Management and Staff Support Philosophy

The Supervisors' Mission

The Supervisors' Mission has two coequal elements. These are:

• to ensure the highest possible quality of services to the people we serve, and
• to ensure the success and successful career development of the team members they supervise

Our intention in supervision is to ensure your success. Supervision is for you an opportunity to celebrate success, debrief on issues, incidents or problems you have encountered, identify barriers to quality, and hone your skills.

For your supervisors, supervision is an opportunity to do the same. You will find that you supervisors use a window and mirror approach to supervision. This means that they will look for opportunities to celebrate success in the work that you do, crediting you for this success, and that they will approach problem-solving with a mindset of first examining what we can do better to support you when things go wrong. Looking in the mirror when problem-solving means your supervisor will ask questions such as those that follow and advocating on your behalf.

• Were expectations clear?
• Were you adequately trained and supported to meet expectations?
• Do you have the resources you need to meet expectations?
• Do existing policies and procedures cause obstacles or barriers to meeting expectations and can these be changed?
• What other factors, under our control, have impeded success that can be rectified?

Your role in problem-solving is to collaborate with us, identifying red flags (obstacles to success) while avoiding excuse-making and accepting responsibility to change what you can.

Read more about our Management Philosophy in the Welcome Chapter of this guide.

View the Organizational Chart here.

Administrative Supervision

Each team member will receive individual supervision monthly. Others, depending on role, may be required to receive supervision more frequently. During monthly supervision the Administrative Supervisor will review the following (if they apply to the Team Members current role):

(Blue items below link to applicable sections of this Guide.)

• What is going well?
• With what is the team member struggling?
• Action Plans from previous month’s supervision
• Progress on existing Performance Improvement or Performance Intervention Plans
• Response to Referrals
• Caseload Management, Engagement and Effort
• FTE, Productivity and Caseload Management
• Quality of Assessment and Planning Work
• Review of Disengaged and Closing Clients
• Insurance Monitoring and Advocacy Work
• Career Plan Review
• Training Needs
• Action Plans
• Issues Identified for review in Treatment Supervision

Administrators document monthly supervision on the Monthly Administrative Supervision form, found in:

staff>documentation>personnel forms>performance evaluation and intervention.

See notes on writing action plans during monthly supervision, in the Documenting Supervision section below.

Using Advanced Searches During Supervision for Monitoring Engagement and Quality Assurance

Tabs^TM offers simple but powerful tools for use during supervision (or at any time) for monitoring compliance, engagement and contact. One of these is the Advanced Client Search.

The example to the left is a setup for monitoring engagement and contact with recipients of Case Management. As you can see, it contains 13 columns (you can select up to 16). This example looks at these items:

• General Information
• Recipient Name
• Primary
• Insurance
• Status (Referral, Initiating, Active, Outreach, or other status chosen in the first filter)
• Referral Date
• Admit Date
• Compliance
• Diagnostic Assessment Date
• Functional Assessment Date
• Service Plan Date
• Contact and Engagement
• Last Note in Service (any note in the service category searched (also selected in the filter options)
• Several last services of specific types (in this case Face-to-Face Services, Face-to-Face Assessment and Planning, and Face-to-Face Outreach).

Customize Your Searches for Each Service Type

This is just one example. Advanced searches for other services may be simpler, or more complex, depending on what you're looking for.

For example, this example looks specifically for the three types of Face-to-Face Case Management services because Case Management is a service that can be provided by telephone. As such, Case Management-Phone Contact would appear if you selected Last Seen. For other services (an ARMHS search for example) might look for all of the same elements under the General and Compliance categories, above, but could use simply Last Note and Last Seen to monitor contact and engagement.

Save Your Most Frequently Used Searches

Tabs^TM allows you to save your favorite searches. Once you find the combination of columns you will want to use often, save and name your search. Even after you've saved a search, if you find you want to make a change or add or remove a column, you can pull up that saved search, edit it, and save it again.

Use Pre-Filters for the Task at Hand

Use the prefilters (not shown in the image above) to narrow your search parameters for the purpose of your search. These include:

• Status: Select a status (Active, Initiating, Referral, Outreach, Hold, or other).
• Assigned as Primary For: Select a Service Category and then a Primary in that Category. This will return results for individuals who are assigned to this provider in this service category, even if you are searching other service categories, below. This filter is very helpful for a provider to monitor engagement of the people they serve in other services they might be receiving at Accend.
• Assigned as Primary (in the Service Category searched, below).
• Assigned as Associate (in the Service Category searched, below).
• Assigned to Team: All clients assigned to a specific team (do not select any of the above assignments).
• Client Services: Select the service categories you want to view/monitor.

(Pre-filters are not saved when you save an advanced search. Only the columns you have selected are saved.)

Treatment Supervision, Observation and Direction, Additional Supervision Required

This information can now be found in the new Treatment Supervision guide found in Services>Treatment Supervision.

Documenting Administrative Supervision Activities

Action Plans In Administrative Supervision

Writing high quality, measurable action plans, and following up on these action plans is the essential element of effective supervision. Action plans should address patterns of behavior that need to change. These might include, but are not limited to, the following common issues:

• Responsiveness to referrals
• Engagement of current clients (seeing them less often or for fewer hours than are described in the Treatment Plan)
• Caseload management
• Work hours/FTE
• Meeting assessment and planning deadlines
• Action on insurance alerts
• Concurrent documentation
• Overall progress note quality
• Others

When preparing for Administrative Supervision, do the following:

1. Check Staff Development progress notes written since the most recent supervision
2. Check to see that the previous monthly supervision form has been approved (this ensures that action plans written in that session carry forward for follow-up into the current session)

During supervision:

1. Use a client search to check for referrals, and referral notes, engagement of current active client and last seen dates, and contact and scheduling efforts for disengaged individuals
2. Check Due Items list for the Team Member
3. Check insurance alerts for individuals assigned to the team member

Use all of the above to inform the supervision session. Use data, not verbal reports of the Team Member. Where there are problematic patterns, write action plans describing specifically what the Team Member must do/change, by what specific deadlines, and what you, the supervisor, will do to monitor progress. This should include writing Career Development progress notes between supervision sessions to record progress on the action plan and monitoring efforts of the supervisor.

Action Plans should address patterns and not be bogged down in specifics. For example, when overdue items are the problem pattern, do not list each case where an item is overdue in an action plan, rather, write and action plan that describes when the Team Member will bring all items into compliance, and how (over what period of time) they will maintain compliance to demonstrate improvement.

Action Plans are not all About Problems

Action Plans need not all be problems. They can include positive career development and growth activities, goals and objectives as well.

Follow Up!

When a problem has persisted (action plans not achieved) investigate why. If there are barriers to compliance for the team member, document these, describe how they will be resolved/removed, and what the new plan is for compliance with the action plan. If no barriers are identified and the problem persists, the action item may call for escalation to the level of Performance Intervention.

As a general rule, when a problem has not been resolved by the deadlines identified and persists into a second monthly supervision session, a revised or accelerated Action Plan in the supervision form may be merited, but by the third month if an action plan remains unresolved, a Performance Intervention is most certainly merited.

Generally, you should not allow serious problems to persist for three months, however, by setting earlier deadlines and following up on progress between supervision sessions.

Action Plans in Treatment or Administrative Supervision

During Treatment Supervision, look back at action plans developed in the previous session (either in the previous page, or form, whichever is applicable. Describe progress and additional action plans during each session.

When an action plan identified in Treatment Supervision needs attention by the Administrative supervisor, document this in your Treatment Supervision progress note and invite the Administrative supervisor to view it.

Supervision Progress Notes

Note Type	Use and Supervisee Documentation Instructions
Administrative Supervision Prep	Time spent by the Administrative Supervisor preparing for supervision, running reports, gathering data, investigating
Administrative Supervising Others	Document the Administrative Supervision session. Refer to the supervision form for details. Supervisee uses: Administrative Being Supervised
Career Development Progress Note	Use for supervisor while working with supervised to develop, fine tune, review progress on Career Plan
Career Plan Progress Note	For use documenting against objectives in the Career Plan
Kudos	A brief thank you or positive feedback note in a Team Member's file
Progress Notes Audit	Time spent conducting or reviewing a Progress Note Audit
Performance Intervention	Document the session when a Performance Intervention was delivered. Refer to the Performance Intervention form for details.
Performance Intervention Follow Up	Observations made while investigating progress on an open Performance Intervention

Performance Evaluation and Career Development

What Will Happen

At Accend we model our support for staff on the way we support the people we serve.

We start with your own career goals.

Performance evaluation is the equivalent of the Functional Assessment. How are you doing with current job tasks and expectations? What supports do you need to improve your skills? What new skills do you want to develop to achieve your career goals?

From these, we develop your Career Plan. This, like a service plan, is a list of your goals and objectives, with measurable outcomes you will achieve, target dates, and what supports you need to achieve your goals and desired outcomes.

What is Required of You?

Work with us. Set goals. Identify barriers and obstacles to your goals and the supports you need to overcome them. Review your Career Plan regularly and monitor your own progress. Ask for updates to the plan as needed, or as your career goals change.

Types of Career Plans

There are currently four types of Career Plans available in Tabs^TM. These include:

Initial Post-Training Career Plan

The Recruitment and Retention Manager will facilitate development of the first Career Plan with the Trainee and with input from the Trainee's Program Manager and Treatment Supervisor and the end of each employee's Initial Training period (90 days). This plan might include goals and objectives for continued work on core competencies where the Trainee is demonstrating sufficient progress but needs improvement in some areas of the core.

Where the Trainee is demonstrating all of the core competencies for services provided, the Initial Post-Training Career Plan may identify goals and objectives for further career development, identifying next steps for training and development of Intermediate and Advanced competencies and other career development goals.

Career Plan

Each employee should have a Career Plan that identifies goals and objectives for further career development, identifying next steps for training and development of Intermediate and Advanced competencies and other career development goals. It is up to the employee to initiate the Career-Planning process and develop a plan in consultation with their Program Manager, Treatment Supervisor, and the Training Development Manager.

To participate in Career Development activities, including Competency-Based Training, and to be eligible for Competency-Based pay increases, employees must have a Career Plan that identifies training priorities.

Performance Improvement Plan

Where an employee is failing to meet core competencies some time following the Initial Training period and/or after one of the two above Career Plans has been developed, a Performance Improvement Plan is a short-term plan that identifies the core competencies that must improve, with target dates for improvement.

Program Managers or Treatment Supervisors may initiate a Performance Improvement Plan by closing the current Career Plan (if one exists) writing performance improvement goals and objectives, and placing these in the Peformance Improvement Plan.

Trainee Supervision and Learning Plan

All Clinical Trainees and Interns in any type of internship must have a Trainee Supervision and Learning Plan. The assigned Internship/Traineeship Supervisor and Intern/Trainee develop this plan together. This plan identifies the goals and objectives for the Internship/Traineeship and describes the plan for supervision.

Documentation of Career Plan Progress

Supervisors should use the note type Career Plan Progress Note to routinely document progress on the Career Plan and to rate progress on the outcome statements in each goal and objective.

Performance Intervention

What Will Happen

Performance Intervention is a tool for correcting problems in work performance. It is a formal process in which your supervisor will meet with you to:

• identify the problem,
• uncover factors that have contributed to it, including all of the questions described in the Management Philosophy section above.
• describe what you need to do, and by when, to correct the problem;
• describe what we will do to support you in correcting the problem;
• identify potential consequences if the problem is not corrected.

What is Required of You

Participate openly and honestly. Help us identify what has caused the problem so that we can help solve it. Commit to doing your part.

This process will explore all of the contributing factors to failure to follow policies and procedures, including training, supports needed, reasonable accomodations, and any other barriers. Once all barriers or or contributing factors are resolved, continued failure to comply with policies and procedures may lead to involuntary termination of employment. Some egregious offenses (e.g. abuse or exploitation of clients, serious safety violations or others) may result in immediate termination.

Documentation of Performance Intervention

The Performance Intervention documents the problem and correction plan. The conversation with you when the intervention is developed is documented as Performance Intervention progress notes in your file. Each time your supervisor follows up by checking your work, your progress on correcting the problem, this will be documented in a Performance Intervention Follow Up note until the problem is resolved.

Feedback or Questions about this Chapter

This guide is a living document. We want to improve it with your help. Do you have questions? Found a typo? Find yourself wanting more information? Please send us your thoughts about anything in this chapter by tapping on the link below.

Updates to this Chapter

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December 30, 2022:

Treatment Supervision clarified for all services and roles. Additinonal other supervision, observation and mentoring requirements added to this section. Section heading changed to reflect that it contains these additional requirements.

Treatment Supervision Agenda revised.

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April 6, 2023:

Treatment Supervision moved to the new chapter Treatment Supervision Guide found in Services>Treatment Supervision.

Title changed to reflect this change.

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