“I realised it was not normal”- Care leavers as co-researchers in investigating the emersion of maltreatment in the family.

Research investigating the quality of child protection systems (CPS) is increasing, often engaging service users. Most research focuses on the ways CPS functions while less explored is the opinion of individuals regarding the core of CPS. Namely the decisions vis-à-vis state interventions in families’ private lives. To start filling this gap, we carried out a pilot study in collaboration with a care-leaver association, to test the feasibility of broader research on this sensitive topic. This paper will refer about the involvement of care-leavers as co-researchers, its ethical attention, and provide some results of the study. The research group was composed of three academic researchers and three care leavers who jointly defined the research design and tools. The following research questions were considered: what does it mean that a child suffers in his/her own family and how is this sufferance manifested?, How did that CPS come into their life? What gives the state the right to intervene in families' lives? Care leavers tested the research design and conducted nine semi-structured interviews with other care leavers. The interviews were transcribed and analysed jointly during a residential workshop. The group also discussed methodological aspects concerning the co-construction of the research One of the most interesting results of the pilot study highlighted as central the process through which children become aware that what they experienced “was not normal”. This awareness appears triggered by comparisons with external social contexts, namely school; moreover, the process of disclosing information and seeking help appears highly influenced by the societal reactions and support encountered. In this light, the intervention of the state (for children experiencing care) is seen as part of this delicate process and is represented as a resource when acting as an external gaze that can drive towards new balances, even through an initial rupture of the existing ones. In the presentation, we will briefly present these results and describe the process of involving care leavers, and discuss the values (and limits) of collaboratively investigating such CPS core themes, thus contributing to knowledge co-creation informing further research. This knowledge provides important insights both to professionals involved in CPS, especially concerning their understanding of the lives of children who experience maltreatment and to governments regarding dilemmas vis à vis interventions in such families’ private lives.