What next?

Why engage in professional supervision?

Youth work can be stressful and demanding. An experienced youth work supervisor provides you with regular support, clarity and understanding in your professional role. They support you when dealing with stressful situations and workloads. A supervisor works alongside you as you:

• determine what your next steps are (in your practice, overall career, and professional development)
• remotivate yourself to stay focused on your goals
• reflect on challenging or uncertain situations (what happened, what could be improved, what went well, what to do going forward?).

Supervision is also an opportunity to celebrate achievement at work.

Supervision provides support and guidance with professional ethics. The Code of Ethics for Youth Work in Aotearoa New Zealand¹ repeatedly refers to the role of supervision. Boundary issues, power dynamics in youth work relationships, and reflection, are aspects specifically identified in the Code of Ethics as requiring supervision. Best practice includes attending regular supervision and using the Code of Ethics as a framework to discuss challenging ethical situations.

Task: Supervision and ethical youth work practice

Supervision is a safe space for youth workers to reflect on their practice. A supervision relationship provides youth workers and those they work with safety, accountability, and ethical practice. Read pages 58–59 in the Code of Ethics¹ and think about these questions:

• The Code of Ethics states that one of the functions of supervision is to “assist youth workers in making better decisions.” (p. 58) How does this aspect of professional supervision relate to you in your role?
• In what other ways does supervision help you to maintain an ethical youth work practice? 

Task: Functions of supervision

A key resource for this topic is the Supervision Scrapbook² from Ara Taiohi. It was written by and for Aotearoa New Zealand youth workers to explain what professional supervision is and why it is so important. Download a copy now, as you will refer to it often throughout the sections that follow.

The Supervision Scrapbook identifies three main functions of supervision: support, learning, and managing. Supervision can take a variety of forms, so long as it covers these three main functions. Read pages 12 to 13 in the Supervision Scrapbook and answer these questions:

• What is the difference between internal and external supervision?
• Which forms of supervision are you currently engaged in? Maybe without even realising it!
• Do you have a balance of both internal and external supervision to cover all three supervision functions?
• What are the advantages of each type – internal, external, individual, group and peer-to-peer?
• Which of the three functions are most meaningful to you at your current stage of professional development – support, learning, or managing? Or are all three equally important for you right now?

Forms of supervision

Ideally you will have a balance of both internal and external supervision. Internal supervision occurs within the same organisation you work or volunteer for; and the focus is more on practical, day-to-day administrative functions. An external supervisor is not employed or volunteering for the same organisation as you, and the external supervisor’s primary function is to support you independently of your organisation.

Both internal and external supervision can take a range of forms, including:

• One-to-one regular sessions between youth worker and supervisor.
• Group supervision in which a supervisor meets with a group of youth workers.
• Peer supervision sessions between two youth workers with similar levels of experience.
• Team supervision is peer supervision but with a group of youth workers at a similar level of experience who supervise each other.
• Tandem sessions with two or more supervisors of a group (often used with youth work students).
• Online e-supervision: useful for those who are isolated such as rural youth workers, or youth workers in lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Safety and reflection

Safety for yourself and the young people you work with is a primary purpose of supervision; to help protect your professional identity, reputation, and mental wellbeing. Safety is supported by ethical reflection on current and past work experiences with someone who has experience and (hopefully) training in supervision practice. Regular sessions are an opportunity for you to gain perspective on the standard of your practice and to keep yourself accountable. You take time to step back and really look at what you do, to identify potential improvements and decide how to implement change. This could include how to apply new learnings from professional development.

Supervision is a professional relationship of trust in which you gain understanding of your practice through different perspectives and reflection. You and your practice should be the focus of supervision, so it can be whatever you need it to be.

Task: Understanding supervision

Read through the rest of Part 1: Understanding supervision (pp. 6–22) of the Supervision Scrapbook² and work through the exercises.

Going forward we recommend you work through all the exercises in the scrapbook to identify exactly how supervision can best meet your needs. This is important because everyone has a different context. For supervision to be effective, it should be personalised to you.

The right supervision for you

The relationship of trust between you and your supervisor is critical. You need a supervisor who connects well with you and your values. In the supervision space, you make yourself vulnerable, so you need to feel you can be open and honest about your experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Supervision is unlikely to be as effective if you cannot be honest.

An effective supervision relationship is based on trust, support, and respect. Cultural differences can make effective connection more difficult, especially if you feel your perspective will not be understood or appreciated, so consider this when selecting a supervisor.

The scrapbook identifies several forms of supervision that can all be effective, provided there is a balance of internal and external and all three supervision functions (support, learning, managing) are covered. Yet, not everyone’s situation can meet this ideal. For example, if you were not able to choose your own supervisor, or you only had access to internal supervision, and as a consequence you weren’t able to get the full support and supervision you needed to work safely and effectively. This may be something you need to discuss further with a mentor or other youth worker you trust because supervision is crucial for safe professional practice.

You deserve to invest in yourself and your support system. It is difficult to work well if you do not. Supervision, like professional development, is fundamental to safe, ethical practice. For organisations and individual youth workers, getting supervision right has to be a priority.

Explore further

At this stage you might be asking yourself, ‘Where can I find professional supervisors?’ If you are struggling to find good external supervision, we recommend exploring the find a supervisor directory³ on the Ara Taiohi website.

You can also work through the section and exercises on finding a supervisor in the Supervision Scrapbook² (pp. 31 –34) to help identify a supervisor who is right for you.

As mentioned above, we recommend you work through all the exercises in the Supervision Scrapbook to fully understand professional supervision and how to make it work best for you in your context. It is a lot of work to get through the whole scrapbook, however it is worth it, and you do not have to do everything all at once.

Why join a professional body?

Professional bodies are organisations that promote and establish:

• high standards within a profession
• public recognition and status for the profession
• benefits to members an individual would struggle to obtain alone, such as professional development opportunities and a community of professionals for support and information sharing.

Ara Taiohi identifies the benefits for youth workers of joining a professional body⁴ as:

• professional status (your mana as a youth worker)
• raised profile and value of youth work as a profession
• a way to comply with the Children’s Act 2014
• career development (establishes qualifications, career pathways, professional development)
• belonging to a community of professional youth workers
• best practice standards for youth work
• promoting equality of pay and working conditions for youth workers
• collective voice for youth work and young people’s advocate in Aotearoa
• access to youth work conferences and journals
• quality standards for greater consistency and accountability.

Different professional bodies and groups vary in what they offer their members, so look around to find those that suit your needs and your organisation or sector’s requirements. A few key questions to help your search are:

• What are the requirements for membership?
• Is this body or group a good fit for my professional needs?
• How would membership benefit me and help protect the youth I work with?
• Would I seriously consider joining? If so, are there any barriers to membership? How might these barriers impact my application to join?
• Are there any bodies or groups I would not want to join? Why? (think about location, membership requirements, benefits)

Explore professional bodies and groups

Ara Taiohi does not have strict entry criteria for membership of Korowai Tupu. They do not require members to be qualified or in paid employment as youth workers because they recognise that youth work has many different forms. Learn more about Korowai Tupu membership⁴ at the Ara Taiohi website. The application form has a lot of relevant information.

Rerenga Awa Canterbury Youth Workers Collective members also do not have to be qualified or paid working professionals. Membership criteria includes different options for membership and annual fees (ranging from 15 for volunteers through to 150 dollars for organisations). Learn more here about Rerenga Awa Canterbury Youth Workers membership options.⁵

Other professional groups for Aotearoa youth workers include:

• The Auckland based charitable trust NZ Youth Mentoring Network⁶ provides advice, support and access to best practice resources and professional development in mentoring skills.
• The Tauranga Youth Development Team⁷ supports coordinated and cohesive service provision within the youth development sector in the Bay of Plenty.
• The Manurewa Youth Workers’ Network⁸ supports youth workers in South Auckland. This link takes you to their Facebook group.

Keep searching online for more networks, and speak with your colleagues and mentors to get their advice. Find out which professional networks are the most active in your region.

Formal and informal professional development

Formal professional development can involve qualifications from full or part-time study at tertiary education providers. It can also include registration and attendance at short workshops or seminars on specific topics of interest.

Here are a few of the many organisations offering formal professional development options for youth workers. You may like to use these as a starting point to explore formal professional development options that are right for you:

• Know PYD has a collection of training sessions from across Aotearoa⁹ (a database of youth work related training resources)
• Whāraurau delivers short training workshops in mental health, alcohol, and other drugs¹⁰ (including youth related workshops)
• Youthline and their sister organisation Action Education¹¹ offer a range of seminars and workshops like the Helpline mentoring workshop or seminars related to risk assessment and practice, self-care and wellbeing, and positive youth development¹²
• Act for Youth has a range of online resources including webinars for youth work professionals¹³ that can be adapted for youth work in Aotearoa New Zealand
• COVID-19 highlighted the need to be able move youth work online in a crisis. YouthWork.io provides a guide for online youth work¹⁴ that you can download from their website.

Community-based youth work also involves informal professional development. As a youth worker participating in the community, you are continually learning about your wider community and the support and expertise that people in your local communities provide. Through non-formal events, relationships, and informal learning situations you acquire new knowledge and skills that improve your practice. You can keep a record of your informal learning as evidence of your professional development.

Organise your own personalised professional development schedule with support from a mentor, supervisor, or your colleagues. Supplement formal learning situations with targeted community-based informal learning opportunities. For example, you might have conversations with experts within the community and participate in community events. You could follow this up with reflection or additional conversations to identify how you have gained greater understanding and expertise through these experiences. If you can clearly show a personalised learning progression or journey, this all counts towards your overall professional development.

Use the information and resources provided in this topic to help complete Task 3 in Assessment 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 on professional supervision, professional development and joining a professional body.

Congratulations! You’ve completed all of the topics in this course. Take some time to celebrate this achievement.