LA PARTECIPAZIONE DI BAMBINI, RAGAZZI E FAMIGLIE NEI SERVIZI DI TUTELA MINORILE: LE RAPPRESENTAZIONI DEGLI OPERATORI SOCIALI

Families’ participation in child protection is a challenge both in its theoretical interpretation and practice implementation. When social workers have to protect children from their own family, they must reflect on how to guarantee the exercise of parents and children’s rights and duties. After a brief outline of research on parents and children’s participation in Child Protection, this paper presents results from quantitative research. Social workers are asked to define the concept of participation. Two main groups are defined. In the first one, social workers understand participation mainly as a therapy process in working with families. In the second one, social workers show a broader idea of participation, in which opportunities to make a real partnership with parents and children are promoted. Both of these groups interpret parents and children’s participation at a casework level, while parents and children’s participation to improve services seems quite absent.