Supervision Toolkit

HPMA Supervision & Support Toolkit

What’s it all about?

The HPMA Supervision and Support Toolkit has been developed to support NHS people professionals working in increasingly complex, demanding and emotionally challenging environments. Recognising that those who care for and support others also need opportunities for reflection and support, the toolkit provides a structured approach to developing resilience, enhancing professional practice and promoting personal wellbeing. It is designed to help individuals and teams strengthen resilience, enhance wellbeing and build the confidence and capability needed to thrive in today’s NHS.

What is the key idea behind the HPMA Supervision and Support Toolkit?
The toolkit encourages the shifts the focus onto supporting NHS people professionals themselves. Rather than being another HR policy or procedural guide, it’s a framework for creating regular, psychologically safe spaces where HR, OD, and workforce colleagues can reflect on complex work, develop professionally, and maintain their own wellbeing. This is especially important given the emotional demands of supporting others through change, conflict, and challenging workforce issues.

The HPMA Supervision and Support Toolkit has been developed to support NHS people professionals working in increasingly complex, demanding and emotionally challenging environments. Recognising that those who care for and support others also need opportunities for reflection and support, the toolkit provides a structured approach to developing resilience, enhancing professional practice and promoting personal wellbeing.

Bringing together evidence-informed resources, practical tools, reflective exercises and learning materials, the toolkit helps individuals better understand how they respond to pressure, build sustainable resilience and embed reflective practice into their day-to-day work. It also supports organisations to foster supportive cultures where supervision is valued as a key component of professional development, psychological safety and high-quality people practice.

Whether used for individual learning, peer support or facilitated supervision, the toolkit encourages continuous growth, self-awareness and meaningful conversations that strengthen both personal effectiveness and the wider people profession. Ultimately, it aims to ensure that NHS people professionals are equipped not only to support others, but to thrive themselves.

Bringing together evidence-informed resources, practical tools, reflective exercises and learning materials, the toolkit helps individuals better understand how they respond to pressure, build sustainable resilience and embed reflective practice into their day-to-day work. It also supports organisations to foster supportive cultures where supervision is valued as a key component of professional development, psychological safety and high-quality people practice.

Whether used for individual learning, peer support or facilitated supervision, the toolkit encourages continuous growth, self-awareness and meaningful conversations that strengthen both personal effectiveness and the wider people profession. Ultimately, it aims to ensure that NHS people professionals are equipped not only to support others, but to thrive themselves.

Who is it designed for?

The HPMA Supervision and Support Toolkit is primarily designed for NHS people professionals—the colleagues who support the NHS workforce and organisational culture, often in demanding and emotionally complex situations. It could in the future be expanded to other organisations on a more commercial basis. the tool has initially been developed by the HPMA members for the NHS.

The pilot phase includes professionals working across a wide range of people functions, such as:

  • HR and People Services
  • Organisational Development (OD)
  • Employee Relations
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
  • Senior people leaders, managers and aspiring leaders across the profession

More broadly, the toolkit is intended to support anyone working in the NHS people profession who regularly supports others through change, challenge, conflict, trauma or complexity. Its purpose is to ensure these professionals have access to supervision, reflective practice and practical support to maintain their own wellbeing, resilience and effectiveness. The toolkit was developed on the principle that those who support others also need structured opportunities to reflect, learn and be supported themselves.

Supervision & Support Toolkit Launch Event

This video is a live recording of the event that took place on the 27th May 2026.

HPMA Supervision and Support Toolkit

This toolkit is the intellectual property of the HPMA and must not be copied or shared with individuals or organisations outside of the NHS.

Support Videos

Peer Supervision Role Play

Target Audience: All people professionals including HR colleagues who are able to act in a capacity to support peers or those for where they are the line manager.

This YouTube link shows a role play where Emma supporting her colleague Ashley in a “hot debrief” peer supervision session using the RESET quick dereif model. The session has taken place immediately following a difficult disciplinary meeting where Ashley has been providing HR support.

It is recommended that HPMA members watch the video while referring to the relevent section in the Toolkit.

Team Supervision Role Play

Target Audience: All people professionals including HR colleagues who are able to act in a capacity to support peers in a team setting or those for where they are the line manager.

This YouTube link shows a role play where Tim supports his HR team in a “hot debrief” as a line manager supervision session. The session has taken place on a Friday morning after a challenging few weeks where the team have been supporting their divisions with organisational change, diffcult consultation meetings with staff side collegaues about proposed changes to policies and some challenging disciplnary and grievance hearings. Tim wants to ensure to that when the team finish for the weekend they have had the opportunity to reflect,

Emma takes Ashley through the model descibed in the HPMA Supervision and Support Toolkit for NHS People Professionals. As the end of the session Ashley confirms that the support has been helpful and she feels able to continue in her next task at work that day.

It is recommended that HPMA members watch the video while referring to the relevent section in the Toolkit.

T2Performance Learning Webinars & Playbooks

Expert webinars/play books have been developed and recorded T2P. There are 3 webinars which it recommeded are watched in order. After each video, please also complete the play books to reinforce learning.

– The Chimp Paradox
– Mindset States and Resilience
– Reflective Practice

Know Your Brain, Manage Your Day: An NHS HR Professional’s Playbook

You support others through some of the most challenging situations a workplace can present — often with very little support yourself. This playbook builds on the webinar, deepening your understanding of the social brain with a mix of reading, listening and watching. Dip in and out as suits you. Take your time with it. This is for you.

Mind Over Moment: Your Guide to Performance, Pressure and Resilience

Pressure is part of the job. But understanding what happens in your mind and body when that pressure builds — and knowing how to respond to it — can make all the difference. This playbook builds on the webinar and takes you deeper into the three psychological states that shape how you perform, and the resilience techniques that help you bounce back when things get tough. A mix of reading, listening and watching awaits. Take it at your own pace.

Learn, Reflect, Grow: Your Reflective Practice Playbook

You’ve spent the last three sessions exploring why you react the way you do under pressure, how to manage your psychological state in the moment, and now what to do afterwards. This final playbook is about making sense of your experiences so they build your capability rather than simply accumulate as stress. A mix of reading, a video and a practical tool awaits. Take your time with it and keep the prompt card at the end somewhere you’ll actually use it.