Le travail social et éducatif en direction des familles des enfants placés. Une recherche en Italie

The paper presents a qualitative research on interventions of empowerment and support for parents whose children are in care. The research, focused on the region of Milan (Italy), aims at analysing social workers’ discourses about their action towards families. It is based on in-depth interviews involving twelve people who work in nine different social services. The interviews facilitate gathering data on social workers’ more or less implicit representations of families, children protection, professional care.The analysis shows a complex frame where the practices and the different institutions’ points of view (judicial system, social care, boarding structures, etc.) are mingled. It is then possible to identify some paths of innovation with regard to the organisational structure of social services, the relation between parents and social workers, the systemic perspective on children well-being