Care Work in Europe provides a cross-national and cross-sectoral study of care work in Europe today, covering policy, provision and practice, as well as exploring how care work is conceptualized and understood. Drawing on a study which looks at care work across the life course in a number of European countries, this book: explores the context and emerging policy agendas provides an analysis of how different countries and sectors understand and structure care work examines key issues, such as the extreme gendering of the workforce, increasing problems of recruitment and turnover, what kinds of knowledge and education the work requires and what conditions are needed to ensure good quality employment considers possible future directions, including the option of a generic professional worker, educated to work across the life course and whether 'care' will, or should, remain a distinct field of policy and employment. This groundbreaking comparative study provokes much-needed new thinking about the current situation and future direction of care work, an area essential to the social and economic well-being of Europe.