Abstract:
Professional supervision is an important component of professional development in the human services. This paper examines the provision of supervision in the New Zealand Community Probation Service (CPS). Since major restructuring in 1997 a managerialist philosophy, with the coexistence of transformational and transactional leadership, has transformed the Service's model of practice, information technology and human resource management systems. This conceptual paper analyses the provision of clinical supervision in the organisation's new environment from three perspectives: the sociology of professions; as a key function of continuing professional education (CPE) in a 'turbulent environment;' and as a theoretical and methodological approach to assess Community Probation's relationship with the emerging social work profession in Aotearoa New Zealand. The author argues that the components of professional supervision in Community Probation provide a useful linkage to the social work profession. These components are expressed in identified strategies found in three distinct fields. First, through the social work literature relating to Community Probation's Cognitive Behavioural Therapy practice model; second, via Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW), social work's professional body and the new system of registration of social workers; and third, graduate level supervision education. The author proposes that the components of these three fields provide 'building blocks' which demonstrate the linkage of professional supervision as practiced in Community Probation with the discipline of social work
