If institutional care is failing to provide a stable,
stimulating environment, this may have as much to do with the organisation of the
institutions, and persistent attempts to move children back into 'families', as with any
fundamental flaw in the concept of the institution. One does not hear arguments that
children's development is distorted or stunted if they go to Eton; but Eton is also a
residential institution. The construction of the problem - the idea that the alternative has
to be seen in terms of substitute family care rather than better institutions - is a normative
issue, not simply a practical one; the interpretation is socially determined.