HOW TO PREPARE PROFESSIONALS FOR LEAVING CARE: A TRAINING CHALLENGE

This paper will present some pedagogical reflections on the training needs of professionals involved in childhood protection system, with regard to the leaving care phase of children and young people placed in residential care facilities (Stein & Munro, 2008). The considerations here illustrated are related to the qualitative analysis of the first results collected from the training course developed by SOS Children’s Villages Italy(within a wider partnership) as part of the two-year project Prepare for Leaving Care.

The project Prepare for Leaving Care (co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship –REC- Programme of the European Union, 2017-2018), aims at developing and delivering training for care professionals, elaborating as well policy guidelines to help ensure that child protection systems adequately support young people leaving alternative care facilities.

The project is carried out in cooperation with SOS Children’s Villages’ national associations in Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Spain, as well as experts from CELCIS and Eurochild.

As main output of the project, a Leaving Care Practice Guidance has been developed, including a training methodology and manual based on evidence collected in five EU countries. The Practice Guidance – in Italian “Preparazione all’autonomia” – provides practical guidance to care professionals and a range of front line practitioners. The main focus is on how to best plan the transition to independence with and for young people and support them both during and after the leaving care process. Young people with care experience co-delivered the training together with highly qualified Master Trainers.

Moreover, through a ‘train the trainers’ approach, master trainers are empowered to apply the developed tools and methodology widely in all five participating countries.

This paper will present the results of the evaluation of Italian training courses realised during the past year in order to training on how to embed a child rights based approach into their daily work with focus on the leaving care phases. Finally, the paper will underlined how the training of professionals involved in childhood protection system is a pedagogical challenge (Biffi, 2017) in terms of developing a multi-professional equipe and high level of competences - included emotional ones (Adley & Jupp Kina, 2017) - in order to sustain young people in developing their own project of life.