STRENGTHS-BASED SUPERVISION SUPPORTING EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF FAMILY-CENTERED PRACTICE IN CHILD WELFARE

Strengths-based supervision (SBS; Lietz 2013) is a model of social work supervision that was developed in the United States to support effective implementation of Family Centered Practice (FCP) in child welfare settings. Despite a national trend to advance a strengths-based, family-centered approach to the prevention and treatment of child maltreatment, many systems have struggled to translate these principles to daily practice. SBS was developed in one large, southwestern state to address this concern. Grounded in parallel process, training in SBS teaches supervisors to implement supervisory practices that are theoretically coherent with FCP. The model also engages supervisory techniques that model strengths-based practice such as (a) utilizing a team approach to decision making, (b) advancing critical analytical thinking to increase the capacity for individualized case plans, and (c) moving away from crisis-only supervisory models that are so common in child welfare settings. This chapter will review the four components of SBS, will discuss the roll-out of the SBS training program in five states and its potential international application, and will discuss preliminary research that supports this as an emerging practice. Further research is needed to establish this model as an evidence-based practice, plans for this work will also be discussed.