Psychodynamic perspectives always recognised the inherent complexity of residential child care, a complexity that needed to be understood and appropriately negotiated. Managerial regimes have sought to reduce complex relational and psychodynamic processes to a series of procedures. This is fundamentally misconceived; attempts to manage relationships through regulation detract from the essence of care, a point I develop in the final chapter. They also assume that residential child care can be managed structurally and functionally, whereas it really requires to be understood organically. White (2008) offers a useful metaphor when he likens residential care to a compost heap. A compost heap is a particularly complex organic structure where constituent parts interact with one another to produce compost. When this interaction goes well the result is a medium for growth; when something within the biochemical process goes wrong it can let off a stench. It does not take too much imagination to extend this metaphor to residential child care; as a form of intervention with children it can be a powerful medium for growth or at worst it can become decidedly rotten. Within an ecological model interventions in one area may well produce unintended consequences elsewhere in the system.

This chapter considers the care environment. Discussion is located within Fulcher and Ainsworth's definition of group care as involving a ‘group focus, using the physical and social characteristics of a service centre to produce a shared lifespace between those in receipt of care and those who give it’ (1985, p 4). The interaction of the human and environmental dimensions in a lifespace context produces unique cultures of care.

The milieu

This overall medium created when staff and resident groups come together in a particular physical environment is referred to as the milieu. The concept is not particularly tangible; it can be thought of as ‘particles in the air’. It is the ‘feel’ of a place. As you enter a residential care home you pick up very quickly what it feels like, whether there is a tension or a ‘buzz’ or a sense of calm. What a place feels like, while it might be hard to measure, is likely to have a profound effect on those who live and work there.