Eltham North contains 1 Long Day Care centre (84 places), 2 preschool/kindergarten facilities (60 places) and 3 OSHC facilities (314 places). Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 310 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 2.2 - placing the area below the national average for supply per child. Looking at long day care specifically against the under-5 population, the ratio is 3.8 children per place (lower quintile supply). Further breakdowns by age, to help in identifying the most in-need services, show an undersupply of LDC places across the infant and toddler cohort (<3yo) with just 84 places across 1 facility serving a total of 191 children while preschool supply is moderate with 2 facilities providing 60 places (2.1 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Greater Melbourne average of 2.6). With projected population growth of 20.4% between now and 2041, and 3.2% in the under 5 age group in particular, 0 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other drivers of note in the area are high female labour force participation of 67.0%, as well as upper 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 43.6 per 100 residents with 2,946 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. Rather unsurprisingly, out of school hours child care - serving school age children - was found to be much more abundant than other service types in the area. Proximity analysis saw distances of local residents to their nearest child care centre being relatively in line with national benchmarks. 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.
7 school catchments intersect Eltham North (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 3,679 children aged under 5 reside, served by 3,350 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 1.1 children per place, with limited variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Eltham North and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.