Co-op Academy Trust is committed to ensuring that staff receive good quality, effective and purposeful support. This can be maintained through effective supervision.

Safeguarding supervision within Co-op Academies Trust is in place to provide a balance of personal support and guidance and case management analysis, encouraging reflection upon practice to support designated safeguarding leads and wider safeguarding teams and improve outcomes for the children that we work with.

This policy sets out the framework and expectations for safeguarding supervision in Our Trust.

Support for DSLs and wider staff

Informal support

Both formal and informal supervision plays an important role in safeguarding practice. Informal supervision often takes place within academies between Headteachers and DSLs, and DSLs, DDSLs and wider safeguarding teams, during scheduled safeguarding team meetings or during regular day to day contact between teams.

The need to ‘offload’ can be unscheduled and immediate and safeguarding teams have line managers that support them in this way when serious and upsetting events occur in the academy. Though each academy will have its own internal informal systems to ensure that the staff who manage the most vulnerable children are able to offload and talk about how they are feeling and dealing with the issues presented, there is also a duty of care to ensure that there are mechanisms in place within our academy provision to properly support staff who regularly manage distressing situations through a formal process of supervision and reflection. Access to informal supervision is good practice but should NOT replace a formal supervision session.

Significant issues discussed or case decisions made as a result of informal supervision should be recorded properly on the child’s CPOMS record and revisited at the formal session.

Supervision does not simply occur in a 1:1 session. It occurs in the context of a supervisory relationship and to be effective this must be based on trust so that a safe space is created in which uncertainty, ambiguity, mistakes, assumptions, confusion, challenge, wellbeing, success, and achievement can all be explored. It is therefore critical that over time this relationship develops so that when things are at their most complex and vulnerable, which is often outside of formal supervision, the supervisor and supervisee can communicate effectively.

Formal Supervision

All DSLs should access appropriate safeguarding supervision. As part of their role, Regional Safeguarding Leads offer supervision to all DSLs.

Formal sessions will occur at least termly between the individual academy DSL and the Regional Safeguarding Lead. The supervision agreement in Appendix 1 should be used to clarify the expectations for supervision. The frequency may vary and arrangements should be discussed between supervisor and supervisee.

Supervision meetings should be scheduled in advance and the Appendix 6a should be used as a tool to record the discussion and this is then placed on file together with any agreed actions. A separate record on CPOMS is used for each student where a case point is made.

Supervision should be a protected time to discuss all matters arising.

The purpose of supervision sessions is to:

Provide protected time to reflect on practice.
Provide support with emotional well-being.
Provide an opportunity to off-load, talk about how practitioners are feeling when dealing with serious and distressing incidents and the impact on their own life.

Discuss and seek guidance on specific cases, review action plans, talk through any challenges experienced whilst working with other agencies and consider the necessity of case escalation through formal channels.
Assess risk and protective factors for the child.
Consider strengths and areas for development for the colleague.

Safeguarding supervision will not:

Replace appraisal, but should complement it.
Offer the supervisee personal counselling (the supervisor at times may need to refer a supervisee to other services such as the Employee Assistance Programme or Emotional Wellbeing coaching).

Roles and responsibilities

The supervisor is responsible for:

Sharing the responsibility for making the supervisory relationship work.
Ensuring confidentiality, subject to pupil and staff safety.
Creating an effective, sensitive and supportive supervision.
Providing suitable time and location.
Agree the timescales within which supervision takes place.
Eliminating interruptions.
Maintaining accurate and clear records.
Ensuring that the supervision contract has been agreed and reviewed annually.
Ensuring the Co-op Academies Trust values and Ways of Being are embedded in practice
Ensuring that where a change in supervision arrangements occur, a handover process is arranged between all parties concerned.
Ensuring that issues relating to diversity are addressed constructively and positively and provide opportunity for staff to raise issues about their experience and diversity.

The supervisee is responsible for:

Sharing the responsibility for making the supervisory relationship work.
Attending regularly and on time, participating actively and bringing their agenda.
Preparing appropriately for supervision sessions.
Ensuring the recording of supervision is reflective of the particular meeting, including making records on an individual's CPOMS records where case management actions are agreed.
Ensure that the supervision contract has been agreed and is reviewed annually.
Actively participating in reflective, sensitive and supportive supervision and being accountable for any actions.
Ensuring the Co-op Academies Trust values and Ways of Being are embedded in practice

All staff also have access to the employee assistance programme. Further details are available in the well being and benefits section of the colleague portal.

RSLs are also available to provide ad-hoc supervision and support via telephone call, virtual meetings or in-person academy visits.

Supervision of the wider safeguarding team, including DDSLs

All staff working in safeguarding should have access to supervision. Arrangements at Co-op Academy Southfield are:

1:1 supervision with the DSL, provision of supervision from an external provider (including the LA) or group supervision during safeguarding team meetings.

Appendix 1 & 2 can be used by DSLs to clarify arrangements for supervision with their wider safeguarding teams and as a mechanism for recording supervision sessions where appropriate.

Group supervision

In some cases, it may be necessary or appropriate to conduct a group supervision session, where there may be several staff involved in direct work with a specific child/family. There are many benefits to be gained from group supervision including problem solving, peer group learning and giving and receiving strong feedback within a supportive setting.

With a group supervision process, the roles and responsibilities of the supervisor and supervisees should be the same, with the added principles:

The group should clarify and agree on the boundaries of confidentiality.
The records should reflect that this was a group supervision.

Confidentiality and Access

Supervision is a private but not a confidential process. This means that the records are the property of the organisation, not the individual. From time-to-time supervisors will need to discuss the content of supervision sessions with others, e.g. their own line manager. This should always be with the knowledge of the supervisee.

Access to supervision records should be controlled. Access to any electronic files must be accessible only by the supervisee, supervisor and the Trust Strategic Lead for safeguarding. Supervisees should be aware, however, that other than themselves and their supervisor, others will, from time to time, access records, these might include:

• Senior Managers (for quality assurance purposes).

• Investigating Officers (e.g. for disciplinary purposes).

• Inspectors (e.g. Ofsted).

Co-op Academy Southfield

Safeguarding Supervision Policy 2025_26

Linked Documents

Aims of the Policy