Accountability for Supervisees to attend and learn and act perhaps certain practices, but for the supervisor to put their practice, expose their practice too, to the supervisee and, and therefore we can gain that that level of collaboration again.
Anita Morris
Yes. And I think fortunately, the video talks to the roles and responsibilities of the organisations as well. So how organisations can support it being a safe space and then you know, I'm just reflecting on some of the concepts that if it is a space of exploration, there is opportunity to unpack some of those concepts that supervisees may not have come across before in their practice and think about how they relate to those concepts and how they would I imagine them showing up in the way that they work and the way they understand clients. We have kind of got to the time where we're going to hand over to Natalie and we haven't had any questions in the chat as yet. I'll just check the Q&A, but I'm thinking that might mean we just keep going.
No questions yet, so we'll keep going and I'll hand over to Natalie now who's going to introduce the next video. So thank you so much, Steve.
Natalie Tillinger
Thank you, Anita and Steve. So it is my pleasure now to share with you all a bit about the Sharing lived experience video and I guess the idea for the Sharing lived experience video came about early as well. The Sector Working Group explained that supervisors were not sure what their role was in such situations and they proposed that having a role play to show an empathic and strengths-based why of responding would be useful. So the Centre for Workforce Excellence team used the material from the section on the lived experience in the workforce from the Guidelines and really relied on victim-survivor and sector advice to develop the video. So let's take a look at it now.
Sharing lived experience Video transcript https://www.vic.gov.au/media/989460
Natalie Tillinger
It is now my absolute pleasure to introduce our next special guest, Lisa Levis, who is the Manager of Statewide Coordination and Sector, and the Sector Development Unit at Safe and Equal. Lisa is originally from South Eastern Queensland and grew up on Quandamooka Country. She has two adult children and one chihuahua. Lisa is an advocate and leader in the family violence sector, working to address the drivers of family violence. She's a qualified men's behaviour change facilitator and has a wealth of experience in this specialist family violence and refuge sector, system integration and intersectional feminist leadership. Lisa's experience as a trainer includes delivering the former CRAF identifying family violence, and various MARAM Training.
A warm welcome to you, Lisa.
Lisa Levis
Hi Natalie.
Natalie Tillinger
OK, so we have a few questions that we're going to work through together.
So we might kick off with the first one, which goes to, at what point from your experience in a training session would you use the Sharing lived experience video?
Lisa Levis
Ohh yeah, thanks Natalie. I think that would be something that would definitely be very important to include in training, but I think it would be something that um would be best placed to sort of towards the end of a training session when people sort of in the room or the virtual room kind of had a sense of one another. And there was a bit of safety and trust. Um and we're messages, you would have had a chance to sort of like reiterate supportive messages throughout the training so that people can gauge, you know, their level of, of comfort with interacting with the conversation.
Natalie Tillinger
Yeah, cause that really does speak to that need to be mindful that the sharing of lived experience, you know, for some people it might, the level of comfort to do so might come about quicker than for others.
Lisa Levis
That's right.
Natalie Tillinger
But to, to, to be sure, to kind of create that safety within the group, as a starting point is absolutely important.
Lisa Levis
Hmm. Yeah.
Natalie Tillinger
Okay, In your experience, what is the target audience in terms of the supervision experience necessary of supervisors?
Lisa Levis
Um, well, I think I think the, this video and, you know the whole suite of video is really, can be used at anytime irrespective of the supervisor's level of experience and I think, it's it's really like, and I know that's Steve and Anita touched on it earlier, but like that collaborative relationship between supervisors and supervisees, it's, it's really beneficial to build capacity or capability for new supervisors, but also, you know, I've.
I've experienced, been working in teams where there are people who are showing leadership, but they're not in a formal supervisory role, so I, you know, I'm, I always say that, you know, you don't have to be a manager to be a leader and you know, so I think ohh you know, building the capability of people who are not necessarily in formal supervisory roles to be, you know, to sort of encourage that really collaborative and supportive team environment. So that because yeah, there is that there is the supervisory relationship, but there's also support that can be gained from the broader team as well. So I think the the video has like a range of applications even like in team meetings, in all staff, you know to sort of message that lived experience is welcome, is valuable, is treated with respect and is seen as expertise that it's nothing to be ashamed of and you don't have to not mention it if that's what you choose to do. And also like to recognise the, the roots of the family violence, and specialist family violence sector, it was built on lived experience, so we have that you know, that heritage to sort of respect and honour, that you know this the whole sector wouldn't sort of be here if it wasn't for lived experience and women are advocating in that way.
Natalie Tillinger
Thank you so much, Lisa. That's such an important point that you make in terms of the applicability of the guidelines and the videos to kind of support people to know how to receive those messages around lived experience from colleagues or from people that they're not necessarily in a supervisory relationship, is something really important to highlight .So thank you so much.
Moving us on, the boundary between supervision and therapy/counselling was something we carefully considered in the guidelines and videos. How would you use this video to generate discussion about this in a training session?
Lisa Levis
Um, well, I think that something, something can be therapeutic without it being counselling. And I think that we have, we have an idea that one thing ends and another starts and there's sort of like a very rigid line. Um and those lines can sometimes be called boundaries, and I think that they're not necessarily, um, you know, they don't resonate with a lot of people. And I think it is something that we need to um, have that boundary quite fluid because it is sort of like a middle class privilege when we think that there's a clean, clear line between work, um and life and that you know that there's one fits neatly into a package over here and one fits neatly into a package over here. And I know you know, in other sectors they call lived experience lived and living experience. And I think, you know, I see that more and more now and, um, yeah because you know, violence against women and children is so prevalent that it's, it's, it's better to assume that, you know, our colleague, the people we're working with across the sector are in some way impacted, whether it's right now or whether it's historical. But if we sort of like, design our um, the ways of working with each other to assume that there is some element of living, living experience. Then we'll be sort of much more compassionate and empathetic in our approaches.
Natalie Tillinger
So really speaking to that idea that you can't neatly kind of define and delineate between the two, and I guess from my perspective, the video really did have that lovely balance between recognising what was happening for the supervisee in the context of the work, but also that opening to be able to, you know, connect sooner if you know if waiting for the next supervision session wasn't something that was going to be helpful.
Lisa Levis
Hmm. Hmm. That's right.
Natalie Tillinger
So um, thank you for that. Moving into the next question, which really kind of goes to this idea, um, that in order to for training participants to apply the learnings from the video, a thoughtful and compassionate approach is required. So just interested in your thoughts around some of the considerations you would have in relation to that?
Lisa Levis
Hmm. Yeah. Um well definitely I think some elements to consider would be, you know to create like we to create a safe enough space, like, to or to create like a brave space. We can't assume that a space that we're creating is safe, but we can try and make it safe enough, or brave, and to establish a supportive environment where people feel comfortable to share their thoughts and that will be, you know, like monitoring how other people interact and responses and what's tolerated and, and you know, guidelines and respectful ways of interacting from the outset and to, you know, like like has been said I'm couple of times already in this session, but you know to encourage reflection. Reflection is so important, critical self-reflection is something that would definitely be encouraged and asking participants to reflect on the videos content and how it relates to their own experiences or um practice that they've engaged in and what they might encounter in their work. And maybe, you know, have some guiding questions around that do in small groups so that people feel comfortable and that they can share. And then facilitate sort of more broader discussion so everyone can learn from each other and maybe present some case examples, or um, yes, some other sort of mechanisms to sort of demonstrate that that reflective practice and how valuable it is. And thinking critically, problem solving and encouraging empathy and understanding, and I think that like if by fostering like an environment of compassion and understanding, the practical application is, is much easier, and we can offer participants effective ways to integrate the strategies into their work.
Natalie Tillinger
they’re really, really important and valuable elements. Thank you so much, Lisa.
I'm moving us to our final question for today and this really goes to lived experience of family or sexual violence may come up in supervision in numerous ways. How would you support training participants to apply learnings from this video to different scenarios?
Lisa Levis
Well, I think the video really demonstrates some super important elements of responding effectively and empathetically with the with the supervisee. The supervisor um, so she's really, she's really grateful and respectful about the supervisee sharing her lived experience and, and having that trust. And so she recognises that. So there's she creates space for the full story to be told. She, she highlights the, the things that the supervisee did, you know, to sort of take care of her in that moment. And then she expands on that to say, like, what else would you do if those things didn't work? Um, so I think like, come, from that from that video,
I think there's, there's sort of, there's many ways that you can sort of look and sort of think, OK, well, I might not say those words, but I would say these words and I can see how that conversation was structured. And then she checked in, and then she respected what the supervisor, supervisee said about not wanting to check in, like she didn't force it. But she's also, like, really clear and transparent about what she would do with the information. And I think that would have created safety because, um, the supervisee is not going to be thinking ohh Gee, you know what have I said now? And is she gonna come up and tap me on the shoulder? You know, in the tea room or something can go like ohh. Hey, you know, I heard, you know, whatever.
Um, so there was like a containment. And I think that that's really important because sometimes, you know, we're probably all heard the terminology like, you know, the vulnerability hangover where you've sort of spoken something and then you've thought ohh Gee, should have I said that. But the way that supervisor handled it, she she held the space and she closed it off. But there was an opportunity for it to be rediscussed at their next meeting. So there was, um, there was a plan and there was a negotiated plan, I think is what is probably a really good demonstration of that. And this is what Steve and Anita were talking about earlier. You know, that shared power.
So she wasn't gonna say ‘Ohh I'll come and see you on Tuesday and we can talk about it more’ and take all of that, you know, power away from her supervisee. So I think, yeah, there were many things that you could draw on and like and that's just. Yeah, that's just a few really.
Natalie Tillinger
Yeah. No, thank you so much, Lisa. As you were speaking, I was reflecting on the things that stood out for me and they were very much the same things. I think that the position of the supervisor to provide a space which absolutely felt like it was non-judgmental and came from a place of curiosity. But then the partnering right to the end around what those next steps were, were very important and I think key things to hone in on in terms of the utilisation of the videos for training purposes. Um, I think there may have been a question popping to the chat as we were chatting, which was just around the practice guides, whether they're available for download and the link has already been provided and I may just check the Q&A if there's anything in there, there's no questions yet so I think at this point a big, big thank you to you, Lisa, for your reflections and we may at this point hand back over to Anita.
Lisa Levis
Thanks Natalie.
Anita Morris
Lovely to hear that discussion. So I'm going to probably channel Wordsworth for the people who have experienced that evaluation on the run. We've done our own little evaluation on the run, if you like. And with that, SAS Vic recently, as recently as the 5th of December, were able to use the guidelines in a little pilot of their new Introduction to Clinical Supervision training. And so we're lucky enough today to have the trainer, Oriana Caporilli with us, to share her insights. So Oriana's pronouns are she/her and Oriana currently works as the Training and Education Officer at Sexual Assault Services Victoria. I didn't know Oriana if you wanted to just say a little bit more about your background or role. I think Lisa included mention of her chihuahua, so feel free to add whatever you'd like in terms of your um, your broader world experience.
Oriana Caporilli
Thanks, Anita. First of all, can you hear me? I was a bit concerned about..
Anita Morris
Indeed, yes.
Oriana Caporilli
Oh very good. Thank you so I’m Oriana. I've been with SAS Vic for about 12 months, but I'm a social worker by background. I've worked primarily as a clinician over the years in drug and alcohol, mental health, disability and I've mixed that up with a bit of education and training. And so that's my role here. I have an adorable dog, who's a puppy and is driving me… Ohh he's very energetic. We'll leave it at that. And the cat, who doesn't quite know what is happening. So but lovely to be here.
Anita Morris
Beautiful. Thank you. So I'm gonna ask you a few questions about the training that you ran recently. So firstly, how did it go?
Oriana Caporilli
Yeah, look, it was very recent and we still sort of waiting to come together to have some good reflection around it. But I think it went pretty well. Um, it was a one day introductory training for new supervisors and soon to be supervisors in the specialist sexual assault sector. Um. And so it was scheduled from 10:00 to 3:30. But I really think we would have benefited from more time, and when you and I spoke, you mentioned people may like to know what do we mean by more time. I think probably we would stick with the one day again in future because that's a bit more manageable for people, I think, if they're taking time out of their schedule, but we'd probably start earlier at 9:00 and finish at about 4:30 to give us a little more time.
So we could explore some of the topics in a bit more depth. Yeah, I mean, also, sorry, no, no, I'm interrupting you.
Anita Morris
I. Well, I was just going to say I think one day he's actually really good. And I suppose one of the efficiencies you can build in is perhaps giving perhaps videos as videos and reflections as pre work, so that on the day people come a little bit more prepared for the discussions, because that's usually the heart of the training is you know how they get together and talk about what they're learning. So that was just a thought. I had to keep it to the one day.
Oriana Caporilli
Alright, it's a great thought. A great thought, and I'll take a note. I think you're right, Anita. I think it'd be really useful to send some of that stuff out beforehand. It would just make it a bit more efficient on the day, yeah.
Anita Morris
But I'm also interested in, you know, the use of the Guidelines in the training and understanding which parts you used and how did that go?
Oriana Caporilli
Yep, we were really keen to use the Guidelines. It was really timely. I think the development of the training and the Guidelines being released, the group were already familiar with them, which was really good and we incorporated information about quite a few things using an intersectional feminist lens. The use of supervision models, reflective supervision and we also spent quite a bit of time talking about the functions of supervision. Um, which I think really opened up a robust conversation because I think. Um, not everybody's understanding is the same when it comes to the purpose of clinical supervision. So it was useful to be able to have that conversation as a group and share thoughts and feelings and have a discussion and use the Guidelines as a resource to support that.
We actually gave participants a copy of the information sheets on the four functions and also on reflective supervision as handouts to take with them. They're great resources and I think it's really useful for participants to be able to take something away with them as a reference, but also to support their practice beyond the training itself. So we also the Guidelines include trauma- and violence-informed principles from the Blue Knot Foundation, which is great. We referred to these in the training in the context of supervision, and we also gave participants a copy of that table, which I think is really useful because it doesn't just outline the principles, but it also includes some questions that can be used as prompts by organisations, by supervisors and also by supervisees to, to really promote reflective supervision.
Anita Morris
And I think often that's what people are wanting. They're wanting the things that will give them that confidence when they go back to the workplace and start to implement this for themselves. How do, you know, day one as a supervisor -
how do you feel that you've got what you need and how do you, I guess, convey that to the person that you're going to be supervising? So I think a lot of those takeaways are really handy, because people will learn a lot in the day, sometimes all of that learning in one day can be a little bit overwhelming. But the takeaways keep it real when they go back in and have to start to put some of this into practice. But I am interested also about how you might have considered using the videos themselves and the discussion guides in the training?
Oriana Caporilli
Yeah. Look, we did. We had planned on showing two of the videos. One was the video setting the scene for discussing a supervision agreement and the one on reflective supervision, but unfortunately we ran out of time. Which is part of that thinking around, you know how you set it up and how much time you have. Um, the training was structured so that the first part of the day was more theoretical and the second part was intended to be a bit more interactive and experiential. And we really wanted to mix up the mediums that we used to keep people engaged and in my experience, videos can be a really great way to do this. I think it it's especially when you've got examples and role plays like these videos do, which really demonstrate one way that you can approach a particular subject and have the conversation.
So we were excited to use the supervision agreement video because it's really is a practical demonstration of how you can introduce the supervisory agreement and how you can discuss the benefits with the supervisee. Ohh but again, unfortunately we ran out of time, so there's some learnings for us for the next time. I think the supervision agreement, um information is really interesting, though most services seem to have supervision, supervision agreements in place. It was really useful to discuss how they're used and to revisit their purpose and also their value in setting up and supporting a good supervisory relationship, which then really contributes in a meaningful way to be able to go on and do lots of the other things that we've been talking about today, and explores perhaps some of the more challenging subjects that can come up and supervision.
Anita Morris
Definitely, yeah.
Oriana Caporilli
And you asked, I think it was also the discussion guides which I failed to mention, but I actually spent quite a bit of time before the training looking through them and I found them really helpful for me personally as a trainer just in thinking about how I might frame the different topics on the day and how I might be able to open up the discussion and what questions I could use to encourage conversation and in particular, just some of the stuff around the functions of supervision. It was really useful to use some of that information to think about how people, we know that there are four functions, but thinking about which of those do we tend to move towards and which of those do we tend to move away from and knowing that and having that awareness, how can we then work towards integrating those and finding a better balance so that we might not do all of them at any one time. But so that we're not leaving bits of it off altogether. And that was a really interesting, I think, reflection for participants.
Anita Morris
Hmm. Um, so I guess a final question would be, what advice would you have for other trainers who might be thinking of using the supervision guidelines and videos and discussion guides in their own supervision training?
Oriana Caporilli
I would really encourage people to use them quite, quite genuinely. When I started, they're doing research on clinical supervision and trying to pull this together. There is so much information out there and so the Guidelines were just a bit of a, you know, wonderful opportunity for all of that information to be in one place which was really useful for me.
But I think there are a great resource and I think in my opinion, they can really be used across sectors, including the broader community sector. I’d encourage trainers to become familiar with them, to really think about how they can be used in their particular context to support and enhance the training that they're thinking of offering. And I guess the other thing I'd say is, you sort of led with that in the beginning, is to really think about how you might use these resources where you might place them, what you might give beforehand and, and the timing of things so that you can really make the best use of, especially I think the videos are really wonderful opportunity to help guide you into other activities, like role plays yourself, which helped to support the learning. But to really make sure you've got enough time and think about where you place them, in your training session.
Anita Morris
Thanks, Oriana. I think that's actually been a bit of a, you know, round the grounds of all of the things to consider when you are setting out to plan, supervision training.
And you did mention yourself taking time to actually immerse in the guidelines and the discussion guides and become really familiar with it. And I think that helps to understand how to I suppose frame and then pitch the training um to make the best use of training time which we know is very precious.
You did also talk about the benefits of those takeaways, and I suppose the thing is always going to be that there is so much you wanna pack in to training, but you have to make a call about what you're leaving and what you take out. So knowing that, even if you don't get to all of the videos in the training, there is opportunities for participants to watch them outside of it, to take back into their own organisations and think about some of the reflective spaces that they may want to use them with colleagues, introducing them to their managers. I always say when people come along to supervision training, you know you're now the advocate for the importance of supervision in your workforce, so how are you going to take some of these learnings and these tools and resources, but I agree with you that place of agreements cannot be emphasised enough. You know, setting out on the right foot, enabling some of that power dynamic to be sorted through at the outset. And I think Steve spoke to, even just taking the time to know that an agreement doesn't have to be sorted on day one. It's part of the developing the relationship part of the getting to know you. So all of those tools and now that you've had an opportunity to, I guess, introduce them through a training program, is really valuable insights for us to take forward and support when we're going to get questions as we have already about how best to make use of these resources.
Um. So with that, we do actually have one question which is about how to capture notes and take accurate records while remaining present and engaged. And I suppose Oriana, given your background and career, I'm happy for you to take this question. Happy for us to share the response, whatever works for you.
Oriana Caporilli
Um, I can just go off the cuff. I mean, I think that's always a challenge is how do you do that? How do you take notes and be present? Look, I I mean, this is my personal opinion. I think I've always just let people know that I'm gonna take some notes and I think in the context of supervision, again, I think, as you set up that supervisory agreement, it's just a wonderful opportunity to have a conversation about lots of different things, including how you might document, um, what happens in supervision, which bits you document, which bits are confidential, how you manage all of that, the boundaries, the importance of record keeping. You know how the Supervisee might also be able to take some notes, so I think it's probably not a solid straight forward answer. People will find their own way in this as they do when working with clients, but I think for me having that conversation from the outset been clear about the purpose of those records and that documentation and how you might do that in a way that I think at least just diverts it so that it's not uncomfortable for people. That is probably a good place to start. I'm happy for you to add. You, you've got so much experience yourself. I'm happy for you to add to that, my answer was brief but…
Anita Morris
Yeah. No, I think you've captured it, in terms of making sure that it is on the agenda as early as possible as part of those early conversations. And I mean, there are so many requirements these days for record keeping that understanding that it is a normal part of the process of you know, best practice supervision, to keep records, there's records templates that supervisors and supervisees can use. So there's a, you know, they're a fairly consistent way of using headings and things to capture what you're exploring in supervision. But I think one of the things I'd also say is technology has created all sorts of ways that we can now capture information. Um, but understanding one of the things that I think goes beyond the capturing is often the transparency around what are you doing with the information that you capture. And so supervisees may be looking for where is that information stored? If you are capturing an electronically or paper copies, who else might get access to it? Because of course, supervisors may go on leave, they may leave the role and early conversations about not only what you'll capture or how you'll capture it, or who will capture it, which I do think is a shared responsibility. But what happens to that information should also be, you know, quite transparent as well.
Otherwise, yeah, I think a great question. So thank you, Ashley, for bringing that to our attention. I'll check the Q&A as well. I think we're pretty comfortable in the chat space, aren't we these days, the Q and I Q&A can sometimes seem a bit formal, but I'd really like to thank you, Oriana, for bringing these resources to life and for sharing your insights with us.
So now we are actually at the point where we will take questions from the audience.
If there are any, they can be general questions that we can invite our speakers to respond to, or you can have a specific question for any of our presenters that you've heard from today. Whilst we are waiting for that to come through, uh, one of the things I would just say is we did have a few pre-forum questions that did come through, the first one being about the frequency of supervision.
So how frequently should supervision be conducted, especially if there's a manager on site daily and holds morning meetings to discuss workloads?
Natalie, I didn't know if you wanted to address that one, or whether anyone else on our panel would like to respond.
Natalie Tillinger
I'm happy to make a couple of comments. I guess the Guidelines just to kind of draw out what the Guidelines, Guidelines themselves recommend and that is one hour of formal supervision per week for new graduates and workers with less than six months of experience and then one hour per fortnight for more experience workers.
But I guess to that idea of how do you actually, you know, there is the opportunity to differentiate between the more informal kind of conversations that might occur and the check ins at the beginning of the day, to actual formal, um, supervision so, what I've just mentioned before, is kind of really does relate to what the recommended frequency is of the formal supervision, and that is separate to those opportunities to connect in with your supervisor or your team on a daily basis relating to the work.
Anita Morris
And I suppose it's also understanding the different types of supervision in terms of, you know, live supervision or is it individual supervision as well as opportunities to engage in group supervision. So the different ways that supervision is delivered.
But I also think there's a few other factors. You know, when we consider organisations may have their own guidelines around how often supervision is provided. I know you know you would know through the APS and I know through the AASW there's also minimum standards there. Um, so I think it is supervisors just having an understanding of the Guidelines can be wonderful in giving you a view of what is the minimum when it comes to particularly working with newer staff. But then you may have quite senior people who you know may have an arrangement that they see their supervisor monthly. So I think there's a bit of room for variation as long as people are aware of what their professional, you know, codes of practice and things recommend as well.
I haven't seen any come through on the Q&A as yet, but we also have a couple of other questions that were sent through earlier. So one of the ones that I think is quite a good one is how applicable other supervision resources for broader community service organisations? Um, I mean, I would say absolutely applicable. I don't know if you've got any thoughts about that, Natalie, given your role Children and Families and the, you know, care sector.
Natalie Tillinger
Yeah. Yeah. And look in a in a past work life, I did work for a community service organisation and, and I just think that the Guidelines and the videos the way that they've been, um created really do speak to lots of different contexts. And I think that there's the application and how applicable they are comes from the fact that everything that's kind of captured within them, you know, despite an organisation having their own positions and expectations, there's elements within the content that I think can be drawn upon so, you know, in absolute agreement with you in terms of the applicability across the sector.
Anita Morris
And I mean, if I think about Victoria, family violence sector is such a broad sector these days with all of the prescribed organisations, so really, many people working in organisations would come under that umbrella of, you know, family violence, sexual assault or sexual violence and child wellbeing services.
Um, there is probably time for one more question. I can't see any that have come through, but I'll just go back to our list. Ohh um question about careers advice. If wanting to join the family violence sector - I think that our colleagues in Centre for Workforce Excellence will be able to send out some links after this forum because there are definitely places to look for information relating to joining the family violence sector, and I know it's more than one link, so to do it justice, I think we'll make sure that the audience gets an opportunity to have those links. There's a question just gone in from someone I know quite well. In fact.
Natalie Tillinger
Hi, Jacinta.
Anita Morris
Um, do the guidelines address how power imbalances can be addressed when the supervisor is male and the supervisee is female? Probably I would go back to Steve, Steve's comments around that and the power dynamics and that unpacking of concepts like intersectional feminism, I think that that is really the invitation to explore those things. But I would also be wanting supervisors to be very sensitive to what does it mean it to have a supervisor of a different gender? I think that that's a really important space. Um to be opened up to make sure that people do feel you know, whether it doesn't necessarily have to be male or female, but I think the more authentic supervisors can be and bring themselves to supervision, but understand what that might mean in terms of privilege, in terms of, you know, intersectionality, making sure that that's really understood from each other's, you know, perspective each other's worldview. So that there aren't any barriers to people feeling safe and supported, and where there are, I think that's the organisation's responsibility to then say, is this the only supervisee/supervisor arrangement within this organisation or is there some flexibility where people can get access to supervision but not necessarily by the person that would otherwise have been nominated? Did you have any final comments about that particular one, Natalie?
Natalie Tillinger
No, I didn't, but one of the questions that people some people did ask prior to today's session, which I think is important to answer, is whether or not the recording of the session will be made available. And we can say yes, that will be. So just wanted to finish us off on that note.
Anita Morris
Wonderful. So I think that is it from Natalie and I and we're just gonna hand back now to Rachel. Who's going to close the session for us.
Rachael Green
Thank you. Both so much. Such a wonderful thing to have such deep expertise with us. Anita and Natalie, your expertise today and the wonderful panel - Oriana, Steve, and Lisa, I think a couple of things that just feel so powerful after that session is just how complex and hard the work is and how critical support, specialist support and supervision is to all parts of the workforce.
I think the other thing that was made a couple of comments made in the videos around, no matter how experienced we all are, we all need ongoing supervision.
We all. We all are continually learning, practice is changing and as we know in Victoria our practice has evolved so much building on from as Lisa so well put, where the the origins of this sector and workforce have come from. So a really, really wonderful session. Thank you so much.
In terms of, from our end, next steps, the Workforce Development team in the Centre are very open to supporting, and wonderful to hear Oriana, you know, already that translation to really practical ways of using these resources, we are so keen for your feedback so we can keep improving and building, developing more kind of resources that are used really usefully by you in the sector, given all else that you are carrying. So the team can come attend meetings, communities of practice, whatever is helpful from your end. And thank you for popping in that in the chat Sue.
I think I mentioned in the beginning, but you Yoowinna is working with us to develop a video that focus on cultural safety and supervision. So keep an eye out for that. That will be at some point next year. Um, links are all there.
But yeah, just a huge thank you for people attending and again a huge thanks to all our speakers and, and the panel today and the team of course behind that pulled this together. Thank you everybody. This will be available and yes, wish you well.
Take care.
Thanks all.
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