This thesis is an exploration of the creation of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. This state agency was formed in January 2014 with a vision of creating an organisation which would improve the safety and welfare of children in the Irish state. The creation of this agency heralded fundamental changes, including the disaggregation of children’s services from the Health Service Executive, the dissolution of other non-governmental agencies and the reorientation of community organisations working in the area of children’s services. This study focuses on the relationship between aspiration and reality and aims to explicate both the apparent and subterranean connections between one government report – ‘‘Report of the Task Force on the Child and Family Support Agency (2012)’’ and the experience of front line workers during the implementation of the findings of this report. The study is placed at the intersection between text and context and aspiration and reality, and explores the emerging paradoxes within this public sector reform process drawing on a range of disciplines, including social policy, anthropology, geography, complexity sciences and philosophy.