The translation of research into practice in social care is long on theory and short on practical examples. We describe a pilot project, which identified an important practice issue--the promotion of positive attachment in early infancy--explored the evidence base, summarised the findings, and devised an implementation process. The site of the project was a Barnardo's service in Belfast, which provides assistance to young women with infant children in a residential setting, where there are serious concerns about the capacity of the women to provide unassisted care. The paper is illustrated with extracts from the documentation that drove the process. (Contains 5 figures.)