Elaine is a lone parent who works as a home care assistant for an agency contracted to a social services department. When she returned to work after having a baby, she asked if she could work five hours a day so that she could care for her son, but was told her only option was long hours across split shifts at weekends, with no guarantee of work each week. While she struggles to manage these hours, her 68-year old mother looks after her son, even though her mother also works nights as a supermarket cleaner. Elaine says, “I feel really guilty, but if she doesn’t look after him, I can’t work. There is no other childcare. Even if there was, I think, how could I pay it?” Elaine is only paid for the minutes she is inside a service user’s house, so 15 hours’ work often results in only ten hours’ pay.