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MSW (Child Protection), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus Background: Supervision forms an integral part of social work and is ultimately intended to ensure that the profession and employer’s mandates are achieved through effective service delivery. It aims to empower social workers through education, support and administrative guidance. The research on which this dissertation is based, focused on the need for and profiling of the educational supervision of a group of frontline social workers in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District of the North West Province’s Department of Social Development. The results of this empirical study, combined with those of a literature review, were then used to provide guidelines on how the identified needs could be addressed more effectively in the province. Aim: • To ascertain the need for educational supervision as experienced by child protection social workers in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District of the North West Province’s Department of Social Development. Objectives: • To profile the educational supervision that a group of child protection social workers in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District of Department of Social Development currently receive. • To profile the education supervision needs of the said group. • To compare the two profiles with each other and with social work literature. • To utilise the results of the comparisons to make recommendation and provide guidelines on how educational supervision in the North West Province’s Department of Social Development could be improved. Method: Three recognized approaches to conducting research exist, viz: the quantitative, qualitative and mixed method appriaches (Cresswell et al., 2007:257). In this current study, the quantitative approach was primarily followed. This basically entailed acquiring numerical data to determine the relation between the variables or among social phenomena (Dumont & Sumbulu, 2010:207). The study consisted of a survey of a group of child protection social workers. This survey profiled both the nature of the educational supervision that the respondents currently receive and their supervision needs. The two sets of data produced were then compared with each other, as well as with the ideal espoused in social work literature and the results of additional research in this field. The gaps or discrepancies identified in this manner were then used to formulate recommendations and guidelines. Results: The literature review indicated that the educational function of supervision plays a vital role in providing social workers with social work knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for delivering qualitative, effective and efficient social work services. It is indented to give them autonomy to function independently. The empirical study covered all the selected service points of the Department of Social Development in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District of the North West Province and the type of respondents that it originally targeted. Strengths as well as deficiencies became evident regarding the implementation of the educational supervision. The responses to the survey indicated that the current system has a number of strengths and weaknesses. Its primary strength lies in the fact that it is well-structured, albeit somewhat rigid. It is generally characterised by the use of contracts between supervisors and supervisees and agendas in pre-planned sessions. Supervisors, mostly well-qualified for their task, predominantly behave in an appropriate manner, have good relationships with their supervisees and organises an appropriated number of supervision sessions per annum. The supervisors are good at the provision of especially administrative supervision, have the ability to give appropriate advice and guidance, and to make supervisees feel comfortable to discuss work-related matters. Several deficiencies, however, also emerged from the survey. The first was that the administrative function of supervision tended to dominate. Due to this, supervision tended to be a management instrument and this, coupled with the underutilisation of the other functions, caused dissatisfaction among some respondents. Secondly, it became clear that some of the respondents simply did not receive sufficient educational supervision. This especially applied to new entrants into the profession. A third finding was some lack of uniformity in implementing supervision amongst the different service points and deficiencies in its structuring. This was occasionally characterised by the poor planning of sessions and the allocation of insufficient time for supervision. A final finding was that not all supervisors had received formal or sufficient training for their task and/or were not competent to carry it out effectively. A number of recommendations, based on the findings of the study, have been made to address current deficiencies in the selected district of the Department of Social Development and further afield. Masters |
