Abstract
At the backdrop of apartheid, an era of separate development that disenfranchised majority of the citizens in South Africa, the democratic government deliberately adopted a host of policies that punctuated the dawn of a new democratic dispensation. Social welfare’ is one of the sectors that were impacted upon by these policy changes. It is acknowledged that social work is one of the leading professions in the implementation of social welfare services and social work supervision plays a critical role in guiding social workers to provide quality social welfare services. On one hand, it is noted that the Department of Social Development (DSD) in South Africa has made significant strides to address some of the challenges in the inability of social workers to either articulate or adopt the social development approach. However, on the other hand, there has been little attention given to the nature of social work supervision that could be informed by the principles of social developmental approach. This gap has, over time compounded the problems faced by social workers and social service practitioners in adjusting to the shift from residual approaches to the social development approach to social welfare. Furthermore, these challenges are intensified by the perceived absence of a social work supervision model underpinned by the principles of a social development practice approach to facilitate its implementation. Thus, this study investigated whether there was a social work supervision model that was informed by a social development practice approach. It further sought to explore if social work practice was informed by a social development practice approach. A qualitative research method was employed, while the research design was based on phenomenological principles as a research design. The study was underpinned by Thomas’ (1984) Research and Design process, which was used to design and develop a social work supervision model mirroring a social development approach. The resultant Process Model of Social Development Supervision in Social Work (SDSSW) was a new innovation. The study population consisted of social workers from which a sample of 25 practitioners was drawn and complemented by four key informants from the academic field. While the Delphi technique was used with key informants, individual interviews and one focus group were used to collect data from practitioners. Lastly, thematic content analysis and deviant case analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings suggested that there was very little evidence of quality supervision taking place and that both social workers and supervisors had limited understanding of the social development practice approach. Moreover, the little supervision that took place appeared not to be informed by a social development approach and the approaches used in practice were largely remedial. Emanating from the findings and in line with the aim and objectives, a multifaceted feasibility study concluded that there were reasonable grounds for the study to be conducted with reasonable prospects of success. Secondly, although the feasibility study acknowledged other supervision models that indirectly relate to the social development theory, the research concludes that there was no supervision model informed by and applying the social development approach. Data collected from participants concluded that the majority of them had little understanding of the social development approach. It can further be concluded that there were no expectations from the participants’ agencies to actively apply the social development approach in their field work. It was also concluded that supervision of social workers in agencies was not receiving priority. Furthermore, the supervision did not facilitate professional progression of supervisees. Lastly, it is concluded that participants embraced the idea of a supervision model that would facilitate the application of a social development approach in practice. As such, the study makes several recommendations consistent with its findings. Among others, it recommends that social work supervision be prioritised in all settings for enhanced service delivery. Secondly, it is recommended that social service agencies should endeavour to uphold high standards of professional social work practice which includes supervision. Thirdly, it is recommended that employers should subject supervisors to credible supervision training programmes as part of human capital development for improved supervision practice. Furthermore, it is recommended that all schools of social work should include modules of supervision in social work as part of initiating the process of knowledge and skills building in supervision. It is also recommended that supervisors and supervisees document their supervision experiences and create case studies for future use in the field. Lastly, the study recommends that the model of Social Development Supervision in Social Work developed in this study be adopted to (through a process of parallelism) facilitate an understanding and application of the social development approach by social work practitioners.
D.Litt. et Phil. (Social Work)