Britain | Britain’s growth crisis

British child care is expensive

Making it more affordable would help some mothers into paid work

M8Y43H Children from a nursery and their teachers walking though Trenance Gardens in Newquay Cornwall.

From the age of five, Alison Mbekeani dreamed of becoming a scientist. Following that dream took her to the University of Liverpool’s School of Tropical Medicine, then to Sierra Leone amid the Ebola outbreak in 2014, then to Durham University for her PhD. But becoming a mother to two children put a brake on her career. A couple of spots at nursery cost about as much as she was earning—more once she factored in travel costs. She does not expect to return to the lab until her children are 16.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Home economics”

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