CPD-Certified Supervision Circles Programme – November 2023 – January 2024

Supervision is an essential aspect of continuing professional development. It is crucial in ensuring your good practice, continued learning, high-quality care, and well-being. Supervision is the foundational activity ensuring you feel safe, skilled, and supported. As a professional tutor, it is helpful to develop a practice and discipline of continually reflection on your practice, which helps you gain insight and think analytically about your work. Supervision is the safe container for that reflective time and the spaciousness needed to enable the consideration and insight, that help repeat and refine good practice.  

When you decide to make supervision the foundation of your career and self-development plan, you will find that not only does it allow you to fail forward, learn and grow from mistakes, observe problems developing and put them right and avoid repeating patterns in the future it also will enable you to grow in confidence, become proactive, take charge of your career and your learning journey and reconnect you to the joy and passion you have for educating young minds. 

What is supervision? 

Coming from an educational background, supervision will be a new concept to you because it is not built into educational qualifications. However, within the training process of Health professionals, supervision is an embedded process that ensures safe, governed practice. It is a requirement of qualification and ongoing registration. This is because it has been recognised that clinical judgement, ethics, and best practice are a constant, evolving, and messy business and that it is essential that there is a safe, supportive structure that encourages failing forward, learning from mistakes, working within best practices, and sharing good practice. A process that acknowledges that working in Health care is challenging and caring for yourself and looking after your own well-being is essential and directly related to the overall success of Health care provision. Reading all of that, you can see the parallels to educational provision and the same need for that caring support that supervision can offer within your work.  

Supervision is a self-led safe space to explore, reflect, and learn from your professional practice, including what went well (validate and amplify), what did not go so well (reflect and learn), and where improvements could be made (grow and develop).  

Professional supervision is essential for the longevity of your career, regardless of seniority or years worked. Every professional requires this safe space. 

Supervision can come in different forms and functions depending on the supervisee’s needs. Yet, regardless of model or delivery, key themes define the supervision process. 

• Supervision is a safe and confidential space. 
• Supervision is person-cantered and led by you and your needs.
• Supervision is a reflective process.  
• Supervision helps you identify your own ‘blind spots’ and biases preventing your growth and fulfilment.
• Supervision supports learning, good practice, self-development, competency, and risk reduction.
• Supervision should empower you to feel capable and confident within your scope of practice.
• Supervision can help identify learning gaps and learning goals, helping create a professional learning and development career plan.
• Supervision can help you embed the learning you have undertaken into real-world practice, implementation, and consolidation. 
• Supervision supports your well-being and ensures you have the correct support to avoid workplace stress, anxiety, and burnout.  
• Supervision gives a safe place to explore and resolve ethical & professional challenges and barriers to your practice issues as they arise.
• Supervision is a regular, dedicated time where you commit to developing your professional credibility, safe practice, and competence. 
• Supervision supports a culture of Candor, integrity, sharing good practice, validation, celebration, affirming positive practice, and the continual goal of self-improvement and betterment. 

What could you bring to a supervision session? 

Supervision is an active process; you will get from it what you put in. Consider what topics and challenges you could bring to supervision, here are some examples:

• Structured discussion on a pupil’s performance and outcome
• Assistance with a particular task 
• Perspective on a specific challenge or barrier 
• Well-being check-in and support  
• Workload planning, organisation, and management. 
• Debriefing discussions 
• Skills gap analysis 
• Intentional career planning
• Learning and development plan 
• Consolidation and implementation of learning 
• Permission to do things differently. 
• Request for accountability 
• Sharing and enhancing knowledge
• Learning through case study presentation.
• Ethical dilemmas or safeguarding concerns.

Benefits of Supervision Circles 

• Supports collaboration and sharing of good practice.
• Talk through solutions is a proactive and timely way.
• Hive mind perspective and problem-solving
• Having community, connection, and growing together 
• Promotes innovation, networking, collaboration, and teamwork.
• Accelerates your rate of growth as you learn from others – avoiding pitfalls and mistakes and maximising success.
• Builds a culture of honesty, integrity, encouragement, appraisal, and learning for the collective. 

What is expected of you, the supervisee? 

Supervision is an active, self-led process.

You are expected to attend your supervision session with topics for discussion, and an openness for reflection, growth, and learning, and a willingness to explore and be curious.  

You will need to dedicate time to preparing for your supervision sessions and make time after your sessions for implementation.  

You will be expected to prioritise your supervision activities and engage proactively in the process.  

Attending Supervision Circles regularly increases their effectiveness by building that strong sense of relationship allowing for honest and open conversations.  

As this is about you and your learning, it is vital that you attend willingly to set learning goals that you are motivated to achieve.  

You must be open and honest about your current experience and expectations so that you and your supervision circle can support you.  

If in a supervision circle, you agree to offer non-judgmental, supportive feedback that helps your peers learn and grow.

What is the format of a Supervision Circle? 

One minute check in for all

Reflective writing space 

Peer to peer feedback and actions 

Three mastermind slots using the hive mind to problem solve 

Open space to ask questions and gain support 

One minute check out and accountability for all 

Next steps 

You must be able to attend on the following dates and times via a Zoom link and be in a confidential space for the entire meeting. 

• Friday 24th November 2023  9.30am -11.00am
• Friday 8th   December 2023 9.30am -11.00am
• Friday 22nd December 2023 9.30am -11.00am
• Christmas break 
• Friday 5th January 2024 9.30am -11.00am
• Friday 19th January 2024 9.30am -11.00am
• Friday 2nd February 2024 9.30am -11.00am

The pilot fee is £60 for members and £75 for non-members for the 3-months of supervision which will be paid in full before the first supervision circle date.

You agree to give regular feedback via an anonymous Google form that will allow us to use your feedback in a continuous cycle of improvement and refinement to improve the impact of the supervision circle format and content.

You agree to provide an honest testimony on the impact of the supervision circles pilot has had on your professional and personal development that you give permission to be used by Pursuit of Wisdom Coaching and Qualified Tutor in future marketing materials.

You agree to sign a supervision circles contract.

You agree to participate in the reflective practice activities and be an active, engaged member of your supervision circle. 

You agree to the confidentiality of your supervision circle peers and hosts.