ABSTRACT
The focus is usually on substitute parenting when a care order is made; but because voluntary care is more flexible, it can be made to serve a number of different purposes. Gap-filling is more purposeful; it is a form of relief care which aims to supply something missing in the family. Behaviour management covers reception into care for all those children who, for whatever reason, are found by their parents to be uncontrollable. Experience control and behaviour management include an element of distancing; but where this is the main function of reception into care, it ranks as a model in its own right. When a parental rights resolution was passed, it usually happened fairly quickly after the child came into care. The parent really believes that care is in his child's interests, and that the child will thank him in later years - in the manner of a child sent to a tough boarding-school.
