co-design supervision is:

• a relationship

• confidential

• a chance to reflect

• about supporting you in your practice

• grounded in justice-doing (Reynolds 2012)

• an important part of ethical and accountable work

• an established practice in social care and peer work

co-design supervision isn’t:

• therapy

• doing your work for you

• being your boss

• endorsing your work as ‘best practice’

Sources:

Reynolds, V. (2012). An ethical stance for justice-doing in community work and therapy.

Rod Baxter & Trissel Eriksen (2022) Supervision Scrapbook: A resource for youth workers. Third Edition

Carroll, M. (2014). Effective Supervision for the Helping Professions (2nd ed.). London, England: Sage.

pricing

• For individual supervision we offer a sliding scale of rates from $200 - $350 per session depending on your context and if you’re paying via an organisation. Paying through your organisation requires us to do more work.

• For group supervision, rates start at $380 per session.

frequency and minimum commitment

There is no minimum commitment and you do not have to buy a package. A once-off session might be all you need.

We find people get the most out of supervision when it is a regular practice, for example:

• at defined milestones in your work (for example, at the project beginning, middle and end)

• meeting bi-weekly, monthly or bi-monthly

regular supervision can help to build and strengthen our ability to engage in reflective practice and is often an important support for people leading co-design work who might not have colleagues who understand the work or bring expertise in navigating the challenges of the work

In co-design it can help to take time out to:

• Strengthen our advocacy for the resources, boundaries, time, authority and care needed to do co-design well.

• Explore different dimensions of the work, for example, planning, coordinating, strategising, influencing, communicating, advocating, designing, making or repairing relationships. And, explore our roles in each of those dimensions.

• Explore and grow confidence in transferring existing skills to leading and coordinating co-design, for example, from using creative practice one-to-one as a clinician or peer worker to creative practice with a group in co-design.

• Tune into our intuition and many ways of knowing (for example, through Ancestral knowledge) which might contradict the ‘status quo’ of design methods, our managers or colleagues advice.

• Name and communicate our ethics, values, unique approaches and resources that we can draw on for strength and guidance.

• Develop a scope of practice (McKercher, 2023) to revisit regularly to assess new work demands, potential partnerships and learning needs.

• Process and learn from failure, moments of defensiveness and approaches that didn't work as we'd intended.

• Process disappointment, frustration and rage, for example, when projects aren't implemented after serious hard work.

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Different styles of supervision (Heron, 2011) can be useful as we move through different levels of competence - from unconscious incompetence, to conscious incompetence, conscious competence and finally, unconscious competence (Gordon Training International & Noel Burch).

📚 Check out Emma Blomkamp’s co-design maturity model.

New practitioners (for example, young people or professionals from other fields) often benefit from an informative approach (Heron, 2011) where the supervisor gives information (frameworks, theory, examples) and might set homework for the person being supervised. When we start a practice there’s often gaps in our knowledge, language and toolbox. A supervisor might notice us taking ethical risks, damaging relationships or making poor project decisions that we don’t yet have language for or awareness of.

For experienced practitioners, facilitative (Heron, 2001) co-design supervision may be better, where the supervisor holds space for realisation, reflection, interrogating and experimenting with new and existing methods. With experienced practitioners there’s still a place for sharing information.

During our first session, we’ll generally explore:

• our backgrounds and values

• some of the functions of supervision

• past supervision experiences (if any)

• your role or roles

• hopes and expectations

• how we’ll work together

• something you’d like to bring to supervision during the first session

If you’d like to prepare for the session you might like to review the diagram below functions of co-design supervision and/or use this Preparation for Supervision worksheet from Rod Baxter and Trissel Eriksen.

• come as you are

• talk a lot: this is your space

• show emotion or not: all of your energies and emotions are welcome

• take a pause, stand-up or step away

• change the session focus during the session

• draw, make things or use other practices

• find a different supervisor

• bring in intuition, spirituality, ancestors and other guides

• swear (if that’s your thing)

“Coaching with KA has been an invaluable experience for me, they have really helped me to tailor the wisdom available in their written resources to suit the context of my work. As a PhD Candidate there is continual pressures to achieve academic rigor, however creating the conditions for meaningful co-design was sometimes at odds with those academic research priorities. KA often helped me to navigate and reflect on how my decisions would support or engage the people with disability whom I was working with, to meet their needs; whereas my academic supervisory team really focused on how I was meeting the needs of the research aims. In a non-judgemental way KA really supports you to reflect on your choices and guide future steps without making decisions for you. They are an excellent coach, mentor and cheerleader who meets you where you are, and supports you in getting where you need to be, for the benefit of you and the wider community.” Cloe Benson, Allied Health Professional and PhD Student

“KA was able to bring deep strategic guidance and design knowledge every week to assist and support us as we began to build strong foundations. The beauty of this model was the flexibility it gave me and the team to be able to bring different challenges or topics each week to the session. KA was willing and able to jump in and offer advice and support to best meet the needs of our changing working environment every week. This proved far more valuable than a more structured project-based approach.” Susie Flynn, Head of Community Experience at Beyond Blue

Trying to take time, take care and take accountability. We’re committed to:

Offering non-judgemental support and solidarity.

Taking time for celebration, noticing your strengths and progress (no matter how small).

Being in the expertise together: We each bring expertise into the relationship. You know your context.

Supporting ethical, inclusive and dignified design practice. We support practitioners to work in ways that are liberating and dignified for everyone involved. This is based on the 'mindsets for co-design', the Model of Care for Co-design, Research Justice and the Design Justice Principles, of which we are a signatory. Where we’re curious about the potential for greater ethics, inclusion or dignity in your practice, we will bring that to you clearly and compassionately.