It is still widely held that the traditional or conventional nuclear family is the only suitable environment in which children can grow up and that any deviation from this norm puts children at a considerable disadvantage (Kahan, 1989). The vulnerability of children and young people coming into residential care in Ireland due to their dysfunctional family experiences, and how coming into residential care and their subsequent experience therein can sometimes further increase this level of vulnerability for the adolescent child has been well documented. This paper discusses the question: What can we, as residential child care workers and agencies, do to reduce the anxiety level of the vulnerable child coming into care, or at the very least, to ensure that this level of anxiety is not increased, during their admission and subsequent stay in care? Before I attempt to answer this question, it is important to point out that there are many aspects of residential care which can effect the vulnerable child. It is not possible in this short paper to consider all those aspects. However, I concentrate on those issues which I, as a social care practitioner, feel to be important.