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

Reflection within supervision has been identified as key to effective social work practice

(Munro, 2011). However, despite the tradition of supervision being strongly embedded in youth

justice practice, other imperatives, such as audit monitoring and the focus on inspection

readiness, have impacted on the content of supervision and the degree of reflection which

occurs. This article reports research that examined the experience of practitioners within a

Local Authority Youth Offending Service, exploring the content and level of reflection within

their supervision. The research found that whilst supervision is well embedded within the

organisation, the content of supervision for practitioners largely focuses on the management

function (Morrison, 2005). Whilst many participants thought that their supervision involved some

reflection on further analysis, using Ruch’s (2005) levels of reflection model, much of the

perceived reflection occurred at the ‘technical’ and ‘practical’ level rather than the ‘process’ or

‘critical’ level. The article explores the implications of the findings and the response of the

author’s employing organisation to this research.