In this study, I am looking at how a service whose conditions and requirements are constantly changing can survive and meet expectations. What keeps it running, what helps it, what hinders high quality professional work in child welfare services? My hypothesis is that laws and their implementing regulations only provide the basic framework and conditions for the provision of services. Their implementation depends on the professionals working in the service. The interview, literature review and questionnaire survey confirmed my hypotheses. Professionals working in child welfare services are terribly despondent and pessimistic about the present and the future. The legislator's efforts to improve services are in vain if their purpose and strategic background are obscure to those who can implement them.