Introduction

In recent decades, the transformations in the labour market and in the composition of households, as well as socio-demographical changes (in particular ageing), have put that part of the welfare state that deals with care policies under increasing pressure, in particular, child and elderly care. The traditional male breadwinner model has become less and less feasible and public support for families attempting to reconcile care and work has become one of the main goals of social policies in order to cover ‘new social risks’ and recalibrate the welfare state. The so-called ‘Social Investment Paradigm’ places a fair amount of focus on care policies, especially childcare (Morel et al, 2012). Italy has traditionally been characterised by a strong familistic approach, which has been a great barrier to the expansion of care policies. At the same time, the increasing pressure from a social demand that is increasingly unable to cope with care difficulties has been a good opportunity for policy innovation in this field. This chapter describes and interprets what has happened and why Italy has so far missed the occasion to strengthen its public social care, while other countries from continental and Southern Europe have tried to do so.

The main policy changes over time

Probably the best description of changes in care policies in Italy during the 2000s was offered some years ago in an article by Naldini and Saraceno (2008): ‘Social and family policies in Italy: not totally frozen but far from structural reforms’. Since the beginning of the new century, no new social rights related to care issues have been established in Italy, nor have any relevant national plans to increase coverage rates been put forward. Although some legislative initiatives were produced, they usually fell short of what was required; quite often, reforms lacked the adequate financial resources both for implementation and to have any potentially significant impact on the coverage of needs (Da Roit and Sabatinelli, 2013; see also Chapter Four).

The second part of the 1990s and early 2000s was the last period in which any reforms were attempted. The centre-left government passed three such reforms, but all three had shortcomings.