What to Consider When Organising Supervision
Introduction
If you've never received PBS supervision before, it can be difficult to know what your supervision arrangement should actually look like.
Some of the common questions I receive from practitioners organising supervision are:
How often should I have supervision?
How long should my supervision sessions be?
Should I choose online or face-to-face supervision?
What kinds of support can a PBS Supervisor provide?
There isn't one supervision arrangement that's going to work perfectly for every Behaviour Support Practitioner. Your experience, capability, current work, access to other supports and what you're hoping to get from supervision can all influence what works best for you. So, let's work through some of the options together.
Just keep in mind that I'll be sharing some general guidance based on my experience supervising and developing Behaviour Support Practitioners. Your own supervision needs may look a little different — and that's okay.
Supervision Frequency
One of the most common questions I'm asked is: How often should I have PBS supervision?
There isn't a universal supervision frequency attached to each PBS Capability Framework level. How much supervision you need can depend on your experience, confidence, current caseload, complexity of your work, development goals, workplace support, and whether you have other experienced practitioners around you.
That said, after supervising and training BSPs at different stages of development over the years, I've developed some general starting points that I often use when thinking about supervision frequency.
My rough cheat sheet is:
Prospective and New Entry Level BSPs: I often suggest starting with weekly supervision, particularly while they're developing their initial capabilities and beginning practice.
Core BSPs: Fortnightly supervision can be a useful starting point.
Proficient BSPs: Every 3–4 weeks may provide enough regular contact while allowing more independent practice between sessions.
Advanced and Specialist BSPs: Every 4–6 weeks may be appropriate where the practitioner is experienced and has other sources of professional support.
These frequencies are my own general starting points rather than NDIS Commission requirements. The Commission does expect New Entry Level practitioners to receive a higher level of supervision and support, but it does not prescribe a universal weekly, fortnightly or monthly supervision schedule.
Framework level also doesn't tell us everything about what a practitioner needs. For example, two Core BSPs might have very different supervision needs. One might work within an established PBS team with experienced practitioners and a Clinical Lead available throughout the week. Another might be the only BSP in their organisation and have nobody internally to talk through a difficult decision with. I'd probably recommend more frequent external supervision for the second practitioner, even though both practitioners are working at the same Capability Framework level.
Your supervision needs can also change over time. You might temporarily increase your sessions if you're taking on more complex work, developing an unfamiliar capability, experiencing uncertainty around your practice, or simply going through a period where you need some additional support.
Likewise, as your experience and confidence develop, you may find that you need less frequent supervision because you're increasingly able to work through situations independently and bring more targeted questions to your Supervisor.
The goal isn't necessarily to have as much supervision as possible. It's to have enough access to supervision that you're appropriately supported while continuing to develop your own professional judgement. If your current arrangement doesn't feel like enough, that's worth discussing with your Supervisor rather than waiting for the next scheduled review.
Supervision Duration
Another question I often get is: How long should a supervision session be?
An hour is the most common session length among my supervisees, and it's generally what I recommend as a starting point. I find it's usually long enough to explore a few topics properly without feeling like you're racing against the clock, but not so long that you run out of things to discuss — or energy to discuss them!
Longer sessions can certainly be useful when there's a particular reason for them. For example, if we're combining supervision with more substantial training or working through a complex area of practice together, we may need considerably longer than an hour. But longer isn't necessarily better when it comes to regular supervision.
Some practitioners I supervise prefer 30-minute sessions. This can work particularly well when someone would benefit from more frequent contact. For example, they might choose 30 minutes every week rather than an hour every fortnight for a similar overall amount of supervision time. That can give them more regular opportunities to raise questions, reflect on something that's happened in practice, or check their thinking before too much time passes between sessions.
On the other hand, shorter sessions can feel rushed if you regularly bring complex cases, reflective discussions, or several different topics to supervision. In that situation, fewer but longer sessions may work better for you.
So rather than asking whether 30, 60 or 90 minutes is the correct supervision duration, I'd think about how much time you need to have the conversations you want to have — and how frequently you need access to those conversations. Your session length and supervision frequency really need to work together.
Supervision Modes
PBS supervision can be provided face-to-face, online, or through a combination of the two. I've supervised practitioners in all of these ways, and I don't think there's one mode that's automatically better than another. What matters more is whether the arrangement gives you access to the Supervisor you need and supports the kind of work you want to do together.
Face-to-Face Supervision
Face-to-face supervision can be particularly useful if you value connecting with someone in person or if you want your Supervisor to have opportunities to observe aspects of your practice directly. For example, where appropriate and with the necessary consent, a Supervisor may be able to shadow you during participant appointments, observe your interactions with stakeholders, or provide feedback on parts of your practice that can be difficult to capture through discussion alone.
The trade-off is usually convenience. You and your Supervisor need to be reasonably close to one another, somebody has to travel, and there may be additional travel time or fees involved. If face-to-face supervision is important to you, I'd recommend asking about location, travel arrangements and any associated costs before committing.
Online Supervision
Most of my external supervision is provided online, including with practitioners who live reasonably close to me.
The convenience is difficult to beat.
You don't need to travel and it's often easier to fit supervision around the rest of your working day. You can make yourself a coffee, sit somewhere comfortable and, if you're working from home, nobody needs to know you're still wearing pyjama pants under the desk.
There are also advantages beyond convenience. Online supervision means you're not limited to choosing a Supervisor simply because they happen to live nearby. You can look more broadly for someone whose experience, approach, and areas of practice are a good match for what you need.
The main limitation is that your Supervisor may have fewer opportunities to directly observe your practice. They'll often be relying on your account of what happened, your documentation, reflective discussion, and — where appropriate consent and privacy arrangements are in place — other ways of reviewing practice. That makes being open about uncertainty, mistakes and the things that didn't go quite as planned particularly important. Your Supervisor can only help you think about the parts of your practice they know about.
Hybrid Supervision
You don't necessarily have to choose one or the other. Some practitioners may prefer primarily online supervision with occasional face-to-face sessions where there is a particular reason to meet in person. Others may have internal face-to-face supervision alongside external online supervision.
A hybrid approach can give you some of the convenience and broader choice of online supervision while still creating opportunities for direct observation or in-person work when it's useful.
Ultimately, I'd choose your supervision mode based on fit, accessibility and what you actually need from the relationship, rather than assuming that face-to-face or online supervision is automatically better.
What Can PBS Supervisors Help With?
Supervision can involve much more than the sessions you have booked in your calendar.
Exactly what your Supervisor can help you with will depend on their experience, capability, role, and the supervision arrangement you've agreed on together. But some of the areas a PBS Supervisor may support you with include:
developing your capabilities against the PBS Capability Framework
identifying professional development goals and reviewing your progress over time
reflecting on participant work and thinking through complex or unfamiliar situations
developing your clinical reasoning and professional judgement
reviewing Behaviour Support Plans, assessments, and other practice documentation
providing feedback on your practice through discussion, document review, or direct observation where appropriate
working through ethical questions, restrictive practice considerations, and situations that may be outside your current capability
identifying when you may need additional training, consultation, or another source of expertise
reviewing evidence for PBS Capability Framework progression
supporting relevant application or reconsideration processes with the NDIS Commission
providing a space to debrief, reflect on mistakes, and work out what you might do differently next time.
Supervision also has a formal role in helping you develop your capabilities across the seven domains of the PBS Capability Framework. In particular, the NDIS Commission expects New Entry Level practitioners to work with a Proficient-level or above Supervisor and to receive a higher level of supervision and support while developing their capabilities. Supervisors can also have important responsibilities when you're working beyond your current independent scope. For example, Core practitioners should not independently recommend regulated restrictive practices. Work involving restrictive practices needs to occur within the practitioner's capability and appropriate supervision arrangements.
As you become more experienced, the things you bring to supervision may change. Early in your development, you might need more teaching, reassurance, document feedback, and help understanding processes. Later, you may bring increasingly complex questions, ethical dilemmas, unusual situations or decisions where you want someone experienced to challenge your reasoning.
That's one of the things I value most about good supervision: the aim isn't for your Supervisor to make every difficult decision for you. It's to help you develop the capability and judgement to make more of those decisions well yourself.
I've also provided support outside what you might traditionally picture as supervision. I've delivered targeted training, reviewed resumes and cover letters, provided professional references, shared resources, and helped practitioners work through career decisions. Though that doesn't mean every Supervisor will offer those things.
If there's a particular type of support you're hoping for, ask about it before assuming it's included. It's also worth clarifying what support is included within your regular supervision fee and what might be charged separately, such as substantial document reviews, additional training or support outside scheduled sessions.
Conclusion
There's no single supervision arrangement that's going to work perfectly for every Behaviour Support Practitioner.
You might prefer short, frequent sessions while you're finding your feet, or longer sessions with more time between them. You might value having someone local who can occasionally observe your practice, or decide that finding the right Supervisor is more important than whether they're anywhere near you.
And what works for you now might not be what you need six months or two years from now. As your experience, confidence and capabilities develop, your supervision should be able to develop with you. You may need less reassurance and more challenge. Your questions may become more complex. You might spend less time asking "What should I do?" and more time saying "Here's what I'm thinking and why — what am I missing?"
That's a good thing. Supervision shouldn't just help you get through the work that's immediately in front of you. At its best, it should help you become increasingly reflective, capable and confident in your own professional judgement.
So gather information, try different approaches and be willing to talk openly with your Supervisor about what's working and what isn't. Be your own advocate when it comes to receiving quality supervision. If something about your current arrangement isn't meeting your needs, you can discuss it, adjust it or, if necessary, find something that works better for you.
Take an active role in your supervision so it can help you become the BSP you want to be.
Still Looking for a Supervisor?
If you're looking for PBS supervision and want to see whether we might be a good fit, you're welcome to book a free 20-minute compatibility chat with Rebecca.
We can talk about where you're currently at, what you're hoping to get from supervision, and what kind of supervision arrangement might work well for you.
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