Psychosocial Control Snapshot: Professional Supervision
Professional supervision is a timely, relevant, and effective addition to the range of professional support available to Australian school leaders (and UK school leaders too – it was great to catch up with UK colleagues earlier in the month about their
experiences). Neither appraisal oriented nor clinical/therapeutic, supervision offers a safe space for leaders to reflect and talk through concerns and challenges.
The top sources of stress for school leaders in 2025 included workload factors including the sheer quantity of work and lack of time for teaching and learning but also the emotional and cognitive demands of student related issues, parent related
issues, and mental health issues of students and staff (Dicke et al., 2026). In addition to these physical and emotional demands, the complexity of decision making, often confidential, and often isolated too mean that many school leaders are under great
strain as a regular outcome of the demands they face.
Supervision gives principals and other leaders a place to bring these complexities, to unpack them and tease them out, and often to affirm there’s no one right way but plenty of good ones. It can lessen overwhelm as it is an intentional space for sense-
making at arm’s length about complex and at times worrying topics. The QLD Code of Practice for managing psychosocial hazards at work names supervision as a psychosocial control for a number of sectors; and while education research and discussion papers are now thankfully building the case in our sector, at Compassionate Schools we are fortunate to see first-hand how it contributes to sustainable leadership in practice too.
References:
Dicke, T., Kidson, P., & Marsh, H. (2026). The Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey (IPPE Report). Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University.
WorkSafe Queensland. (2022). Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work: Code of practice 2022. Department of Justice and Attorney-General. https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/laws-and-compliance/codes-of-practice
