Alderley contains 2 Long Day Care centres (164 places) and 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (50 places). Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 362 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 1.7 - placing the area slightly above the national average for supply per child. Looking at long day care specifically against the under-5 population, the ratio is 2.2 children per place. Further breakdowns by age, to help in identifying the most in-need services, show moderate LDC provision across the infant and toddler cohort (<3yo) with 164 places across 2 facilities serving 216 children while preschool supply is strong with 1 facility providing 50 places (2.9 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Greater Brisbane average of 11.1). With projected population growth of 19.5% between now and 2041, and 2.2% in the under 5 age group in particular, 4 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other drivers of note in the area are high female labour force participation of 75.2%, as well as strong income performance.
Proximity analysis saw distances of local residents to their nearest child care centre being shorter than average while high fees are observed relative to national benchmarks.
8 school catchments intersect Alderley (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 6,194 children aged under 5 reside, served by 5,324 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 1.2 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Alderley and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.