ABSTRACT
Child care researchers have become used to identifying and sometimes explaining outcomes for individual children. Over a period of at least a year, each of the nine homes was visited many times, including two three day stays and many other contacts such as letter, telephone and facsimile communications with both residents and staff. It is disappointing to report that training of staff does not indicate a good residential centre for children looked after, but as so few had relevant qualifications, linking the numbers of qualified staff to outcomes was not possible. Most residential centres believe they shelter extremely difficult and disturbed youngsters. Set against the relative calm of family life, their observations are probably correct. A different perspective, however, comes from asking children whether or not the other residents behave reasonably. It is an old psychological adage that what people say is not necessarily the same as what they do.
