Supervision for children’s wellbeing – part one

In this episode, our guests from The Bouverie Centre – Hanna Jewell, Banu Maloney, Julia Oxley, Nicholas Barrington and Angie Nyland – share supervision strategies that focus on the wellbeing of children. They describe their reflective practice with practitioners and how supervision can improve practitioners’ skill and confidence in supporting children.

Supervisors have a prominent role in ensuring children’s needs are considered in practice. In adult-focused services, children may not be physically present but there are still many ways practitioners can bring the child’s wellbeing into focus. By working with practitioners to support effective conversations with adult clients, supervisors can have a positive impact on children’s physical, social and developmental worlds.

The Bouverie Centre is an integrated practice-research organisation that has been bringing family therapy to Australia since 1965. Their mission is to promote healthy relationships in families, organisations and communities. As part of their practice, Bouverie Centre professionals are interested in supervision processes that bring the voice of the child into the room during case discussions, even when the child may not be directly involved in the professional engagement.

In this first episode of our two-part series, our guests discuss the supervisor’s role in making the child visible in discussions with practitioners. They share their own experiences in supporting practice that creates opportunities for improved child experiences and wellbeing, ensuring crucial prevention and early intervention strategies for children’s mental health.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• how to create expectations for child-focused conversations in supervision, particularly for practitioners who might work mainly with adult clients [04:08]
• the importance of establishing safety in supervision, so that a practitioner can be challenged in supportive rather than shaming ways [07:30]
• some questions supervisors can ask practitioners during their first meeting, so that a safe and productive working relationship is established [13:04]
• supervisory tips for helping the practitioner to walk in the shoes of their client’s child, and how this might help them to focus on the child’s wellbeing [17:20]
• how to use reflective practice with practitioners to increase their choices, skills and confidence in asking child-focused questions [24:47]
• how supervisors and practitioners can develop a reflective space which opens new possibilities for a parent or a family [28:45]

Further resources

• Supervision for children’s wellbeing online course (Emerging Minds)
• Six ways to support child-focused practice in adult services practice paper (Emerging Minds)