One major responsibility of social workers is to supervise and support foster carers. This exploratory study examines how practitioners perform this role. The social workers’ experiences, attitudes and beliefs were explored in a focus group comprising five participants working in one local authority children’s service in a city in the East Midlands region of the UK. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data and participants were invited to contribute to the analysis. The research design is collaborative and second order, with the researcher positioning herself as part of the research ‘system’, and the underlying epistemology is social constructionist. Three overarching themes emerged: difficulties and rewards in relating to foster carers, working with risk and uncertainty and working within a system, with professionalism and humanity identified as significant motivations for guiding practice. The themes are presented and their connection to the research literature and systemic theory is discussed. Narratives and hypotheses are also offered. The results suggest that practitioners experience discomfort when there is disjunction between their own values and objectives and those of the agency they work in and, conversely, that they enjoy satisfaction when these values and objectives cohere. Implications for practice are discussed with a suggestion that strengths-based and systemic practice models are the most likely to produce consensus and challenge the current shift towards a process driven welfare service. The study is idiographic in being specific to participants and context and provides a snapshot of the ‘lived experience’ of supervising social workers (SSWs) through a systemic lens. Despite its limited scope and the dearth of research in this area, the study provides a starting point for further investigation.

中文翻译：

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内城监督社工：从业者如何感知和体验他们的角色

社会工作者的一项主要责任是监督和支持寄养者。这项探索性研究考察了从业者如何发挥这一作用。社会工作者的经历、态度和信念在一个焦点小组中进行了探讨，该小组由在英国东米德兰兹地区一个城市的一个地方当局儿童服务机构工作的五名参与者组成。解释性现象学分析 (IPA) 用于分析数据，并邀请参与者参与分析。研究设计是协作性的和二阶的，研究人员将自己定位为研究“系统”的一部分，潜在的认识论是社会建构主义。出现了三个总体主题：与寄养者相关的困难和回报、在风险和不确定性下工作以及在系统内工作，专业精神和人性化被认为是指导实践的重要动机。提出了主题，并讨论了它们与研究文献和系统理论的联系。还提供了叙述和假设。结果表明，当从业者自己的价值观和目标与他们工作的机构的价值观和目标不一致时，他们会感到不适，相反，当这些价值观和目标一致时，他们会感到满意。讨论了实践的意义，并建议基于优势和系统的实践模式最有可能产生共识并挑战当前向流程驱动的福利服务的转变。该研究针对参与者和背景具有独特性，并通过系统镜头提供了监督社会工作者 (SSW) 的“生活经历”的快照。尽管该领域的研究范围有限且缺乏研究，但该研究为进一步调查提供了一个起点。