Towards an international consensus on a research agenda for social work supervision: Report on the first survey of a Delphi study

Abstract

Supervision is currently of considerable interest in social work and is seen as a vital activity for meeting many professional demands: the continuing development of professional skills, practitioner well-being, the safeguarding of competent and ethical practice, and the oversight of casework. A recent UK review of evidence found that the empirical basis for supervision was relatively weak (Carpenter et al., 2012) and evidential support for supervision as a core practice in social work is needed. This is a significant challenge to supervision educators and researchers. Given the breadth in understanding and implementation of social work across the globe and its distinctive shape in specific national settings, supervision is likely to be very different across these diverse contexts but few comparative data are available. A modified Delphi study was devised to address the question: Is there an international consensus on the agenda for research and development of supervision in social work? This article will outline the processes of study design and recruitment and will report on findings from the first phase of the project.