The death of reflective supervision? An exploration of the role of reflection withinudsupervision in a Local Authority Youth Offending Service

摘要

Reflection within supervision has been identified as key to effective social work practiceud(Munro, 2011). However, despite the tradition of supervision being strongly embedded in youthudjustice practice, other imperatives, such as audit monitoring and the focus on inspectionudreadiness, have impacted on the content of supervision and the degree of reflection whichudoccurs. This article reports research that examined the experience of practitioners within audLocal Authority Youth Offending Service, exploring the content and level of reflection withinudtheir supervision. The research found that whilst supervision is well embedded within theudorganisation, the content of supervision for practitioners largely focuses on the managementudfunction (Morrison, 2005). Whilst many participants thought that their supervision involved someudreflection on further analysis, using Ruch’s (2005) levels of reflection model, much of theudperceived reflection occurred at the ‘technical’ and ‘practical’ level rather than the ‘process’ orud‘critical’ level. The article explores the implications of the findings and the response of theudauthor’s employing organisation to this research.