Supervision expectations of workers in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province

Abstract

The aim of this study as borne by the topic, was to ascertain the supervision expectations of social workers in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province. The unit of the study were social workers employed by the Vhembe District Department of Social Development (Vhembe DSD or DSD) only. The study excluded social workers who were employed by the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) or in any other capacity outside of the DSD. The data collection consisted of two phases; that is, firstly, a survey questionnaire which was administered to two hundred and five (N=205) social workers. The second phase consisted of structured interviews with ten (10) social work supervisors, and ten (10) supervisees. The structured interviews were meant to strengthen the quantitative data from the survey. The DSD‟s planning documents such as the Strategic Plan 2015-2020, the Annual Performance Plan 2016/2017 (APP) the Vhembe DSD Operational Plan 2016/2017(OPS Plan) and other documents were also studied to explain the themes that arose from the structured interviews. The document study provided a third stream of data collection. Large quantitative data was collected from the two hundred and five (N=205) social workers who voluntarily accepted to participate in the first part of study. The survey data collection covered the 9 sections on the questionnaire to determine the needs, these are; A. Demographics, B. Supervision Infrastructure, C. Purpose of Supervision, D. Process of Supervision, E. Types, Styles and Models of Supervision, F. Supervision Outcomes, G. Self-Evaluation, H. Readiness when first entered the work environment, I. Additional comments.The quantitative findings showed that the experience of supervision was not uniform among Vhembe District social workers in terms of their baseline supervision experiences and expectations. Apart from the supervision experiences being uneven, they also deviated considerably from the prescribed supervision norms in South Africa. Both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the data have shown that supervision was not taking place as prescribed in the Norms and Standards (2011) and the Supervision Framework (2012), or it was not taking place at all in Vhembe District. The practice of supervision had diminished because the scope of practice of social work within the DSD has been reduced or downscaled. There was a tendency to shift the focus of social work services towards management of services rather than the provision of services to clients. Such management was mainly seen in the planning and reporting of services rendered where the emphasis was on the numerical targets rather than on the impact or quality of social work services rendered. The limitation of scope for social work and supervision practice resulted because the managerial focus tended to undermine professional focus and values of social work.The reduction of scope for social work and supervision was mainly due to structural misalignment between the vision, mission and the programme and budget structure of the DSD, both at the Head Office and in Vhembe District. The programmes that were meant to support and sustain professional matters, such as supervision and training; were either non-existent, not funded, or not funded at the correct levels or they lacked the human resources to drive them.The management focus also led to fewer supervisors being appointed. At the time of commencement of the data collection (ie., August 2016), there were only thirteen (N=13) substantively appointed supervisors to a population of more than three hundred social workers in Vhembe DSD. The poor supply and utilisation of supervisors was also caused by the DSD‟s failure to implement Resolution 1 of 2009 of the Health and Social Development Bargaining Council which regulate career paths for social workers in terms of the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD). The non-compliance with Resolution 1 of 2009 was also compounded by the failure of the DSD to provide work tools for the social workers. These are work tools such as vehicles to conduct home visits, computers and printers to prepare the reports and telephones to manage the daily operations of the work. The lack of work tools leads to low work output, and poor service rendering to the clients. Recommendations were made in terms of the short-term „low hanging fruits‟ actions that the DSD could immediately address, and other more medium-term changes to the organisational structure that can be linked to the DSD‟s planning cycle. The short term recommendations included the conducting of audit to establish the outstanding OSD implementations and the grade promotions of the social workers into senior posts to ready them for supervisory posts, among others. The more medium-term structural recommendations consisted mainly of a proposed supervision model for Vhembe DSD to address the gaps identified in the findings.