Growing pains - The economic costs of a failing childcare system

69% of mums put extending free childcare into the school holidays in their top three priorities for reform Increasing the affordability and availability of before and after school clubs and extending the provision of 30 hours of free childcare to parents of children aged 0-2 years old are the other ways most mums believe the Government should support working parents (62% and 61% rank these as top. [...] Growing pains: the economic costs of a failing childcare system 15 Policy recommendations 2 Recognise childcare as infrastructure in government spending The survey reveals the substantial potential economic gains of supporting women to pursue the working lives that they desire through the provision of more affordable and accessible childcare. [...] This appendix details the data and method used to estimate 1) the potential annual earnings uplift of between £9bn and £13bn 2) the potential gross value added (GVA) uplift of £27bn to £38bn and 3) the £8.8bn in earnings foregone due to lack of available childcare. [...] Estimates for the total potential boost to the economy will be largely dependent on the productivity of the health and education sectors, both of which are predominantly state-provided services in the UK. [...] To create an aggregate figure, this is then multiplied by the total number of mums who would have been earning a higher salary using the proportions from the survey and scaled up using the latest ONS estimates for the total number of mums of children aged 10 and under from the 2022 Families and Labour Market release.