Supervision Minutes: - 03.01.

13

- Discussed the complaint that I emailed PE about and reflected on my feelings about
this and what learning I can take away from this.
I mentioned that I felt hurt and upset by the complaint but after some consideration had
decided to move past it, PE mentioned that deciding to move past it is not reflective, that
this is putting the situation on a shelf and not unpacking the emotions related to this. I
agreed and also acknowledged that I could use this an opportunity for greater self
awareness and to be more explicit with my stand-in OSS exactly what I am doing as well
as spending more time in cafeteria area during breaks.

-Discussed PLS 1
I also discussed my feelings around the fact that although initially nobody said that I
couldnt do the referral, I felt that I was discouraged from doing so by staff and then
when a crisis occurred the referral was taken away from me.
Also, the fact that when the referral was made it in the context of crisis intervention
rather than being around longer-term management of the SUs needs in the situation.
We discussed how both the mother and SU were service users with individual needs in
the scenario and how my perspective differed from staff at the day centre who failed to
see SU as carer. Furthermore, we considered possible discrimination in members of
staffs assertion that SU was more at risk from her mother being in hospital and her being
home by herself that, SU acting as a carer without support, despite them being aware
that SU was taking care of her mother. We considered mothers possible motivation for
refusing support from social services in the past including past experience and feeling
that daughter (SU) will be taken away from her.
PE then questioned the appropriateness of SU being in work-based training if she was
independent enough to take care of her mother and suggested that this may have been
done by social services as a way to transfer responsibility for SU today services. We went
further into the implications for service users whose needs are partially met by current
service, I was able to link this to an earlier placement in a CMHT where service users
were rarely seen as the all lived in residential homes so needs were met and risk
managed by staff there.
We debated a bit about the role of intervention (supporting versus rescuing) and
speculated on what SU may be experiencing apart from what she (SU) had shared with
me, whether she was happy as a carer and whether anyone had the right to make the
judgement that she needed support.
And, I also discussed my practice and how whenever I spoke to staff I presented my
arguments for making the referral as a means to possibly offer a perspective that they
had not considered.

-Discussed PLS 3

PE discussed the conventions of academic writing and suggested changes that need to
be made to my PLS including my use of the word normalisation, she told me that this
term was not the same as Social Role Valorisation and the former was archaic and
discriminatory due to ideology concerned with making people normal.
PE said that PLS was incomplete as I had not taken complaint to a decision making
forum, I explained that there was no form for complaints to be heard and that action that
would be taken was decided by the operational manager alone. We discussed this briefly
and I told my PE that I will try to put discussion of this complaint on the agenda for our
next team meeting (that was happening later that day) or the one after this. PE
suggested that changes need to be made to the content, structure and terminology of
my PLS, that I should use less description, more reflection and include references.

- Discussed observed practice

PE agreed that I being observed chairing a service user team meeting would be better
than an everyday activity as there is more to unpick and reflect on post observe practice.
Also briefly discussed the possible oppression inherent in a service user team meeting
being chaired by a non service user and how services must obtain feedback for quality
assurance under law however this is often a box ticking exercise.
- Discussed my time sheet and the fact that people looking at it may feel that I may not
be doing enough hours due to me finishing 20 minutes earlier than my supervisor due to
transport issues.
PE said that I need to make a decision about what to do about the current issue and feed
this back to her next supervision.
Tasks for next until next supervision
1) Arrange observed practice with OSS
2) Arrange observed practice with PE before next supervision (24/01/13) and send PE
date
3) Talk to OSS and devise a solution to my hours problem
4) Prepare for pre-midway supervision.