Caboolture South contains 3 Long Day Care centres (219 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Greater Brisbane average. With no preschool/kindergarten services observed in the area, 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. To meet the Greater Brisbane average 140 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, with projected population growth of 27.9% between now and 2041, and 1.8% in the under 5 age group in particular. As well as this projected growth, other factors worth noting are lower female labour force participation of 47.2%, 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 1.7 per 100 residents with 154 enrolments across primary and secondary institutions. A lower-than-typical rate which suggests pressure might be taken off local services somewhat by school hubs in nearby areas. 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.
9 school catchments intersect Caboolture South (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 7,944 children aged under 5 reside, served by 7,015 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 Caboolture South and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.