Research action as a way to support guidelines in child protection

Child protection is highly complex work in relation to the changes in the representation of childhood, the role of the family and the role of the state. Frequently, social workers have been criticised and accused of setting arbitrary or disparate interventions. Guidelines are often established in order to orient and harmonise child protection wotk interventions. However, such guidelines have the double risk of being just dead letters and failing to homogenise the interventions. On the other hand, they have the risk of binding practitioners and limiting their space for autonomy and discretion, transforming professional work into a bureaucratic task. The paper will present research action aimed at supporting the implementation of guidelines on child protection and family support adopted in a large town in Southern Italy. Frontline social workers have been involved in testing guidelines through three different types of research: evaluating the guidelines as a whole, using a grid for the assessment trying new kinds of intervention for families and reflecting of their impact. The paper will present the methods used and the results obtained in term of action, learning outcomes for the people involved and the increase of knowledge.