Fit for purpose: Safeguarding children supervision in Northern Ireland

‣ Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with health visitors and school nurses from a Trust in Northern Ireland on the subject of supervision. ‣ The value of safeguarding supervision experiences was positively highlighted by all HVs and the two safeguarding children supervisor participants. ‣ Preparation for supervision using the risk analysis tool was recognised as imperative by all participants. ‣ Recommendations include the following: consideration should be given regarding aligning the regional nursing safeguarding children supervision documentation to the Signs of Safety approach. ‣ Consideration should be given to the regional interpretation of the protected time element of three hours by individual organisations for both the supervisee and supervisor. ‣ Promoting the uptake of peer support mechanisms for both the supervisee and supervisor is required. ‣ Further exploratory work is required on the current quality assurance process, which is open to individual supervisor interpretation.