Bankstown contains 19 Long Day Care centres (921 places), 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (20 places) and 7 OSHC facilities (380 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Greater Sydney average, though with certain cohorts and service types experiencing tighter provision. Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 2,699 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 2.9 - placing the area among the bottom 30% nationally for supply per child. Looking at long day care specifically against the under-5 population, the ratio is 2.9 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 921 places across 19 facilities serving 1,623 children while preschool supply is constrained with 1 facility providing 20 places (54.1 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Greater Sydney average of 8.3). To meet the Greater Sydney average 550 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, with projected population growth of 31.7% between now and 2041, and 14.6% in the under 5 age group in particular, not considering current depressed supply, 132 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other factors worth noting are lower female labour force participation of 40.0%, as well as lower quartile employment and income performance.
In assessing child care markets local school supply is a particularly important factor, given school-run convenience, and enrolment vs child care place analysis can provide useful insight into capacity both for parents seeking child care options and child care operators assessing opportunities in an area. The catchment sees a level of school enrolment relative to population of 15.1 per 100 residents with 5,650 enrolments across primary and secondary institutions. This above-average concentration of school places suggests the area serves as something of a destination for educational services, which typically supports elevated childcare demand through school run convenience patterns. Additionally, the level of school places per child care place (LDC+PSK) is moderate. Proximity analysis saw distances of local residents to their nearest child care centre being shorter than average while fees are notably lower than national averages.
20 school catchments intersect Bankstown (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 22,003 children aged under 5 reside, served by 19,309 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 1.1 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Bankstown and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.