Prospect has been working with Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust over the last 18 months to train a number of coaches who form part of their internal coaching network, offering coaching to all their staff across the Trust. The coaches are being trained to ILM level 5 diploma level.
Since their 5-day foundation programme over a year ago they have been continuing their practice in gaining their coaching experience and having continuous professional development and group supervision sessions. Several of them are near to having 100 hours of coaching experience, receiving fantastic feedback and making a difference to the staff accessing this development. Last week we held our last group supervision session, the coaches have found the sessions an “extremely valuable learning experience”, and all sessions have been evaluated to an excellent standard.
There is a significant amount of research: ‘Coaching Supervision: A Practical Guide for Supervisees” – David Clutterbuck, Carol Whittaker & Michelle Lucas (2016) Routledge-ISBN 978-1-138-92042’, which outlines the many advantages of group supervision including access to the combined knowledge of the group itself and the knowledge and skills of an experienced supervisor who facilitates the session. It also provides an opportunity to compare the coaching approach and share experiences with others, helping benchmark their skills and behaviours.
A good group supervision session also brings diversity of views and opinions for the group to draw upon. As a facilitator of group supervision, it provides me time to reflect, I also learn a lot from the group and take some of the learning into my own coaching practice. This provides a powerful learning environment. Those training to be coaches will complete their last ILM academic units this year and we will continue to support them in this.
For information on group supervision or about training as a coach please do get in contact with us, we can have a chat over a cuppa.
Jackie Barringer
Email: Jackie@weareprospect.com
