What about supervision?

For live client work particularly, supervision is probably the critical component. Key issues for live client clinics are:

• skills and training: good clinical supervision requires both relevant practitioner experience and an understanding of experiential learning and its facilitation. It is an unusual combination, and you may need to consider whether the development of a clinical component creates some specific staff development needs for (prospective) clinical teachers. While non-professionally qualified staff should be encouraged to participate in supervision and support of the clinic, such participation should formally be under the supervision of admitted staff. Note that this may be a requirement for indemnity cover. In externship programmes steps also need to be taken to ensure field supervisors are familiar with the educational objectives of the programme and able to enhance learning by providing adequate support, feedback and evaluation of students in the day-to-day clinical setting.
• continuity: for live client work it is highly desirable to have at least two supervisors, not just to maintain a reasonable staff-student ratio, but to safeguard coverage and supervision of all public clinic sessions.
• timetabling: a realistic allowance needs to be created for clinical teaching reflecting the intensity of the supervisory process. Note that the CLEO Model Standards suggest that a two semester (live client) clinical course actually requires eight hours supervision/week for each group of 12 students.
• contracts: consider whether it is desirable or necessary for supervisors to be on separate contracts. Understandably, this can be a sensitive issue, as it has been in the USA (although more clinical staff are being appointed to tenured posts now). But there are two practical considerations, particularly if you run a full solicitors’ practice model. First, you need to think about the responsibilities of the supervising clinician towards clients as well as students, and factors such as the need to manage continuing cases in vacation periods. These responsibilities may not fit neatly within traditional academic contracts. Secondly, the reality (especially in the early years of a programme) is that clinical staff may find it very difficult to produce the levels of research and scholarship expected of regular faculty. Consequently, it may be in the interests of both the faculty and the staff member for the contract to be framed as ‘teaching only’.
• face to face, and…? Not all supervision needs to be face to face, even in live client clinics. Virtual learning environments (VLEs) such as Blackboard can be used to support group work and supervision in clinical courses, using e-mail, chatrooms etc to facilitate communication and discussion. VLEs have enormous potential for supporting clinical simulations, where much of the casework component can be developed, stored and managed within the electronic environment (see for example Maharg & Paliwala, 2002).

Last Modified: 2 August 2010