ABSTRACT
Staff and child cultures have long been known to influence outcomes even if the precise nature and direction of the association has been difficult to determine. The principal conclusion from this evidence was that managers should ensure that cultures did not cohere in a negative and destructive way. Even homes seemingly well planned from the start have failed to succeed. A list of correlations between structural variables and outcomes is difficult for managers to interpret, especially when the message is more a case of what should not happen than a clear indication of what needs to be done. Outcomes for homes and for the children in them clearly show that some homes do better than others and that observed differences cannot be explained in terms of single factors, such as the background characteristics of the children and staff. The approach has required a range of research data.
