UNIZULU Hosts Pilot Social Worker Supervision Event

Social worker supervisors took some time to meet and greet during the recent Pilot Social Worker Supervision event that was hosted at the University of Zululand (UNIZULU) Science Centre in Richards Bay. The aim of the event was for social workers from the King Cetshwayo District Municipality to get a training and networking opportunity, as social workers are required to accumulate Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points. CPD points allow social workers to keep abreast of advancements in the particular areas that they specialise in.

The CPD collaboration partners are the University of Zululand Social Work Department; Zululand Welfare Social Services and Development Forum (ZWSSDF) collective of the NGOs from the districts; the Department of Social Development; and the KwaZulu-Natal Cluster, which included the King Cetshwayo District Municipality, Zululand District Municipality and uMkhanyakude District Municipality.

The facilitator of the event was Professor Lambert Engelbrecht from the Department of Social Work in Stellenbosch University. Prof Engelbrecht has published articles and books on social work supervision, he is a longstanding full professor at the University of Stellenbosch and is one of the captains in social work education in the country.

Professor Engelbrecht began the presentation by providing the attendees with the background of his previous research on social work supervision and started by stating that supervision should be part of the organisation policy and must focus on developing capabilities.

The speaker believes that in South Africa, social worker supervisors need all the training in supervision, but more so in clinical work.  “We need to be more clinical in supervision, we need to know how to use conversation to motive people, how to establish the blockages and supervisors need to deliver the best service to the clients, which is the goal of supervision,” he said.  

The speaker advised supervisors to have mental strength and to have the right choice of words when conducting their supervision because the field of social work focuses on social problems. He said that supervision should be enjoyable, where supervisors can be themselves, be able to recharge their batteries and it should be their safe space and not a battlefield. He stated that supervisors also need to identify the learning styles and blockages, what education strategies to use and they need to realise that they also have different styles of supervising.

When a supervisor is dealing with an anxious supervisee, they need to know how to handle it. He encouraged supervisors to not just do their jobs for the sake of doing it, but flourish in it.

Professor Engelbrecht concluded by giving his point of view on supervision. “Supervisors should get more clinical, as they know more of the structure and what to do. But they need to know what is really going in the house (supervisees) and only supervisors can tell,” said Prof Engelbrecht.

Thembinkosi Dlungwane, from the provincial Department of Social Development expressed his appreciation of the event. Dlungwane was thankful for the productive initiative as they benefited from it. He said that the strength-based approach is what social worker supervisors need to apply and that supervisors need more of these seminars to develop and create a conductive environment to help realise the potentials of social workers.

Sithu Myeni, a lecturer at UNIZULU in the Social Work Department, gave the vote of thanks. “I would like to thank Professor John Rauntenbach (HOD) for [planting the idea of the CPD event], the provincial Department of Social Development for their buy-in to the idea of the project (event) and the coordinators from various district offices and supervisors from the different local offices, supervisors from the different NGOs and the ZWSSF,” she said.

– Sinenhlanhla Ngongo