Who Is Watching Whom? Surveillance in Australian Social Work Supervision

Abstract

Supervisors of social work practice have long grappled with professional and disciplinary expectations and the competing daily organisational demands of a transformed neo-liberal human service environment. This article reports on a study that investigated the practice of supervision in the Australian context and the influences, both managerial and professional, that inform supervision practice. Drawing upon data from an online survey and a series of focus groups with supervisors and supervisees, the study found that there are very real challenges in providing professional supervision in contemporary practice contexts. The findings indicate that the issues generated by the coexistence of professional and managerial discourses in supervision are important to address if the discipline is to resist the negative impact of neo-liberal managerialism.

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