Another 55 million to strengthen the network of family centres

A new call for tenders worth EUR 55 million is financing the expansion of the network of Family Centres, which already has some 650 active centres throughout the country. In implementation of the National Family Plan and the new Childhood and Adolescence Plan recently approved by the Ministry for the Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities of the Meloni Government, a call for tenders was made public on 8 August last. The call for tenders is addressed to the Regions that intend to strengthen the network of facilities that are currently present in a patchwork of locations, and also to activate new ones. Applications must be submitted by 8 October.

According to the last mapping - which dates back to November 2023 - some regions were practically devoid of centres (Molise 0, Sicily and Friuli Venezia Giulia 1, against the 148 censuses in Lombardy), but the government has already begun a new survey: some administrations may have activated new ones in recent years. The new call (55 million) is in addition to the approval of two allocations to the Regions of the resources of the National Fund for the Family for the years 2024 (around 28 million) and 2025 (32 million), for a total of 60 million euros already earmarked for this purpose. In the government's plan, the Family Centres 'will have to become real orientation and service hubs, like a sort of Caf, to help families find their way around and make easier use of the services and support tools dedicated to them,' explains Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities Minister Eugenia Roccella.

The Centres have now been assigned concrete functions by law. Article 33 of law 204/2024 made their role explicit (by allocating an ad hoc allocation of national funds), expressly differentiating them for the first time from the family counselling centres, to which they were previously attached. In some regions, such as the Veneto, they were created within the consultatories at the behest of the regional administration. But only now do they receive targeted resources to be able to guarantee different functions and services, not with a health profile.

In the first instance, Article 14 of Decree Law 123/2023 (Dl Caivano) stipulated that they should offer counselling and services on media and digital literacy for minors. Subsequently, the Family Policy Fund allocations also identified prevention and the effects of taking psychotropic substances and initiatives aimed at the practical enhancement of active ageing among the activities that could be financed. Finally, today's announcement provides state funding to activate new accompanying services at these facilities, such as the maternal assistant and support during the first thousand days of a child's life, as well as other information activities on fostering and adoption.

The notice published this summer by the Department for the Family is therefore part of an experimental project to strengthen the network of Family Centres. 'For decades the Italian family has gone it alone,' adds Minister Roccella, 'but today's demographic emergency makes it necessary to provide support. We must stand by families, considering them as active subjects, not just as vulnerable recipients of assistance'.