In this paper the first steps of the ongoing welfare reform in Campania are sketched and the institutional arena in which the new welfare system is finding its way through is described.The results show a relational pattern according to which regional government and its bureaucracy start moving in the direction of the new system, according to l.328/2000, but the real change process strongly depend on local government agencies, which have being asked to get associated in territorial districts and to make their social policies refer to an integrated district programming activity.