Despite the problems identified in the HCP, the quality of care is likely to be higher than that received by children whose mothers combine work and care at home (Leroy et al. On the demand side, long-term investments in human capacities are constrained by the lower quality care that children receive as a result. In terms of policy,the goal would be to scale up programmes such as HCP so that women’s care responsibilities no longer pose a potential squeeze on time, entailing a movement towards a more gender egalitarian, high road strategy of social reproduction.