Moldova Difference between administrative and professional supervision becomes clear for participants

Project : Moldova 1 Jul 2011 | professional supervision protection systems

Chisinau, Moldova: During the month of June, the second workshop was held on “The theory and practice in social work supervision of the child”, in direct collaboration with the Association of Supervisors of Romania, organized in the framework of the Child Protection Safety Net (CPSN) project of Tdh in Moldova. The purpose of these workshops was to familiarize social workers, supervisors and specialists mainly from the Education departments, with supervisory responsibilities, i.e. the principles, techniques and methods of supervision in child protection. The expected result is that the quality of social work for children will improve in the 4 targeted districts of CPSN project (Soroca, Ungheni, Falesti, Chisinau), through the implementation of quality professional supervision.

The usefulness and the applicability of the workshop proved to be impressive. Aurica Tirsina, social worker and supervisor of the Department of Family Welfare Protection of Ungheni admits: “The workshop helped me better understand the concept of supervision and I had the opportunity to learn from the experience of professionals from Romania. It is one thing to read and hear about supervision, but another to be directly involved in a supervision session with professionals. As beginners we had a lot to learn. Until this workshop, I practised more intervision, not supervision, meaning just an exchange of experience and advice. But after attending this workshop, I intend to implement the form of supervision based on the appropriate formulation of questions and to organize social work in such a way that the supervised person can find answers to their own to their questions, without me giving them advice. Through the questions received from my colleagues, the person should be able to come up with new solutions to the problem he faces.”

For Ala Solovei, main specialist of the General Directorate of Education in Soroca, the difference between administrative and professional supervision became clear: “I was confusing administrative supervision with professional one, but thanks to the workshop, I was informed not just about logistics, principles and methods of supervision, but about the difference between professional supervision and administrative supervision. Starting from January 1, 2011, the Department of Soroca has been responsible for supervision. I believed that I knew everything about supervision, but attending the workshop, I learnt a lot of new things that I will try to apply. Even in administrative supervision I’m going to make some changes, to introduce what I liked most in professional supervision.”

Ana Josan, main specialist of family issues in the Department for the Protection of Child Rights, sector Center, from Chisinau stresses the idea that professionalism is key to success in the field. “The supervisor must be like a doctor, because if a patient comes to the doctor, he must know how to listen. A person must know how to listen to get in touch with another person. But he/she must have some experience. Maybe the financial assistance is not as important as to be understood and to understand the essence of the problem, for instance to be able to offer psychological support. We should achieve the level of other European countries, but before that we must recognize the importance of the psychologists in child protection because they find a common language with the beneficiaries easier and carry out their role as supervisor better.”

The mechanism of supervision in social work in Moldova – adopted in 2008 – defines the concept and describes the procedures used in supervision as a way of interaction between the supervisor and the supervised. At the local level however working conditions of the professional supervisors of social workers and of the community ones, do not correspond entirely to their responsibilities (separate office, telephone, computer, office equipment necessary to the reference cases), which leads to inadequate interventions.

Aurica Tirsina mentions that “child protection supervision contributes to the development of professional skills of the community social workers working with families in need. The supervisory interventions come as an emotional support for them. However, the salary is very low and the work in this area requires great efforts: without a decent reward the results will not be satisfactory.”

Another reality is that the supervised can not choose their supervisor. Ana Josan compares the supervision system in Romania and the one in the Republic of Moldova: “Romanian supervision is very different than the one in our country. It may be compared with the profession of a lawyer or legal aid office, which is accredited. The supervised can choose their supervisor. In Moldova the supervised can not choose the supervisor.” In this context, Ana Josan concludes that “the role of supervisor is very important. In Chisinau there should be more supervisors. But the supervisors should have a lot of qualities and even education degrees. It is important to be a good psychologist and to be acquainted with the Law, and finally, the social worker should have knowledge in the field, to know the procedures and supervision steps. In short, it is important to be a qualified supervisor.”

Ala Solovei argues also that supervision would have an important role if there would be possibilities of providing professional supervision. “In Moldova we have not defined the expertise needed for supervisors and our university faculties do not prepare specialists, this is a big shortfall. First, we must train specialists who are able to provide high-level supervision and who can organize proper supervision meetings. When we will have highly trained specialists, then the role of supervision in child protection will increase. And these workshops organized by CPSN project from “Terre des hommes” Foundation are necessary and should be continued, perhaps at a larger scale." [AD]

Please read about the first workshop: Knowledge and skills in supervision