Gli assistenti sociali del Comune di Milano: una ricerca quantitativa sulla pratica professionale in tutela minori

[Autom. eng. transl.] Internationally, in the area of child protection, it is recognized that empirical research that illuminates what social workers do daily with minors and parents has barely begun (Forrester et al. 2008; Hall & Slembrouck 2009), and efforts in this field they seem to have mainly focused on "what social workers should do in child protection" and on "what they tell about situations in their charge" (Banks, 2008; Cirillo, 2005; Dalrymple, 2011; Di Blasio, 2005 ; Horwath, 2012; Raineri, 2013;). This article presents the results of a research carried out with the social workers of the Municipality of Milan engaged in this delicate area of intervention. The aim of the study was to learn about and analyze the working practices of social workers, with particular reference to their opinions on professional activity and what they actually carried out in the field over a work week. The data presented in this article was collected through an ad hoc electronic questionnaire and administered to 87 social workers in the Lombard capital involved in child protection contexts. The results reveal information about the social-demographic profile of social workers, the skills and competences they believe are necessary for the exercise of the mandate, the training needs, the professional interventions carried out, the workloads and the level of well-being and perceived professional distress. What emerges from this survey could constitute a useful contribution to guide the training of professionals, operational practices and social policy choices.