Supervision Session Documents: Agendas and Minutes
Introduction
If you want to get the most out of PBS Supervision, you need to do a bit of work before and after sessions. While you’ll always have useful sessions if you have a good Supervisor, you want to be the one in charge of this process and where you’re going. It will be much more empowering for you to be leading the way in your development rather than accidentally ending up where you wanted to go eventually due to your Supervisor’s encouragements and reminders.
We’ve talked in another article about preparing your Learning Goals and working through these together, but these aren’t the only things you’ll talk about in sessions; you’ll need to create an Agenda.
Before Sessions: Preparing an Agenda
So what is an Agenda for PBS Supervision?
Basically, it’s some form of list of topics you’d like to talk about with your Supervisor in session. It can be as simple as emailing over a few dot points, however I really recommend making it more official with a document of some kind. We have two templates for download in our Member’s Only site which is free to join.
If possible, you want to include the following sections:
Practitioner/Supervisee Name
Supervisor Name
Supervision Date
Supervision Time & Duration
Any Standing Agenda Items (recurring topics you discuss regularly)
New Discussion Items
If you’re doing the typical 1 hour session, expect to cover around 3-5 items. This depends greatly on the complexity of the topic, however; highly complex topics such as difficult case reviews with compliance discussions and/or severe and immediate risks identified can take up the whole session alone! So make sure you have your most important items first up on the list.
As mentioned, you may also have Standing Agenda Items that you want to cover frequently with your Supervisor. These might include: Rundown of your caseload, any new participants, restrictive practice progress and fadeout, upcoming Positive Behaviour Support Plans, and/or PBS Capability Framework progress.
For your New Discussion Items - which was recently covered in the ‘Picking the Right Supervisor’ article - some items you might incorporate into your Agenda include:
Guidance and reflection on what to do with a specific participant’s case
Discussion around restrictive practice, including determining the necessity, choosing the least restrictive approach, and managing implementation, monitoring, and fadeout of these restrictions
Ethical considerations and dilemmas
Complex case discussion and debriefing
Advice around PBS processes and documentation
Direction toward different resources, policies, legislation, and more
Professional development, including working on your learning goals
Support around the PBS Capability Framework
I recommend putting aside 5-10 minutes to complete your Agenda in advance, ideally 1-3 days before your next session. You’ll want to get it to your Supervisor so they have some time to consider the items you want to cover, locate resources that might help you, etc. If I receive an Agenda and it’s been a while since I’ve read about that topic, I’ll make sure I’ve refreshed myself on the content prior to the session. This ends up saving you time during the session where I would otherwise be needing to look it up to make sure I’m giving good advice or guidance.
During and After Sessions: Preparing Your Minutes / Record
Once you’ve attended your session, it’s time to make your notes about what was discussed and the next steps. I also have Supervisees who like taking these notes during the session so they don’t forget anything when they’re trying to remember later. I also have Supervisees who’ve asked for consent to invite AI into the meeting to record their notes, and those who like the session recorded to make sure the information is accurate and to refer back to in future. All of these methods are equally valid; my recommendation is to do something that you know will work for you and that you’ll stick to. There’s no point telling yourself you’ll prepare a beautifully worded record of the session after it’s finished if you always end up distracted by emails as soon as you’ve left the meeting. Instead, maybe making a few key notes or using AI to summarise will suit you better.
What do your minutes, or record, need to cover? Ideally, aim to capture the main points of the conversation. E.g. a few dot points about how you discussed a participant’s potential need for restrictive practice, the evidence and arguments for and against, and if there was an outcome or next step identified.
It’s always best to have a section to capture actions decided upon in session, a time frame for these (e.g. prior to the next session), and who will be responsible. This could be the Supervisee or the Supervisor. For example, collating the behavioural data to bring to the next session might be a Supervisee action, time frame, and responsibility. Whereas, sharing a behaviour analysing template before the next session might be a Supervisor’s action, time frame, and responsibility.
It’s important to check that both parties have completed their responsibilities, and this might be another thing to add to the Agenda for the next session for further discussion. It’s important for Supervisors to also have some accountability for promises made!
Once the notes are written, I always leave it up to my Supervisees to decide whether they want me to sign their Minutes or not. The most important thing is that they’re actually writing them. However, a bonus is that if you send your Minutes to your Supervisor, they might be able to check the accuracy and add anything missing for you while they review them for signing. I personally don’t charge for this time, though I can’t speak for all Supervisors.
Conclusion
In the end, why make the time to prepare and keep these documents completed and up to date?
Your practice will improve simply through keeping on top of topics discussed, actions decided, and goals still to bring forward in session to help you develop
Preparation of an Agenda will mean you don’t miss important topics you’d wanted to discuss but forgot about in the moment and will stop you from blanking about what to talk about
Having clear direction for the purpose of the session will keep you from chatting about less relevant topics in session or coming away from sessions wondering what you’ve achieved
Maintaining Supervision Documentation is one of the capabilities within the PBS Capabaility Framework so you won’t be able to meet this if you’re not writing Agendas or keeping Records
You’ll pass this part of the audit process with no concerns; NDIS auditors want to see that you’re receiving regular Supervision and these documents act as evidence
There’ll be no concerns if you have to undergo the BSP Re-Endorsement at 1+ years of practice (New Entry Level only). Your Supervisor writes about your Supervision together as part of this process
Once you get into the hang of it, preparing and completing these documents doesn’t take much time at all. You can keep them together as a combined Agenda & Minutes document, have it already tailored to you and your Supervision details, and save them in a central storage location to easily access.
If you couldn’t already tell, I’m a major advocate for using Supervision Agendas and Minutes, so please make sure to give it a try if you haven’t already!
Your future self will thank you for it.
Author: Rebecca Kim
