Como contains 7 Long Day Care centres (409 places) and 3 OSHC facilities (189 places), with overall provision relative to the local child population aligning with national benchmarks, though above the Greater Perth 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 1.9 - placing the area around the national average for supply per child. With projected population growth of 16.3% between now and 2041, and 1.5% in the under 5 age group in particular, 16 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other drivers of note in the area are strong 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 16.9 per 100 residents with 2,781 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 higher than average. 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.
6 school catchments intersect Como (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 2,630 children aged under 5 reside, served by 1,414 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 1.9 children per place, with limited variance in this ratio.