This article aims to describe the shared interpretative schemas (action pivots) that youth protection professionals use to decide on an alternative life project to reunification. These pivots structure the actors' practice and their discourse. They allow the legitimization of actions, positions and decisions, and in certain situations, to exert power or influence on others during the decision-making process. In a context of uncertainty, they provide a certain ontological security and offer a common framework to the actors concerned on which they can interact and deliberate.