"Traumatised children need highly-skilled, trained workers to try to re-establish trust," says Ms Judy Doyle. With other members of the Resident Managers' Association - made up of people who manage children's homes - she has seen residential care go out of fashion in favour of foster care.
But, she says, "a lot of children have experienced foster care breaking down. There are terrific foster parents out there but I'm not sure that they always get the support that they need. It's a very demanding job."
For some children, it makes more sense to reverse the cycle, she argues. Instead of sending traumatised children into foster care and, if that breaks down, into a residential home, do it the other way around.
"They need help to cope with the initial trauma of separation from parents, and if a lot of their experiences have been traumatic - abuse or neglect for instance - they need help to work through those issues before they move on into foster care. No one wants to go back to the old orphanage style of care."
She is full of praise for childcare workers who enable children to stay in their own homes. But residential care has its place, especially for very traumatised children. And it angers her that children who could have been helped earlier in therapeutic residential homes, but were not, end up being sent to high support units at £100,000 each per year.
Her view is echoed by Father Ken McCabe, director of the Lillie Road Centre, which has three boys' homes in London and is in the process of opening a home in Edenderry, Co Offaly.
"Statistically, there is a huge breakdown in foster placements," he says. "Out of 16 young people in More House ( a London home), in the past four months, nine were foster breakdowns. Many young people reject fostering because they would say they already have their own family." Fostering also broke down because "many young people need space, and cannot cope with being the `focus' in a foster placement."
The aim of a residential home, he says, should be to help each person to make a successful return to his or her own family. "When a young person is in residential care, it is vital to work with the family, no matter how difficult that can be, and explore every avenue to get that young person back to their family, with a realistic chance of success. Many young people coming into care are not necessarily clinically disturbed. They simply have never had any boundaries," he added.