Building participation in the child protection system through the process of construction of a care leavers-led policy. First reflections from the european CarINg project

This contribution presents pedagogical reflections on the construction of a ‘care leavers-led’ policy as a strategy to promote the right to participate in decision-making processes in the child-protection system. Specifically, the paper bears witness to the CarINg project (Empowering Child Care Systems and Supporting Leaving Care from Inside), co-funded by the Rights Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Union (REC-RCHI-PROF-AG-2018). The project consortium is made up of two Universities (Polo Universitario City of Prato and the University of Milano-Bicocca); a non-governmental organisation (SOS Children's Villages International), and two local partners (Municipality of Florence and the Health Society of the Area of Prato). It started in April 2021 and, based on the Capability Approach (Sen, 2009; Sen & Nussbaum, 1993; Nussbaum, 2006), it aims at creating opportunities for care leavers–– by working with social services and local stakeholders–– to participate in decisions concerning their life project. We will be looking at a specific phase of the project characterised by a participatory action-research (approved by the ethical committee of the Milano-Bicocca University prot. N. 647)) articulated in four consultation activities (two for each group of participants, with two groups involved) with the care leavers (N=18) part of the protection system of the Municipality of Florence and of the Health Society of the Area of Prato, Italy (areas in which the project is based) that led to the definition of the first draft of a policy concerning participation in decision-making processes. Ensuring participation in the child protection system is challenging because it requires balancing the institutional mandate to protect the child (0-18) with the need to foster participation as a critical form of intervention against violence, and as a form of prevention of, and a strategy for coping with, adverse childhood experiences (Montà & Biffi, 2019). Moreover, participation, in general, is a debated concept which is inherently constituted by ambiguities, starting right from the policy level (Montà, 2021). The issue of construction of policies with the participation of children and adolescents is beginning to be thematized (D.D.G. no. 523/2018, UNCRC, 1989; UN General Assembly, 2015; Eurochild, 2020) therefore, there is a strong need (Biancardi & Talevi, 2011) to support these actions both through empirical research and by proposing new perspectives in scientific debate. The premise is that policies have the power to shape (Bell & Stevenson, 2006) what a child can learn to do and be in a given context, which is also a crucial issue addressed by the Capability Approach. Within this framework, the contribution will pedagogically explore the objects, methodologies and first achievements –also in terms of social impact in relation to the development of a culture of childhood based on rights– concerning the development of care leavers-led policy, where both its object and the process that is leading to its construction is participation/participatory.