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SUPERVISION EXPERIENCE AND EXPECIATION OF CHILD PROTECTION WORKERS IN ESTONIAN MUNICIPALITIES ——o— TIINA MERKULJEVA ABSTRACT This survey is one part of a bigger project — Implementation of child protection workers supervision practice in Estonian context. The first step in this project is to analyze the context of Estonia and the current situation related with supervision in child protection. The purpose of this study is to answer one question: What are the current supervision experiences and expectations of child protection workers in 15 Estonian municipalities? This survey is focused on external supervision — that means supervision by an independent supervisor outside of the organization and not taking a monitoring function on the work of the supervisees, and explores the experience and expectations of child protection workers in the following types of supervision: individual, group, team, network and organizational supervision. The study revealed the benefits of experienced supervision, suggestions to the future and topics of the supervision important for respondence. The most common suggestions to improve the efficiency of supervision was pointed out: supervision should be regular and more structured; in addition to group supervision an individual one is also needed; and supervision should be obligatory for professional development. INTRODUCTION Changes in Estonian society have brought forth serious welfare problems concerning children and families, especially higher rates of child neglect. The past 20 years of child protection in Estonia has shown that dealing with the consequences is not sustainable. The new Child Protection law came into force in 2016 and pays great attention to preventive approach, evidence based practise and child protection workers professionalism and professional support. According to the new law, the government is obliged to arrange for the constant support and supervision of child protection workers to ensure professionalism.
