Supervision for the Social Service Professions: Perspectives from South Africa

by Tebogo Morokane, Rika Swanzen

Overview

Supervision in the social sciences has been under scrutiny over the past decade. With the emergence of social service professions beyond social work, there has been a drive around each profession being supervised by senior members of its own profession. With a particular focus on South Africa, this insightful text meets the need for a succinct and inclusive source on for all three of the South African social service professions, offering an in-depth discussion of processes, functions and skills within the legal framework of professional supervision.

Co-produced by an academic and practitioner, uplifting the voice of the practitioner that is not always heard, Supervision for the Social Service Professions provides critically needed clarifications on the concepts, elements, stages, skills and functions of supervision on an international level. Swanzen and Morokane provide the pathway for the establishment of an integrated model for supervision, informed by vast perspectives on supervision and best practice guidelines, aimed at a revised framework.

A comprehensive, succinct, and useful tool in the hands of professionals and academics, this is a celebration of supervision in the social service professions which will ultimately lead to better care for vulnerable populations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781836628378
Publisher:	Emerald Publishing Limited
Publication date:	10/03/2025
Series:	Emerald Points
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tebogo Morokane is a social worker by profession. She has occupied different ranks in the profession and worked as a volunteer, Social Worker, Probation Officer, Supervisor and Social Worker Manager for over two decades.

Rika Swanzen is currently a Deputy Dean of Research, with previous roles as child and youth care academic, senior social worker in juvenile psychiatric care and supervisor and training manager in residential care. From mid-2016 to mid-2022 she served as ministerial appointee on the professional council, to represent education and training.

Table of Contents

Foreword; Galeboe AG Rapoo
Chapter 1. Roots of professional supervision
Chapter 2. Supervision types and models
Chapter 3. Supervisor attributes and roles
Chapter 4. Supervision skills and techniques
Chapter 5. Social service scopes of practice
Chapter 6. Legislative framework for an integrated approach to supervision
Chapter 7. Supervision of diversity and sustainability in practice
Chapter 8. Coaching, mentoring and evaluation in supervision

Editorial Reviews

This ambitious project, describing the supervision dynamics and processes of several analogous, but distinct professional endeavors, specifically attuned to a South African context, is quite impressive.

Employing a comprehensive bibliography, practical descriptions of supervisory situations and useful charts, diagrams and comparisons, the authors have created a major resource for the social service sector.

This book will be a heavy read for the practicing professional, but is a powerful tool for developing organizational direction for supervision models, staff development efforts and for mentors of supervisors.

This book should influence agencies across several social service professions in South Africa and elsewhere as they focus on this critical component of practice.

Jack Phelan

The Republic of South Africa is a world leader in the professional recognition of three foundational professions that work across the social service sector of this great nation with its diverse regional histories still emerging from the apartheid era. In less than a decade, Child and Youth Care has been formally recognised as a Social Service profession (2014), followed by the recognition of Social Work practice specialties (2019) and then Community Development practitioners (pending). This ground-breaking volume focuses attention on the use and development of professional supervision as a foundational requirement for those seeking quality outcomes across the complex, social services sector of this diverse multicultural nation. This volume is “a must read” for all South Africans in training and working professionally across the complex and changing population of a country challenged by rural-urban migration. This volume on professional supervision of those working across the social service sector helps to address challenges with work-related stress and burn-out. It is also recommended for those who shape and implement government social policy across the social service sector. Get this volume as an e-book and review it frequently on your tablet or smartphone!

Leon C. Fulcher

Supervision for the Social Service Professions: Perspectives from South Africa, by Dr. Rika Swanzen and Mrs Tebogo Morokane is a wonderfully comprehensive look at the scope and impact of supervision in the helping professions. The book considers supervision from many different angles. It lays out several conceptual approaches and explores different models of supervision. I found the review of many different definitions of supervision presented by a range of other professionals to be particularly useful. The book does an excellent job of expanding on the definitions, concepts and models of supervision to show how they can be applied practically. The authors discuss the potential impact on supervisors, supervisees, agencies, clients and the overall quality of services. I believe that would make this book relevant for people in many different roles and at many different experience levels in our field.

I am one who has many years of experience in the field, has written extensively on supervision myself and I am currently actively facilitating training on supervision in the United States and internationally. From my perspective an excellent book should, of course, provide a lot of knowledge. However, I believe the most important impact of a book is that it elicits a great deal of reflection and critical thinking for the reader. As I was reading the book I found myself getting more and more engrossed in digesting the historical development of supervision and how this history helps expand my own current knowledge and understanding of supervision. I found the breakdown of how supervision can be impacted by the physical, interpersonal, cultural and psychological environment in which it is practiced placed an excellent perspective on the many nuances that are important for supervisors to assess and consider when practicing supervision. In a number of places I found myself stepping back and looking at supervision from the perspective of the supervisee in a different way. Other times my thinking moved toward viewing supervision in a different way from the perspective of a Senior Manager in an organization.

I recommend this book highly. The authors have done an exceptional job of presenting a conceptual overview of supervision while bringing it smoothly and efficiently to very relevant practice level.

Frank Delano