Supervision meeting – Getting them right in Early Years

Fiona Bland, early years adviser at NDNA, explains how to get the most out of your staff supervision meeting in Early Years…

Is a staff supervision meeting compulsory?

The EYFS requires each member of staff to have an appropriate supervision meeting with a member of the management team.

A supervision meeting is part of the ongoing supervision and monitoring process that happens in nurseries on a daily basis, in a variety of forms.

This requirement for an individual supervision meeting has been informed by serious case reviews, such as the Plymouth Serious Case Review. It has also been informed by research into the impact of staff qualifications and knowledge on children’s development and progress.

You must also remember to make arrangements for a supervision meeting for the nursery manager. This could be with the nursery owner, the chair of the management committee or, if appropriate, with a member of the local authority early years team.

What is the aim of a supervision meeting?

Supervision in a nursery is ongoing and takes many forms. The requirement for a supervision meeting is to provide further opportunities for practitioners to discuss:

• children’s progress and development
• their own progress
• any support or training they may need
• any sensitive issues they may need support with

The EYFS sets out the aims of individual supervision. They:

• Provide support to members of staff
• Give opportunity for practitioners to discuss concerns/sensitive issues
• Identify strengths and areas for development
• Identify coaching and mentoring needs
• Highlight training needs

The requirement for supervision gives managers an opportunity to:

• Support staff members with their development needs
• Provide mentoring and coaching options
• Share successes
• Identify any children who need support
• Discuss any safeguarding concerns
• Support staff members with their own self-reflection
• Ensure issues/problems are solved
• Build trusting relationships that provide a culture of information-sharing

Who should conduct it?

A manager doesn’t always have to be the person who carries out the supervision meetings. It may be that room leaders can do their own room, or the deputy manager could do some.

It is important that your supervisions are structured to provide discussion around staff development and support and any sensitive issues and concerns affecting team members.

You should try to ensure that whoever is carrying out the supervision meeting has had appropriate training and has a good relationship with the supervisee.

How can I get the most out of a supervision meeting?

To ensure that your staff are involved in the supervision process you should enable them to have a shared responsibility for their supervision meeting.

Both parties should be filling out any supervision forms/paperwork prior to the meeting in order to get their thoughts and ideas on paper.

This will save time during the meeting and will ensure a more productive and focused meeting. Supervision offers the opportunities to discuss issues such as:

• What the staff member enjoyed most/least since the last supervision meeting
• The staff member’s relationship with key children and their parents
• Any areas of work they need support with
• Date of next supervision meeting and actions to be completed before then

A supervision meeting is likely to identify development needs. External training may not always be the best option for supporting your team. There may be a lack of finance to support training, or not enough time, or you may be unable to provide staff cover.

Assigning a mentor or coach may be a more beneficial and cost-effective way to provide support to practitioners.

Mentoring is linked with professional and career development and is somewhat characterised by an ‘expert-novice’ relationship. For example, you might invite an experienced member of your staff team to mentor a new member of your team in developing activities for your forest school planning.

Coaching is defined with a narrower remit than mentoring and relates to specific areas of performance and job outcomes.

Visit the NDNA website for more support on all aspects of running a successful nursery business.