This is a description of psychoanalytic consultancy within the social service network around looked-after children. I describe the culture of social services as I have experienced it. I attempt to show how consultancy in various forms can provide an alternative to direct psychotherapy, as well as supporting it, and how it may encourage children and carers to value psychotherapy and even, in some cases, to seek it out for themselves. I demonstrate how it can lead workers to a more positive engagement with the inner world of the children, and with psychodynamic thinking. I explain how my experience has influenced my clinical practice with individual children. I suggest that direct psychotherapy without such consultancy can endanger children's more urgent need for stable placements, and explore some possible reasons. I touch on the need for further training so that as child psychotherapists we can apply our expertise more effectively in this direction.