The female employment rate has risen from 56% in 1971 to 70% in 2004. Among mothers with two or more children under 15 years, 24% work full-time and 40% part-time. Improved childcare might bring more mothers into work. In particular it should make work more attractive for sole parents, because with one in two being out of work, joblessness and poverty is much more concentrated among sole parent families than in other OECD countries. This chapter reviews the government’s tenyear childcare strategy. It considers prioritisation between longer paid leave and better childcare, and suggests adjustments to how childcare is supported via the working tax credit.