Supervision Policy

Policy details:

• Date created -
• Date approved by Trust Board - 10/07/2025
• Next review date - 10/07/2027
• Policy owner - Co-op Academy Brierley

Linked documents:        1

Aims of the Policy        1

Support for DSLs and wider staff        2

Informal support        2

Formal Supervision        2

Scheduled Supervision for the DSL with Regional Safeguarding Leads.        2

Supervision of the wider safeguarding team, including DDSLs        4

Group supervision        5

Confidentiality and Access        5

Appendix 1        6

Safeguarding Supervision Agreement        6

Appendix 2 Supervision Record        10

Linked documents:

This policy should be read in conjunction with the following documents

Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy

Keeping Children Safe in Education        (2025)

Working Together to Safeguarding Children (2023)

EYFS statutory framework for Early Years Providers (2024)

Aims of the Policy

Co-op Academy Trust is committed to ensuring that staff receive good quality, effective and purposeful support. This can be maintained through effective supervision.

Safeguarding supervision within Co-op Academies Trust is in place to provide a balance of personal support and guidance and case management analysis, encouraging reflection upon practice to support designated safeguarding leads  and wider safeguarding teams and improve outcomes for the children that we work with.

This policy sets out the framework and expectations for safeguarding supervision in Our Trust.

Support for DSLs and wider staff

Informal support

Both formal and informal supervision plays an important role in safeguarding practice. Informal supervision often takes place within academies between Headteachers and DSLs, and DSLs, DDSLs and wider safeguarding teams, during scheduled safeguarding team meetings or during regular day to day contact between teams.

The need to ‘offload’ can be unscheduled and immediate and safeguarding teams have line managers that support them in this way when serious and upsetting events occur in the academy. Though each academy will have its own internal informal systems to ensure that the staff who manage the most vulnerable children are able to offload and talk about how they are feeling and dealing with the issues presented,  there is also a duty of care to ensure that there are  mechanisms in place within our academy provision to properly support staff who regularly manage distressing situations through a formal process of  supervision and reflection. Access to informal supervision is good practice but should NOT replace a formal supervision session.

Significant issues discussed or case decisions made as a result of informal supervision should be recorded properly on the child’s CPOMS record and revisited at the formal session.

Supervision does not simply occur in a 1:1 session. It occurs in the context of a supervisory

relationship and to be effective this must be based on trust so that a safe space is created in which uncertainty, ambiguity, mistakes, assumptions, confusion, challenge, wellbeing, success, and achievement can all be explored. It is therefore critical that over time this relationship develops so that when things are at their most complex and vulnerable, which is often outside of formal supervision, the supervisor and supervisee can communicate effectively.

Formal Supervision

Scheduled Supervision for the DSL with Regional Safeguarding Leads.

All DSLs should access appropriate safeguarding supervision.

As part of their role, Regional Safeguarding leads offer supervision to all DSLs.,

Formal sessions will occur at least termly between the individual academy DSL and the Regional Safeguarding Lead. The supervision agreement in Appendix 1 should be used to clarify the expectations for supervision. The frequency may vary and arrangements should be discussed between supervisor and supervisee.

Supervision meetings should be scheduled in advance and the Appendix 6a should be used as a tool to record the discussion and this is then placed on file together with any agreed actions. A separate record on CPOMS is used for each student where a case point is made.

Supervision should be a protected time to discuss all matters arising.

The purpose of supervision sessions is to:

• Provide protected time to reflect on practice,
• Provide support with emotional well-being,
• Provide an opportunity to off-load, talk about how practitioners are feeling when dealing with serious and distressing incidents and the impact on their own life,

• Discuss and seek guidance on specific cases, review action plans, talk through any challenges experienced whilst working with other agencies and consider necessity of case escalation through formal channels
• Assess risk and protective factors for the child,
• Consider strengths and areas for development for the colleague

Safeguarding Supervision will not:

• Replace appraisal, but should complement it
• Offer the supervisee personal counselling (the supervisor at times may need to refer a supervisee to other services such as the Employee Assistance Programme or Emotional Wellbeing coaching).

Roles and responsibilities

The supervisor is responsible for:

• Sharing the responsibility for making the supervisory relationship work.
• Ensuring confidentiality, subject to pupil and staff safety.
• Creating an effective, sensitive and supportive supervision.
• Providing suitable time and location.
• Agree the timescales within which supervision takes place.
• Eliminating interruptions.
• Maintaining accurate and clear records.
• Ensuring that the supervision contract has been agreed and reviewed annually.
• Ensuring the Co-op Academies Trust values and Ways of Being are embedded in practice
• Ensuring that where a change in supervision arrangements occur, a handover process is arranged between all parties concerned.
• Ensuring that issues relating to diversity are addressed constructively and positively and provide opportunity for staff to raise issues about their experience and diversity.

The supervisee is responsible for:

• Sharing the responsibility for making the supervisory relationship work.
• Attending regularly and on time, participating actively and bringing their agenda.
• Preparing appropriately for supervision sessions.
• Ensuring the recording of supervision is reflective of the particular meeting, including making records on an individual's CPOMS records where case management actions are agreed.
• Ensure that the supervision contract has been agreed and is reviewed annually.
• Actively participating in reflective, sensitive and supportive supervision and being accountable for any actions.
• Ensuring the Co-op Academies Trust values and Ways of Being are embedded in practice

All staff also have access to the employee assistance programme. Further details are available in the well being and benefits section of the colleague portal.

RSLs are also available to provide ad-hoc supervision and support via telephone call, virtual meetings or in-person academy visits.

Supervision of the wider safeguarding team, including DDSLs

All staff working in safeguarding should have access to supervision. Arrangements at Co-op Academy Brierley  are:

The DSL receives 1:1 supervision from the Regional Safeguarding Lead. Supervision is provided to the DDSL team at least every 3 months by the DSL Melanie Boffey / DDSL Nicky Menzer and this is timetabled and recorded. Group supervision during safeguarding team meetings takes place on a weekly basis.

DSLs from the Co-op Academy special schools meet termly in a supervision forum to discuss anonymised cases and safeguarding themes in a confidential manner. Examples of good practice are shared in these forums.

Appendix 1 & 2 can be used by DSLs to clarify arrangements for supervision with their wider safeguarding teams and as a mechanism for recording supervision sessions where appropriate.

Group supervision 

In some cases, it may be necessary or appropriate to conduct a group supervision session, where there may be several staff involved in direct work with a specific child/family.  There are many benefits to be gained from group supervision including, problem solving, peer group learning and giving and receiving strong feedback within a supportive setting.

With a group supervision process, the roles and responsibilities of the supervisor and supervisees should be the same with the added principles:

• The group should clarify and agree on the boundaries of confidentiality.
• The records should reflect that this was a group supervision.

Confidentiality and Access

Supervision is a private but not a confidential process. This means that the records are the property of the organisation, not the individual. From time-to-time supervisors will need to discuss the content of supervision sessions with others, e.g. their own line manager, this should always be with the knowledge of the supervisee.

Access to supervision records should be controlled, access to any electronic files must be accessible only by the supervisee, supervisor & the Trust Strategic Lead for safeguarding. Supervisees should be aware, however, that other than themselves and their supervisor, others will, from time to time, access records, these might include:

• Senior Managers (for quality assurance purposes)

• Investigating Officers (e.g. for disciplinary

purposes)

• Inspectors (e.g. Ofsted)

Appendix 1 

Safeguarding Supervision Agreement

Name of supervisee: ……………………………………………………………….

Name of supervisor: ………………………………………………………………..

Safeguarding Supervision objectives:

• Enables practitioners to deal with the challenges inherent in working with Vulnerable Children and their families.
• Supports practitioners to reflect critically on the impact of their decisions on children and their family.
• Supports practitioners to analyse and synthesise complex cases.
• Provides a safe place to explore and challenge hypothesis.
• Facilitates staff to increase their knowledge, skill, confidence and competence. when working with children, young people and their families/ carers, creating more positive outcomes.
• Scrutinises and evaluates the work carried out, assessing strengths of the practitioner and areas for development.
• Provides coaching and professional development.
• Ensures that all work and performance issues are openly, honestly and positively dealt with in supervision and that poor practice is challenged.
• Supports staff to explore their own role, responsibilities, leadership and the scope of their professional judgement and authority, in relation to the individuals and families they are working with.
• Assists in identifying the training and development needs of practitioners.
• Functioning properly, safeguarding supervision facilitates good quality, innovative and reflective practice in a safe environment, and not be seen as punitive.
• Safeguarding supervision model is based on Kolb’s reflective cycle.

Scope and Frequency:

Safeguarding supervision is the framework for safeguarding children/young people. Supervision usually takes place on a one to one basis but may also be undertaken by a group when ‘members come together in an agreed format to reflect on their work by pooling their skills, experience and knowledge in order to improve both individual and group capacities’ (Morrison 2005).

Agreement:

As a supervisee, I agree to:

• Protect and prioritise the time for planned supervision sessions.
• prepare for the supervision session by:

• working with my supervisor to agree on the agenda.
• reviewing the notes of the previous meeting.
• reflecting on how the learning and development activities I’ve carried out have changed my practice.

• make a note of the things I would like to talk about
• attend and prioritise all planned supervision sessions.
• use the session to discuss and reflect on my work.
• critically reflect about what has worked well and what hasn’t.
• identify any situations that are beyond my ability or I’m unsure about
• demonstrate and uphold confidentiality.
• agree the supervision action record.
• Record on an individual child’s CPOMS record when a case management decision has been made.
• act upon any actions, including completing any training or learning and development activities.

As a supervisor, I agree to:

• Protect and prioritise the time for planned supervision sessions.
• prepare for the supervision session by:

• working with my supervisee to agree on the agenda.
• reviewing the notes from the previous meeting
• making sure supervision meetings take place in a quiet, private space and there are no interruptions.

• provide constructive feedback.
• provide honest and meaningful advice and support.
• create a safe environment for my supervisee to bring any uncertainties, issues or dilemmas they may have.
• support and encourage my supervisee to reflect on their day-to-day practice, values and attitude and ensure the Co-op Academies Trust values and Ways of Being are embedded in practice
• work with my supervisee to identify the outcomes that matter to them and focus on their strengths and skills.
• Demonstrate and uphold confidentiality.  

Structure of supervision sessions:

 Content:

Process:

We have both read and agreed to the process outlined above:

Signature of supervisee:                                                Date:

Signature of supervisor:                                                Date:

Appendix 2 Supervision Record