Ellalong currently has no childcare facilities operating within its bounds. With projected population growth of 13.6% between now and 2041, and 14.3% in the under 5 age group in particular. 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 7.0 per 100 residents with 115 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. 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. 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.
6 school catchments intersect Ellalong (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 2,587 children aged under 5 reside, served by 815 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 3.2 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Ellalong and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.