Catherine Field contains 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (29 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Greater Sydney average. With no LDC services observed in the area, only preschool, the ratio of children per place for the under 5 age group is 16.8 - placing the area among the bottom 20% nationally for supply per child. To meet the Greater Sydney average 219 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, with projected population growth of 184.3% between now and 2041, and 156.2% in the under 5 age group in particular, not considering current depressed supply, 39 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. Socioeconomic performance in the area in the way of income and employment figures, including female workforce participation, are broadly in line with national averages.
Proximity analysis saw distances of local residents to their nearest child care centre being longer than typical nationally. Another finding worth noting is the low level of commercial activity in the area and assessment of local working populations which suggest many of the local population commute elsewhere for work with nearby services potentially taking some pressure off local child care centres.
13 school catchments intersect Catherine Field (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 14,274 children aged under 5 reside, served by 15,085 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 0.9 children per place, with limited variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Catherine Field and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.