Current challenges of family and child participation in child prevention and protection services. Proposal of a practical-theoretical framework

The article is dedicated to describing the Framework for a Participatory Approach in Child Protection Services (Lacharite et al., 2022), as contextualized within the Programma di Intervento Per la Prevenzione dell’Istituzionalizzazione (P.I.P.P.I.), developed by the Laboratorio di Ricerca e Intervento in Educazione Familiare (LabRIEF) at the University of Padua and officially adopted by the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies since 2011. The implementation of P.I.P.P.I. aligns with this participatory perspective, emphasizing the right to participation not only for children but also for their caregivers and the communities in which they live. This approach considers the children within their web of relationships and connections, following an ecosystemic and multidimensional paradigm that recognizes the entirety of the human person and their potential for empowerment. The introduction of this Framework to the Italian audience, examined in the context of recent national and international literature, aims to bridge the gap between intentions, theoretical representations, and participatory practices. Furthermore, it seeks to highlight both the potential and the limitations of the Framework in the context of P.I.P.P.I.’s implementation within Italian social services.