A new concept of child care is now practised. Children need care from the authorities for a variety of reasons. Sometimes bad housing. Sometimes bad parents. Sometimes difficult children. In theory the Seebohm Report and the 1969 Children's Act have brought into being a new attitude to this the most vital and vulnerable area of Welfare. In practice, while the authorities and the child care officers struggle to reorganise and to change attitudes and methods, it is the children themselves who may pay the price. There are children who need to 'go into care' - and cannot be found a place. There are children 'in care' whose parents only need a home to enable them to be a family again - and a home cannot be found. In the first of a two-part enquiry Jeanne La Chard looks at some of the circumstances which affect the quality of care.