Oxford University Press Child Welfare Supervision: A Practical Guide for Supervisors, Managers, and Administrators

Child welfare supervisors need and deserve a book oriented to the reality of their work.Supervision in Child Welfare connects the theoretical and practical to provide readers with the most relevant and sound approaches to supervision. While the availability of professional training programs in the states for supervisors has grown exponentially over the past years, publications that can support this work specific to supervision in a child welfare context are few. Supervision in Child Welfare translates generic supervision principles to the specifics and reality of the child welfare practice environment. Supervisors operate in a bureaucratic system and respond to a community context of multiple stakeholders. Supervisors support and offer guidance to a stressed workforce while attending to competing demands in an environment where children's lives are at stake. Research has shown that supervisors stand in a pivotal position in the child welfare workforce in terms of recruiting and retaining the best employees, moving agencies to best practice frameworks and creating an sustaining positive organizational climates. Supervision in Child Welfare bridges the gap between research and supervisory practice, between management and organizational theory and supervisory practice. It provides a comprehensive, integrated resource for child welfare supervisors to give them tools and information to succeed in the fast-paced and intense world of child welfare. The book covers a wide range of must-have skills and knowledge for supervisors including leadership, developing worker performance, managing the Child Welfare unit, working beyond the agency, managing performance, providing clinical supervision, and respecting diversity. Plentiful examples and case studies illustrate key concepts.