ABSTRACT
A review of the British and North American literature on residential care for children and youth over the past 35 years reveals the impressive resilience of this form of service. Despite many rather scathing critiques (Rae Grant, 1 97 1 ; Rubin, 1972; Steinhauer, 199 1 ; Vail, 1966), revelations of institutional abuse (Bloom, 1992; Collins and Colorado, 1988; Levy and Kahan, 199 1), and attempts to eliminate residential programmes altogether (Cliffe and Berridge, 1992; Coates, Miller and Ohlin, 1978), residential care continues to play a significant role in virtually all child and family service systems. Further, while the number of children in residential programmes has decreased significantly since the 1970s, it appears that most jurisdictions have accepted the inevitability of preserving at least a minimal number of residential care programmes in perpetuity. It would seem that, in relation to the social service system as a whole, residential care is something like tip of the iceberg that protrudes out of the water; if you try to remove it, the iceberg moves upward to maintain its overall balance.
