A systematic review of validated measures of supervisory competence in psychology and counselling practice

In recent years, supervisor competency frameworks have been developed to guide the provision of supervision for trainee psychologists and counsellors, and ongoing clinical supervision in the workplace. A range of instruments have been developed that focus on one or more of these competencies. The aim of this systematic review was to identify psychometrically validated measures of supervisory competence and to review which domains are assessed by each instrument. Three databases were systematically searched, PsycINFO, Scopus and Medline, from 2010 to 2025, to identify sources that met the inclusion criteria. Sixteen sources were included in the review, all of which had a cross-sectional design, and four included a repeated-measures component. Two reviewers independently assessed the risk of bias of these studies, and two reviewers mapped the instruments to the domains they assess. All instruments were evaluated across five criteria: type of rating measure, number of domains assessed, psychometric properties, who completes the instrument and number of instrument formats. All instruments were questionnaire-based; most assessed at least five of 10 relevant domains. The majority were designed for supervisees, with a few having supervisor and supervisee versions, and only two instruments had multiple formats. Internal reliability ranged from moderate to high, and four instruments demonstrated high test–retest reliability. Adequate to good convergent validity was established on most instruments, and adequate to good divergent validity on a few. This review synthesises key aspects of supervisor competency instruments, enabling supervisors, training institutions and clinical practices to select tools most relevant to their settings.