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TIINA MERKULJEVA
supervision as one of the opportunities to avoid burning out. Supervision
was seen to serve several purposes: (1) sharing experiences and thoughts, (2)
ventilation, and (3) increasing knowledge. Supervision was seen as one way of
reducing stress.’? Child protection work is essentially complicated, multi-level
and low-structured. This requires a high level of competence, self-management
and other skills. A child protection worker is working with its client affected by
the incidents that may be emotionally and ethically complex.”
FORMS OF SUPERVISION IN CHILD PROTECTION
The types of supervision, which is used in child protection work is: 1) individual
supervision — dyadic form of supervision, one supervisor and one supervisee.
The focus is on case supervision. 2) Group supervision — the participants are
from different municipalities (all of them are child protection workers). The
focus is on the opportunity to supply their own topics and working with the
group resources. 3) Team supervision — the participants are from the same
department and the focus of supervision is on team relationships, communication
boundaries, team roles, the atmosphere in the team etc’*. 4) Network supervision
— the participants are from different professions and areas related with child
protection field and current cases. 5) Organisational supervision — Contributes
to the effective functioning of the organization. It takes place through regular
and supervised contacts of superiors and subordinates, and members of
professional teams. The emphasis is on reflecting the relationship between
the team and the wider organizational environment, on illuminating power
positions, and on institutional and subjective understanding of roles and tasks.
This organizational supervision approach contributes to organizational culture.
Internal supervision is supervision within an organization/by a member of the
organization. External supervision is supervision by an independent supervisor
not responsible for the work of the supervisees and not taking a monitoring
function on the work of the supervisees.!°
2 Toros, Assessment of Child Well-being, 133-134.
K. Koppel, Necessary but under-funded: the inner and outer image of social work in Estonia,
Journal of Social Work, 6 (2012) 39.
ECVision. Supervision and Coaching in Europe: Concepts and Competences, Vienna, ANSE,
2015, 32-39.
15 Ibid.
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