In a sector that sees the best and the worst of society’s ills on a daily basis, we have to ask ourselves why teaching is the only caring profession that still doesn’t offer, as standard, structured supervision sessions for staff.
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy defines supervision as a “specialised form of mentoring provided for practitioners responsible for undertaking challenging work with people”. It is very clear that supervision should be available for those “working in roles that require regularly giving or receiving emotionally challenging communications or engaging in relationally complex and challenging roles”.
Those working in social work, social care, counselling services and health professions have long had access to supervision - a source of support that builds trust, nurtures professional growth and learning through reflection, manages the impact of work on wellbeing and helps ensure safe, effective working practices.
And yet the teaching profession, which it might be argued involves elements of all of the above roles, is still, inexplicably, waiting its turn.
The wide range of demands on teachers
Aside from the mushrooming workload in the teaching profession, consider the full range of adverse childhood experiences and trauma reactions at play in schools across the country: violence, addiction, child-protection disclosures, poverty, families in every kind of crisis imaginable and, not surprisingly, the dramatic spike in poor mental health.
Add to that the often-complex interactions in the staffroom, external challenges that affect us all (such as the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis) and the relentless accountability around raising attainment, and you can begin to see where the pressure-cooker analogy comes in.
It’s going to take more than the occasional bit of cake on a Friday to manage the ongoing wellbeing of those working at the sharp edge to tackle the biggest issues in our schools.
Small-scale, experimental pockets of supervision practice across the country have confirmed the appetite for support among school leaders.
Need for ‘supervision in its purest form’
However, the intended outcome is often that headteachers then go on to develop a system of support for staff within their own contexts, simply adding yet another “to-do” to their lists. While that might raise awareness of staff wellbeing and start the journey towards systemic wellness, it doesn’t come close to giving practitioners what they so desperately need: supervision in its purest form.
It also quietly ignores the need for supervision down the ranks. And, let’s be frank, it’s often the trusted school assistant who’ll often be the first to hear a heartbreaking disclosure in the playground; it’s the class teachers who face the unpredictable impact of trauma mid-lesson; and it’s the principal teachers who manage the neverending staff issues in their departments, acting as the buffer between the classroom and the senior leadership team.
Emotionally-challenging communications are not exclusive to heads and deputes and, when it comes to supervision, that needs to be addressed.
Balancing professional growth with wellbeing
At best, supervision is an opportunity for all to reflect in a safe space at a protected time, balancing professional growth with wellbeing and exploring all those thorny ethical issues in between. At its worst, it becomes just another performance-management tool that can only ever compound the very stresses that have left the profession searching for the supervision it so desperately needs in the first place.
To that end, it’s the professionals (or agencies) leading the charge on the supervision front who will determine whether or not it adds true value to the profession. After all, it’s not just about ensuring the wellbeing of practitioners but also, crucially, that of the children, young people and families we serve.
As a profession, it’s incumbent upon us to get supervision right, and fast, so that we keep everyone safe and well.
Catherine Lawson is a Scotland-based freelance writer whose previous roles include principal teacher of support and wellbeing and education officer in Education Scotland’s inclusion team
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