Broome contains 2 Long Day Care centres (117 places) and 1 OSHC facility (55 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, though above the Regional WA average. With no preschool/kindergarten services observed in the area (such services generally provided within schools in WA), only long day care, the ratio of children per place for the under 5 age group is 2.7 - placing the area among the bottom 30% nationally for supply per child. With projected population growth of 10.8% between now and 2041, and 27.0% in the under 5 age group in particular, 6 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other factors worth noting are lower than average employment 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 45.0 per 100 residents with 1,908 enrolments across primary and secondary institutions. This notably elevated rate of school supply suggests many students travel to the area from beyond the immediate surrounds, typically amplifying local childcare demand given school-run proximity. As expected, the level of school places per child care place (LDC+PSK) is also higher than average. Proximity analysis saw distances of local residents to their nearest child care centre being longer than typical nationally while high fees are observed suggesting limited supply might be having an outsized impact on inflation.
3 school catchments intersect Broome (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 1,225 children aged under 5 reside, served by 279 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 4.4 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio.