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ANSE Quality Guide

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Guide for Quality Management

Preamble

Preamble Dear ANSE Members and all interested in ANSE Quality, Being the only Association for National Organisations for Supervision in Europe, European quality in Supervision and Coaching is naturally one of the main topics within the ANSE community. We strive to use the diverse European potentials to inspire, learn from, and grow with each other. The ANSE Guide for Quality showcases the potential of bringing ANSE’s diversity to life.

Managing diversity in ways that benefit our aims can be complex and challenging. My deep gratitude goes to everyone involved, especially the two volunteer ‘Quality Experts Groups’ (QEG), who have persistently worked through these challenges with great results. The first QEG has built a solid foundation of educational standards collection, comparison, and development. They started the work on lifelong learning and quality management.

The second QEG has created this guide to serve as an inspiration, a source for dialogue, and a basis for further developments in quality.

As always, it is a joy to witness the great outcomes of European diversity brought together within the ANSE community. Thank you! Miriam Ullrich, ANSE President , July 2024, Germany

Download here your copy of the Guide for Quality Management

Reading guide

This document addresses persons of national organisations of supervisors who are responsible for the quality management process within their own organisation. Professionals, students and any other interested persons are invited to use it for their own convenience and to gather inspiration.

We focus on supervisors and supervision, but of course coaches can relate to this guide as far as the NO includes their membership. We recommend that admission requirements for coaches should be the same.

It gives an overview of the diversity of our ANSE community and examples for its quality management practices. Please be invited to use it as a source of inspiration, reflection and dialogue on the topic of quality.

Group process

We started working in 2023 by invitation of the ANSE board. We have taken over the baton from the first Quality Expert group (2022-2023) who worked on the educational standards. We started on the quality management issue, first remote and finished up in Bern, Switzerland. A last feedback loop was organised by the ANSE Board. We would like to thank our ANSE colleagues warm heartedly for their feedforward. We are particularly grateful to:

Barbara Baumann, Germany, Elisabeth Graf, Italy, Franck Joseph-Maurin, France, Jean Paul Munsch, Switzerland, Evelyn Soidla, Estonia

Within this process, we have been facing various challenges that come with diversity and the effort of mutual understanding. From our experience, the more you look and the deeper you dive into the subject, the more you find links and connections, similarities and differences. You can compare your vision of quality with others, define or maybe re-define what is important for you.

QEG 2, Bern, May 2024

Abbreviations

ANSE = Association of National Organisations for Supervision in Europe

ECTS = European Credit Transfer System

EQF = European Qualifications Framework

GA = General Assembly

NO = National Organisation(s) for supervision or National Association(s) for supervision

QEG = ANSE quality expert group

Introduction

The quality topic has been an important part of ANSE policy for a long time as a basis for the supervision trade development and professionalisation in Europa and national countries. Since the existence of ANSE, there have been countless activities carried out that have contributed to this.

At the General Assembly of ANSE in autumn 2022, the first ANSE QEG presented the ideas of new ANSE educational standards. All NO had been asked to reflect on the ideas and to send their feedback to the ANSE board.

The ANSE board gave a task to the ANSE QEG to finalise the idea of new ANSE educational standards and to draw up a proposal for new ANSE minimal educational standards that can be voted on by the General Assembly of ANSE in autumn 2024. This is the result of the continuous work.

This introduction gives context to the resulting “guide book”. It is important to mention several activities in ANSE historical events that have led step by step to this guiding material.

History

Since the establishment of ANSE professional exchange of information, dialogue and discussion have been a priority (Knopf, 2007). The first ANSE Minimal Education Standards were accepted in ANSE GA12, 2008. Multicultural phenomena and diversity were taken seriously, an agreement on minimal standards and on aspects of professional development was described to have a certain orientation at our disposal. Unification of standards and a checking and control of the realised content of standards by ANSE was not realistic at that time.

Since then significant progress has been made:

  • Ethics of ANSE – voted for in 2012, GA14. (Code_of_Ethics_2012.pdf (anse.eu)) This was an important step towards orienting ANSE community to common understanding of ethics in shared trade-supervision.
  • Research conference and book in 2015, Budapest, Hungary. This event highlighted the importance of research in quality of professional practice. (Book “Inspire and Be Inspired – A Sample of Research on Supervision and Coaching in Europe” | ANSE)
  • The ECVision project (2012 – 2015 ) resulted in a “A European System of Comparability and Validation of Supervisory Competences” (ECvision_e_book.pdf (anse.eu)) This book is an essential basis for the scope of definition of supervision, terms and competences for supervisors, in one word – common language to share when talking about supervision.

According to Turner (2017) Quality Management was a central theme of the deliberations around the topic of mutual recognition within the ANSE community. Therefore, a discussion on the importance to create a quality management system stressed out.

Quality developments were necessary and requested from the community. The exchange of experiences and the search for new platforms to exchange were created. This resulted in Quality Talks, Talent talks, posting on social media as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Quality management activities within ANSE

It is important to mention that, parallel to the activities aimed at the development of Quality standards and looking at Quality management in ANSE, various events were held in the ANSE community, contributions to a collective promotion of Supervision as a trade: International intervision groups, Summer Universities, Talent talks, ANSE Journal and others.

On May, 30th 2020 the first meeting “ANSE Quality Workshop” took place. A gathering of 23 participants from 15 NO Experts from different NO took part in this event. During this event ideas on how to upgrade ANSE Quality standards and how to launch a Quality Management system were exchanged and discussed. The group identified the following next steps:

  1. To establish Quality working group (board and experts from NO);
  2. Continue to collect Quality Standards and Quality management descriptions of NO and make them accessible for NO;
  3. Create comparable table of Quality Standards and Quality management in National Organisations;
  4. Regular (twice a year) organise Quality Talks and
  5. To accept new standards in ANSE GA.

Subsequent activities (2020-2024):

  • Quality talks took place where NO presented Quality standards to ANSE Community;
  • First ANSE QEG was formed. They came up with the proposition how to upgrade minimal ANSE educational standards and proposed quality management guidelines.
  • The second QEG group proceeded with preparing upgraded ANSE Minimal Education and this “Quality management guide”, the document you are actually reading.

Definition of supervision

Supervision – Scope of Concept

These descriptions aim at giving an overview over the mainstream concepts of supervision in Europe today. The ECVision Glossary (2015) covers the definitions given. (Link on page 5)

Supervision as a counselling profession focuses on the interaction of persons, professional tasks and organisations.

Supervision provides ample space and time to reflect professional functioning in complex situations.

Supervision primarily serves the development of individuals, teams and organisations. It improves the professional lives of individuals and teams with regard to their roles in an institutional context. It also focuses on ensuring and developing the quality of communication among staff members and methods of cooperation in various working contexts.

Additionally, supervision offers support in different reflection and decision-making processes and in challenging and demanding professional situations and conflicts. It supports clarification and the processing of tasks, functions and roles. It assists in the handling of processes of change, in finding innovative solutions for new challenges and measures to combat mobbing and burnout.

Supervision as improvement of professional functioning

Supervision focuses on the improvement of individuals, teams and organisations in all work fields. The main aims include higher quality, more effectiveness and work efficiency in professional contexts. All professions or work fields can profit from supervision in that understanding.

According to this approach, the supervisor is an expert for counselling the interaction of persons, professional tasks and organisations, but not a practitioner of a specific work field.

Different levels for an efficient Quality Management System

To make a guide that is accessible to every member of ANSE it was necessary to find a method or system of clearly describing what was applicable for who. Therefor it was decided to split the different levels of quality management. Consequently, you will find the level of ANSE as level 1, the level of the NO (2) and the level of the individual members (3). The second decision made was to distinguish the levels of membership. Instead of using the Human Resources terms input, throughput and output we wanted to write in our community language. That is why the second choice was to distinguish another three levels of becoming, being a member and ending membership.

Quality on ANSE level

To become member of ANSE

Membership is regulated by ANSE statutes. There are four possibilities of becoming a member:

  1. Full membership which will be granted to national organisations for supervision, which in their country fulfils the following conditions combined:
  2. They exist as a legal entity in their own country.
  3. They represent graduates of at least two different educational programs for supervision/coaching. If this condition cannot be met, the national organisation is granted the period of five years to fulfil the requirements with the professional activities, guided by the ANSE executive board.
  4. They try to create a network of supervisors/coaches in their country offering them organisational structures.
  5. They understand supervision as a method for professional self-reflection.
  6. They represent a meeting-point for supervision and coaching, which span various professional fields and methodological schools.
  7. Supervisors and coaches must have completed a specific post-graduate (third degree) education.
  8. The educational programs for supervisors and coaches are open for students descending from different professions.
  9. Associate membership which can be granted to national organisations for supervision, which have a position as a legal entity in their own country and are striving for co-operation on a European level, although they have not yet reached the standards mentioned in ANSE Statutes (Paragraph 5. 1. 1.) in the full sense.
  10. Sponsoring membership which can be granted to natural persons and legal entities who wish to support ANSE financially.
  11. Honorary membership which can be granted to persons who are considered to have made an outstanding contribution to the development of supervision in Europe. Honorary memberships are given by the general assembly.

Being a member of ANSE

ANSE is an association of National organisations for supervision in the various European countries.

It was founded to promote co-operation on a professional level and to exchange of information between the members of national organisations for supervision.

ANSE is an association with members. In order to stay a member of ANSE, the above conditions apply. Members take decisions in the GA such as membership fees, which all members have to pay. This means all full and associate members are entitled to propose motions in the GA and full members have the right to vote. All can participate at events organised by the association under preferred conditions. Members are obliged to accept the statutes of the association, to promote its goals and to preserve its image.

The GA votes with simple majority, if not otherwise established by the statutes. The associate members have consulting functions. In specific cases, which shall be decided by the executive board, a decision-making process by postal votes is possible.

Only decisions on motions set on the agenda including questions outside the association’s statutes and rules can be voted upon. Minutes of decisions shall be written and signed both by the secretary and the president, and addressed to members after the assembly.

Decisions taken by the general assembly are definite and final for the association.

To ensure ethical considerations ANSE has a written ethical code (link on page 5) and a Court of Arbitration installed. This court, consisting of five persons, shall preside over all conflicts arising inside the association. Decisions will be made by all of its members with a simple majority. It shall decide to the best of its knowledge and belief and decisions shall be final for the association (ANSE Statutes, 2015)

Ending ANSE membership

The statutes state the following to end the membership:

In case of dissolution of the national organisation for supervision membership ends automatically.

Written resignation is possible only at the end of the financial year. The resignation must be declared in writing at the ANSE office, by recorded delivery, at least three months before the end of the financial year. Cancellation can follow if a member is in arrears with payment of the membership fee for more than six months. First a reminder and a grace period shall be given. Cancellation is made by the decision of the executive board if payment is not made during the grace period.

Expulsion will follow if members are guilty of violating the interests of the association. Members will get the opportunity to give an oral or written statement before the final decision is made at the GA.

Quality on NO level

Ethical considerations

Language, actions and professional posture are based on ethics. The various quality management systems of the member associations oblige to and commit to explicit codes of ethics and codes of conduct. They also show implicitly how closely ethics are linked to the supervisory profession. Ethics are the ongoing invitation to reach out to an ideal. Ethics, in our understanding, is also the gentle reminder of our human imperfection.

Quality management standards can be understood as an essence of what can be installed and done to assure ethical activity. Accommodating the gap between ideal and human imperfection, and setting what is needed to bridge it again and again, this remains within the responsibilities of the national organisations and, last but not least, an individual choice for compliance.

It can be helpful to have a committee and a commission, to make sure, who is finally taking responsibility for ethical issues.

While developing a code of ethics it is important to involve as many people as possible, to integrate the community. It is important to agree on the code of ethics at the national assembly. Be aware that it is not an easy process to develop such a code, but the process of discussion is very important to create a similar or common understanding of ethical issues and dilemmas.

Some NO have installed an “ombudsperson” whose role is to mediate and negotiate between conflict parts. It can be between a client and a supervisor, or between a student and an education institute, or between two supervisors. This person is independent from all engagement (board, institution, education, NO commissions) in order to avoid whatever conflict of interests. The ombudsperson is elected by the national assembly to ensure trust from all members of NO and the general public. If the gender aspect is important within your NO you can think about the possibility of having a woman, man or a non-binary person together in an Ombuds position.

To Become a member of a NO

National organizations should plan the creation of an onboarding process for new members. This is to make sure that new members get acquainted with the main regulations, procedures and values of the concerned NO such as statute, ethical code and quality regulations. This chapter holds recommendations to help the NO to develop, remodel or analyse their quality system. From now on, we will address the reader directly.

Being a member of a NO

As a NO you may think about the ways how you invite and ensure the development of supervision quality that members provide. How do NO create a quality process for their members?

Some NO have voluntary systems and others have obligatory ones. In any case you have to take into account what it will mean for a member, if they do not fulfil the quality requirements. In some NO it may lead to losing the membership, sometimes the fact that members fulfil the quality requirements can be published on the website. Anyway transparency in fulfilling the quality requirements should be made clear to clients and NO can think in diverse ways how you achieve it. The quality procedure can be very formal or involving self-declaration.

The advantage of a well-developed quality system shows that supervisors who are members of your NO have a high professional level and this makes a difference to other associations. It will be a quality mark for all supervisors in your NO.

It is quite normal that you will meet resistance if you install a quality system. It is helpful to be transparent with the objectives and processes and keep all parties informed (board members, committees and commission members, delegates and general members).

Criteria that help you to assure the quality of the members:

Reflective supervision work. Reflection is the main aspect in supervision work, so it is necessary to use tools to reflect your own practice in order to minimize psychological phenomena.

There are different ways like meta-supervision, local, national or ANSE intervision groups (International Intervision Groups | ANSE) or reflecting groups. The practice of reflecting groups is based mainly on forming a small group, where a person reflects their experience and receives feedback about their professional practice. The decision whom you will invite to the reflection group already starts and supports the learning process, e.g. should I choose someone who is different from me or more the same.

Continuous knowledge development. This means continuing education to update or actualize your body of knowledge about developments, research, studies or new models in the field of supervision. NO should invite supervisors to continue with education in supervision field. Sometimes it can raise discussions, which competences that you gain, are relevant to the supervisor. We invite NO to define the relevant topics and competences, that the members should gain during the process of continuing education.

Professional experience. It is helpful to define the minimal hours and processes of given supervision that is necessary for members of the NO in order to show their actual work experience.

Transparency about the personal understanding of professional work. It might be helpful, that supervisors need to write a personal concept of their professional activities. This can include topics about values, ethics, how does a person work in a relationship with the clients, which tools a person is using, what is the responsibility in the process and so on. This written personal concept helps to raise awareness of actions that the supervisor is taking.

Contracting For the transparency, safety and security it is recommended to have a written contract with the clients. The contract should include names of the supervision partners, aim of the supervision, the length of the process and session, price and in case of ethical and conflict issues the person within the NO to contact. It is important to pay attention to the data protection rules in your country.

Evaluation and documentation We recommend that every supervisor evaluates supervision processes following two aspects:

  • Feedback of the clients. It is up to the NO to define the ways you will do it: it might be written or verbal.
  • Individual evaluation. For the individual psycho hygiene it is important that the supervisor will spend time to evaluate the process.

To End NO membership

There may be many reasons for ending a membership, therefore it is important to describe the process of ending a membership.

The initiative may come from the member or the NO. The reasons for the members to initiate stopping membership could be withdrawing from professional field, differences in values or perspectives in development of the NO, conflict situations or change in personal priorities.

NO could think about a possibility for a temporary period to suspend membership. They could also provide a type of membership for members who do not practice as supervisors e.g. passive or inactive membership. The reasons why the members may be excluded by the NO should be made transparent to the members, for example it can be not fulfilling the requirements of the quality system or not paying the membership fee. Violation of ethical codex may also lead to the exclusion of the NO.

You have to define how you will organize and handle this procedure. When the member is leaving, think if there are reasons to express your appreciation for the member.

Quality on Individual level

Becoming a Supervisor

If you want to become a supervisor and member of the NO, you should inform yourself about the education requirements plus conditions and procedures of membership. This includes the applying procedure, portfolio, mutual recognition, etc. ANSE recommends to have a proper education to be able to work as a supervisor. Consequently minimal educational standards are formulated.

Being a Supervisor

The conditions and procedures of being a member of the NO are regulated by the internal documents of the NO, such as an ethical codex, statute and quality regulations.

We invite you to be aware if the quality system of your NO is serving the main values of supervision as reflecting supervision work, renewing the knowledge, having professional experience and transparency about the personal understanding of professional work. Be aware of the resources that your NO and ANSE are offering for development and networking. Those resources are mentioned in the other chapters of this guide. Your NO may have or may have not an example of a contract form with the client, as well as documentation and evaluation recommendations. Those tools may help you too keep transparency in your supervision processes and to avoid misunderstandings and/or conflicts with clients.

To end being a supervisor

There may be many reasons for withdrawing yourself from the professional field. For example retirement, differences in values or perspectives in development of the NO, conflict situations or change in personal priorities.

Inform your NO and find out if there are possibilities to still stay a member if you want e.g. passive or inactive membership.

Reflection

The following is a summary overview of our thoughts according to our findings.

Future developments

We live in a changing world and professional frameworks may change accordingly. This could affect process quality elements in their quality standards. Based on data by the first QEG most of the NO`s make the quality assurance procedure mandatory. It is essential to insert a review frequency e.g in between 2 and 4 years, parallel with the ANSE flow of GA and PM.

It should be taken into consideration to design a quality system for the trainers of supervisors and the meta-supervisors. This would be an addition to the minimum educational standards.

Points of attention

Mutual recognition

Mutual recognition is a topic of consideration within ANSE since 2014. It was an important step towards a European Professional Card (https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/work/professional-qualifications/european-professional-card/index_en.htm ) for Supervision. Even though 18 countries voted in favour (GA 2018), this did not lead to a European Professional Card. But it opened an important discussion within ANSE: What are the quality standards in National Organizations and how to upgrade ANSE Quality standards and move on with quality management on the European level?

On the European level entails that any supervisor or coach registered by or through any of the member organisations of ANSE, will be fully and automatically recognized by all other ANSE members. Mutual recognition goes hand in hand with monitoring quality management. So we see these two processes close together. However this needs further and deeper exploration. E.g. what do we really mean with mutual recognition and describe the pros and cons.

We suggest to learn from the bilateral group Austria, Switzerland and Germany. They already have an agreement on mutual recognition since 1996 which was recently updated (2024) and valid for another 4 years.

Consequences for NO

An important question raised by the first QEG was: What if NO have own educational standards which could be higher, equal or under the ANSE level. What will be the consequences? And what will be the consequences if NO don’t have a quality assurance system for their professionals?

A suggestion is to consider forming your own NO quality reflection groups to maintain quality next to the quality talks.

In this way even more exchange of knowledge and learning from each other how to deal with quality issues is stimulated. NO could invite the members to share their thoughts about their standards on lifelong learning and discuss their experiences to further develop comparable quality standards and develop a common understanding of what is meant by process quality.

It is wise to consider a quality management system within ANSE and the NO in order to keep quality standards an ongoing monitored process.

Afterword

Good practices should be shared. We invite NO to review their quality assurance system continuously. We hope this document will be helpful to keep the dialogue alive. We recommend to renew this guide every four years so NO can learn during the process. The ANSE community can decide on consequences of eventual actualisation.

August 2024, ANSE QEG 2

References

Ajdukovic, M. and others. ECVision. A European Competence Framework of Supervision and Coaching. (2015).

ANSE statutes. (2015). Retrieved on 10152024 from www.anse.eu

Knopf, W. & Judy, M. (2016). Im Spiegel Der Kompetenzen. In the Mirror of Compentences: Supervision und Coaching in Europa. Supervision and Coaching in Europe.

Turner, A. (2017) ANSE Journal Volume-1, Issue 1 “ANSE Quality management”