ABSTRACT
The reflection process and the supervisory triangles provide a conceptual framework for understanding the dynamic processes within the supervisory relationship and the organisational context of the work. Cooper has pointed out that targets and the audit culture are not "accidental features of modern organisational landscapes, but integral parts of the new welfare settlement". The increasingly prescriptive procedures and protocols of child protection systems act as service controls and are an alternative claim on practitioners' time, deflecting attention away from direct face to face work with families. In order to provide a competent and confident workforce there needs to be a planned and thoughtful approach to changes in both the technical system and the socio-professional culture. The supervisory triangles, by seeking to balance the competing pressures of care and control, offer the possibility that both supervisor and supervisee can occupy a depressive position state of mind in their working relationship; or, at least, move in and out of it.
