GOOD SUPERVISION OF ENTRY-LEVEL SOCIAL WORKERS IN SINGAPORE FAMILY SERVICE CENTRES

Abstract

In international literature, supervision has been widely regarded to be key to supporting entry-level social workers in the process of the development of their competencies, professional identity and ethical social work practice. This is no different in Singapore. With supervision esteemed as crucial, whether supervision for entry-level social workers is good or poor becomes critical. Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, this study aimed to investigate good supervision experiences of entry-level social workers in Family Service Centres in Singapore. This was done by investigating along two bases of enquiry of: construct and experience. Based on O’Donoghue, Wong & Tsui’s (2018) Evidence-informed model, 5 empirically-based categories were translated into interview domains for the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 entry-level social workers from Family Service Centres. To summarize the findings; (1) elements in good supervision; (2) the processes of how good supervision were formed; (3) the experiences within good supervision; and (4) the outcomes of good supervision, were elicited. To integrate the findings derived from the construct and experience of supervision, the Amalgamated Construct-Experience Supervision model was proposed. Finally, future research directions and implications on social work practice and policy were discussed.