Gordon contains 1 Long Day Care centre (70 places), 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (74 places) and 1 OSHC facility (65 places), with overall provision relative to the local child population aligning with national benchmarks, though with certain cohorts and service types experiencing tighter provision. Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 301 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 1.9 - placing the area around the national average for supply per child. Looking at long day care specifically against the under-5 population, the ratio is 3.9 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 70 places across 1 facility serving a total of 163 children while preschool supply is strong with 1 facility providing 74 places (1.5 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Greater Sydney average of 8.3). Projected population decline of 11.3% in the under 5 age group between now and 2041 suggests a reduction in demand for childcare services. Other factors relevant to demand worth noting are strong 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 15.4 per 100 residents with 1,454 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 moderate. Out of school hours child care provision is similarly constrained, with 65 places for the 5-12 cohort. Proximity analysis saw distances of local residents to their nearest child care centre being relatively in line with national benchmarks while high fees are observed relative to national benchmarks.
12 school catchments intersect Gordon (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 9,108 children aged under 5 reside, served by 10,395 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 Gordon and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.