Child Care in Britain, or, How Do You Restructure Nothing?

The Labour government that came to power in Britain in 1997 had pledged in its electoral manifesto to develop a national child care strategy and, more specifically, to increase and improve child care provision. In May 1998, in pursuance of this commitment, it published a green paper, Meeting the Childcare Challenge (Department for Education and Employment 1998). To judge by the speed and vehemence of subsequent accusations that mothers of young children were being forced out to work and the importance of their mothering role correspondingly belittled, one might suppose that there already existed a superabundance of child care assistance and provision.