This article analyses recent developments in Britain in the use of formal and informal day care following the introduction of a National Child Care Strategy in 1997. It is argued that the government's focus on only supporting formal care ignores the crucial contribution made by the informal sector. A small study of the daycare arrangements of mature student parents compares the informal and formal daycare `markets' and shows how the firm line which government policy draws between formal and informal care is based on an incomplete understanding of the meaning of `care' and of `work'. The use of cash payments in the informal sector can sustain, rather than damage, the willingness and ability of carers to care — a choice does not have to be made between love and money. Rather, policies that support both are needed.
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