Section 4 of 6
Pathway 1: Managing complexity
Pathway 1: Managing complexity
How practice supervisors can manage complexity in practice
By now you will have a clearer sense of how you want to strengthen your ability to manage complexity. This section covers practical strategies to support you as a practice supervisor in navigating complex cases, balancing multiple factors, and making informed decisions that prioritise the wellbeing of children and families.
These strategies also aim to strengthen effective collaboration and resource allocation, improving overall support for your team and the families you serve. They are separated into suggestions that will benefit you, your team, and your work with wider stakeholders.
Which of the activities below do you think you, your supervisees and service would most benefit from doing? Select one from each section that you would like to experiment with.
Thinking about yourself
Individual vision mapping
Dedicate time to create a space separate from your usual context - it could be going somewhere peaceful for a coffee or to a place of natural beauty.
Focus on using the time to step away from daily tasks to focus on your long-term leadership vision. Use this space to explore how you can navigate complexity more effectively, aligning your leadership style with your values.
Leadership theory immersion
Dive deep into leadership theories that focus on complexity and systems thinking. Apply these theories to your own leadership challenges, experimenting with new strategies and reflecting on their effectiveness.
Thinking about your team
Leadership book club
Create a culture where you regularly share short chapters or extracts on what it means to be a great leader, focusing on literature that addresses leadership in complexity.
Set apart time in your team meetings to discuss how you can apply these insights to your work, and challenge yourself to lead by example, implementing new strategies.
Collaborative problem-solving groups
Form a group with other practice supervisors to collaboratively tackle complex cases. Lead discussions that explore the intersection of research, theory, and real-world application, using each others' expertise to refine your strategies.
Thinking about the wider system
Group supervision
Organise a group supervision session where supervisees working on multi-agency cases come together to discuss the complexities they’re facing.
Encourage each supervisee to present a case and outline the agencies involved, the challenges in communication or coordination, and any areas of confusion.
Facilitate a collaborative discussion, allowing the group to share strategies, offer insights, and reflect on how to improve multi-agency collaboration.
Practising multi-agency interactions
In supervision, help supervisees prepare for multi-agency meetings by conducting a mock briefing session.
Have the supervisee outline issues, agency roles, and desired outcomes for a specific case.
Provide feedback on how they present information, handle questions, and clarify expectations from external partners. This should help them develop the skills to lead more structured, productive meetings with other agencies.
Over to you
After you’ve reviewed these activities, choose one from each section that you’d like to experiment with. You can use the 4C leadership capability framework action plan to detail when and where you’ll try these out and reflect on their impact over time.
The resources have been developed by
Frontline
in collaboration with
DfE.
Published: 30 January 2025
Last updated: 30 January 2025
Published: 30 January 2025
Last updated: 30 January 2025