Contemporary family is faced with a number of challenges due to a fast-paced lifestyle, material deprivation, social apathy and the eternal race against time. These are precisely the reasons why there are fewer parents who strive for the competent parenting, and far more parents who are unable to cope with the challenges of parenthood. Dissatisfaction with living standards, frustration due to personal failures, and educational weakness represent an ideal ground for the development of risk factors in the family environment which may result in abuse and neglect. Children who are exposed to continuous abuse and neglect develop feelings of fear, disbelief, abandonment, loneliness, and helplessness. The consequences of the disintegration in the family structure are mostly felt by those who least deserve it, and those are the children. That being said, it is not surprising that due to the lack of positive role models and support in the primary family more and more children manifest some form of socially unacceptable behaviour or behavioural disorders. The development of behavioural disorders results in the need for the exclusion of children from the family surroundings and their accommodation within the institutions of social care. The purpose of this research was to examine to what extent and in what way are the cooperation and partnerships between the institutions and parents of children achieved. Research results show that the cooperation between the two is, at best, formal. Research has shown that building partnerships between the institutions and parents should serve as a support mechanism for parenting, as well as for the positive development and progress of users. From the results of the research it is evident that most parents are not interested in establishing cooperation and partnerships with educators and employees of the institution which only goes to show that those parents lack intrinsic motivation.