Supervision guidance and resources

A3 Work within the limits of their competence and the supervision which they need, including:

• Disclosing when work is beyond their personal capability
• Recognising when they have made mistakes or are experiencing difficulties and taking appropriate action
• Seeking and making effective use of feedback, guidance and support where needed
• Knowing when to seek expert advice

C3 Establish and maintain effective and professional relations with other people, including:

1. Treating others with courtesy and respect
2. Delegating tasks when appropriate to do so
3. Supervising the work of others effectively
4. Keeping colleagues informed of progress of work, including any risks or problems
5. Acknowledging and engaging with others’ expertise when appropriate
6. Being supportive of colleagues and offering advice and assistance when required
7. Being clear about expectations
8. Identifying, selecting and, where appropriate, managing external experts or consultants

Supervisor(s)

A person(s) who is(are) of sufficient seniority and in a position of sufficient responsibility with the appropriate skills and experience to guide and assist others

4.3 Practices must have a learning and development policy, which must include ensuring that all supervisors and managers receive appropriate training

5.3 There must be a named supervisor for each area of work undertaken by the practice.

5.4 Practices must have procedures to manage instructions, which may be undertaken even though they have a higher risk profile, including unusual supervisory and reporting requirements or contingency planning.

5.9 Practices must have a procedure to ensure that all personnel, both permanent and temporary, are actively supervised. Such procedures must include:

• checks on incoming and outgoing correspondence where appropriate
• departmental, team and office meetings and communication structures
• reviews of matter details in order to ensure good financial controls and the appropriate allocation of workloads
• the exercise of devolved powers in publicly funded work (sic)
• the availability of a supervisor
• allocation of new work and reallocation of existing work, if necessary.

5.11 Practices must have a procedure for regular, independent file reviews of either the management of the file or its substantive legal content, or both.  In relation to file reviews, practices must:

• define and explain file selection criteria
• define and explain the number and frequency of reviews
• retain a record of the file review on the matter file and centrally
• ensure any corrective action, which is identified in a file review, is acted upon within 28 days and verified
• ensure that the designated supervisor reviews and monitors the data generated by file reviews
• conduct a review at least annually of the data generated by file reviews 

Excerpt - Section D - Managing people

D3.1  A named supervisor is available to supervise caseworkers in each specialist category of law your organisation offers.

Accessibility

The supervisor must be present in the office for sufficient time to demonstrate effective supervision (see D4.2), and must be able to demonstrate control over the quality of work for the rest of the time (e.g. by scheduling specific supervisory sessions, by delegating correspondence checking to a deputy, or by being accessible by telephone or e-mail).

Deputy supervisors

A deputy supervisor (who may not meet all of the requirements at D3.2) can be named and can carry out functions usually performed by the supervisor, under their supervision (i.e. the supervisor must demonstrate that they maintain overall responsibility). Deputy supervisors must be denoted as such on the key roles structure (at C1.2) and they must have a training and development plan (D2.3) that is specifically designed to provide the skills and experience necessary for them to be able to meet all of the supervisor requirements in the future (e.g. by setting a date by which they will apply for panel membership or complete an NVQ in supervisory skills). A deputy may also act as a temporary supervisor in the supervisor’s absence, and in such instances you need not justify the nomination nor carry out an appraisal after ten days.

D3.2  Supervisors will be required to provide evidence of appropriate experience and training to supervise in their chosen category

Each supervisor must have appropriate experience of the category supervised

Each supervisor (including sole practitioners) meets one of the following supervisory skills standards:

(a) Assessed as working at Level 3 or higher (within the NVQ framework) in relevant elements of the national standards (see Guidance).

Or

(b) Training covering key supervisory skills (see Guidance) completed in the 12 months immediately preceding the SQM application.

Or

(c) Able to demonstrate experience as an effective supervisor (covering supervision of all of the work being done in the department) of at least one full-time member of staff (or equivalent) for at least one year in the last five years.

D3.3  Training records show that supervisors maintain and extend technical legal knowledge to a minimum level of six CPD hours (or equivalent) per year, and that this part of their training relates directly (or can be applied directly) to the area of law being supervised.

D3.4  There are arrangements (relating to time spent supervising and numbers supervised) to ensure that each supervisor is able to conduct their role effectively.

You must be able to demonstrate that time is designated for supervision and you must be able to justify the number of caseworkers supervised by each supervisor.

Where an external supervisor is in place (see D3.1), they must not supervise more than three caseworkers, and where the caseworkers being supervised individually or collectively have case involvement at the level specified for the relevant category in Annex A (i.e. usually 350 hours per year), there must be a plan for one of the three to meet the supervisor standards (at D3.2 and D3.3) within three years. Exceptions will only be made where the arrangement is a short-term measure to cover extended leave or unexpected departure of a qualified supervisor (where a permanent replacement must be found (or trained) within 12 months).

D4 Operation of the supervisory role

D4.1 Processes to ensure that staff are allocated cases according to the role they are required to fulfil and on the basis of their skills, competence and capacity.

D4.2 Processes to ensure that staff are allocated cases according to the role they are required to fulfil and on the basis of their skills, competence and capacity.

D4.3 Effective systems of supervision exist that are tailored to the skills and competence of individual members of staff

D4.4 All members of staff know their own limits and are aware of the need to inform their supervisor if a case is beyond them.

D4.5 There is ready access to current relevant legal reference materials.

Supervisors must demonstrate how they become aware of relevant changes in legislation, practice and procedure, and then how they make sure that the knowledge of the staff they supervise is also kept up to date.

File Reviews

E2.1 For each casework member of staff:

1. The number of cases to be reviewed in each category of work, and the frequency, and method of review (unless all reviews are file content only) has been documented and can be demonstrated to have been determined according to their experience, expertise and quality of work (subject to any minimum requirements specified in Annex A).
2. The sample of work reviewed can be demonstrated to be representative of their overall caseload.
3. Review findings are communicated in accordance with a (written) procedure.
4. Corrective action is completed within a reasonable timescale and to the satisfaction of the reviewer in accordance with a (written) procedure.

E2.4 Conduct of a file review and details of any corrective action taken is evident from the case file.

E2.5 A comprehensive records of findings is produced for each file review.

E2.6 Records of file reviews are monitored at least annually with action taken to improve performance where negative trends are identified.

a. Numbers, frequency and method

You must document the number of files to be reviewed and the frequency, and (where other than file content only, e.g. face to face) the method(s) of review, for each casework member of staff (to whom cases have been allocated) and you must be able to justify these to the auditor on the basis of their experience, expertise and on any findings that have implications for the quality of their work (e.g. previous file reviews). Note that norms are suggested in the Guidance document to assist you in developing your file review process. Note also that while review frequency must be justified (as above), it will not ordinarily be possible to justify file reviews that are less frequent than every three months.

For organisations undertaking criminal legal aid, arrangements for all designated members of staff must comply with the definition above, subject to the additional requirements specified in Annex A (i.e. the number of files reviewed cannot fall below two files per person (or one file for qualified supervisors) per month, frequency of review cannot be longer than every quarter (though note that for many crime cases, frequency less than every month will be difficult to justify) and in any quarter 50% of required reviews are to be carried out by face-to-face method). Note that the requirements in Annex A do not apply (other than voluntarily) for staff not undertaking criminal legal aid work.

b. Representative samples

You must be able to demonstrate that the files selected for review reflect the range of work conducted by each individual over the period of a year. You are likely to have a process to ensure that this happens and may want to document category or case classifications to be covered (see Annex B), alongside the numbers of files to be reviewed and the method to be used (see E2.1(a)), where the individual covers a wide range of work (although it is not a requirement to do so).

c. Communicating review findings

Your procedure must outline how the individual is to become aware that a file has been reviewed, how the review findings (including any corrective action identified) will be communicated, and within what timescales. You may want to have different processes and/or timescales for reviews in which corrective action is identified, as  opposed to those where it is not. 

d. Reviewing corrective action

Your procedure must set out the process you use to ensure that corrective action has been completed to the satisfaction of the reviewer, and within the timescale agreed (and that the timescale for completion and for review of corrective action can be justified to the auditor in terms of the significance of error, the risk posed to you, the client or a funder, and the urgency required).

E2.2 The process is managed by the category supervisor.

E2.3 All reviews are carried out by a suitably qualified individual.

D4.   Processes to ensure the delivery of quality work to clients.

D4.1 You must identify at least one person responsible for supervising individuals who work with clients (this may be someone external to your organisation). The supervisor must have:

• At least two years’ recent and ongoing experience (either by undertaking advice themselves or involvement in others’ cases);
• Have experience of managing advisers;
• Demonstrating how they have maintained their knowledge of legal challenges and practice; and,
• Be accessible to the staff and volunteers they supervise.

D4.2 Where there is more than one person identified as the supervisor there must be at least one person ultimately responsible for meeting the requirements of the standard. This may be one of the supervisors of the manager of the service.

D4.3 You must have a clear method of allocating cases/enquiries to advisers/caseworkers according to their abilities.

D4.4 You must have a supervision system that is responsible to the skills of individual advisers.

D4.5 If you deliver advice as part of a regulated service, you must ensure that you comply with relevant professional standards and professional development frameworks for supervision.