The Subsidiary for operators and families is in continuity with the Guidelines for Foster Care, approved by the United Conference (of government, regions and autonomous provinces) on 25 October 2012, and represents one of its most valid implementation tools.
Both documents stem from the awareness that, thirty years after the approval of the law establishing it, family fostering is still not a "mature, stable, consolidated and homogeneously spread practice throughout the national territory".

The Subsidiary is intended as an operational guide, a sort of vademecum to be used by the many professionals working in foster care centres and by those working in the different service systems dealing with foster care (social, health, justice, school) as well as by families and the wider world of foster carers, in order to provide a clear and comprehensive overview of the thematic areas identified in the Guidelines.

The Subsidiary is developed from the materials produced between 2009 and 2011 in the National Project A path in Foster Care, with the specific intention of disseminating and enhancing these materials that have been synthesized and partly updated in the files that integrate the chapter.