ABSTRACT
The supervisors view social work as a life encompassing project that is very much determined by biographical and domestic facets of the individual worker. The ‘good’ supervisors observed in other organisations, they demonstrate to their teams their independence from higher management and their disinclination to intrude overly on the workers’ day to day practices. The supervisors subscribe to the shared view that all the team are competent workers. ‘Caring’ is a core conception of service ideals within the occupation and it is a routine feature of the job that the supervisor will, through the medium of therapeutic care, attempt to remedy the shortcomings of a practitioner. The team leaders’ need for a trusting rapport with team members in order to share in their unobserved practice precludes an open and critical appraisal of work. The team leaders assiduously maintain a sentiment of diffuse concern for the social workers.
