Clinical Supervision and Professional
Support in Bolton PCT
Introduction to clinical supervision (professional
support)
Clinical supervision is mandatory for some health service
professions, and important for all. In Bolton PCT we have
protected time and the backing of all directors and senior
managers for this activity.
In this Trust, clinical supervision is seen as an essential
part of the family of activities which help staff do their
jobs well. These include: line management, uni-professional
guidance and teaching, portfolio management, preceptorship,
mentoring, coaching – and clinical supervision (CS).
We use a non-managerial, solution focused approach which
works with the whole system. So we have in place:
- A comprehensive
policy, ratified and backed by management
with protected time
- A rolling training programme throughout the
year to train volunteer supervisors from any
part of the Trust. These are then invited to put
their names on a growing
Register
(NHSnet only), from which potential supervisees
from anywhere in the Trust can choose a
supervisor to work with
- A regular programme of support for trained
supervisors, which includes ‘skills groups’ to
share good practice, look at dilemmas and use
top-up training
- Regular yearly audit/feedback of the whole
scheme
- Monitoring and sustaining the scheme and its
participants on an ongoing basis (while
respecting confidentiality).
CS (Professional Support) is a scheme in which an
individual can work with their partner in a relationship in
which the supervisor has no power over the supervisee, and
is bound by confidentiality rules (except in certain
well-defined circumstances). The supervisor may well be
outside the supervisee’s discipline or department.
