Respect

We emphasise the need to Respect local practice and expertise

The AMBIT-influenced team works towards finding ways to support and enhance existing SupervisoryStructures

Set the boundaries

1. Agreed TIME

2. Agreed PLACE

3. Agreed PERSON (or persons)

Most AMBIT-influenced teams report that GROUP supervision, often via the Team Meetings is the preferred setting.

4. Agreed METHOD

• This is generally to structure the conversation around Thinking Together
• The underlying INTENTION is to work to recover or sustain mentalizing in the worker in relation to their practice.
• There are clearly additional frameworks involved that form the context for this work, and supervision is never a short cut to avoiding/overruling contextual factors such as:
• Existing structures of AUTHORITY in the team and wider organisation.
• (Possibly statutory) OBLIGATIONS as regards working protocols in any team.

5. Agreed TASK of supervision:

Picking the right task for the supervisor is absolutely critical

• The primary TASK is generally a "practice" question (Marking the Task that the worker needs help with)
• Generally the right topics to cover in supervision are the ones associated with the most anxiety, and AMBIT's Thinking Together framework is specifically about thinking in high-stress settings:
• Consideration of RISK
• Coping with inter-professional disagreements
• Inter-agency dis-integration
• However, not all topics that require supervisory discussion are necessarily highly anxiety provoking (by all means ask yourselves is there anxiety here that is hidden?) for instance:
• Redistributing a caseload
• Planning for a complicated hand-over or referral
• Considering an extension of work beyond normal timescales
• Discussing something that went well