“Interviewing” Juvenile Court’s case files: a quantitative research on Italian foster care

Background and purpose Foster care is a complex intervention in child protection and for social workers and Juvenile Courts it’s difficult to identify exactly the outcomes of this care experience. Although his thirty-year history, in the Italian context, foster care represents a challenge, not only for social workers, but also for the Court that decide it, for children and their families and for foster families. This contribute presents a PhD research on foster care projects decided by the Juvenile Court of Milan, in Italy. The research is firstly based on an international literature review of researches on foster care with the aim to identify factors for a good foster care project and to create a scheme of success indicators. Starting from the indications emerged from the literature review, the aim of the research was to realize a description of foster care projects decided by the Juvenile Court of Milan from 2010 to 2014. The data collected are analyzed considering the factors for a good foster care placement identified through the literature review. Methods Following a quantitative method, the main part of the research focused on Juvenile Court’s case files analysis. Reports written by social workers, Juvenile Court’s documents, Court hearings reports (reports of the meetings between the judge and people involved) are of researcher’s interest. The information about foster care project contained in the documents are collected by a questionnaire, that consists of more 90 items. The sample consisted of 308 children for whom the Juvenile Court decided foster care placement. The documentary analysis aimed to recognize and to describe the foster care projects, considering key aspects arisen from the literature review, such as the matching and planning the foster placement, the work with birth families, foster families and foster children, the contacts between the child and his family, the relationship between the two families, the support to foster placement, the project’s conclusion and the possible reunification. Results An overview about the children’s placement before and after foster care is offered by the research. The case files analysis highlighted that the contacts between the child and his family and the support to birth family during the foster care are well documented. Little information about matching between child and foster family and about children’s hearing in the planning phase can be found in most of the case files. In a few cases, information about foster care are found in the documents. Furthermore, the participation of birth families in decision-making processes and in their son’s daily life is poorly documented in the case files. Conclusions and implications This study offers an overview on social work practice in foster care placement in Italy, highlighting also the partnership among different welfare services and the Juvenile Court. The results encourage a reflection on aspects considered important in foster care by social workers in the child protection and the other protagonists of this important care experience.