Grange contains 2 Long Day Care centres (108 places), 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (25 places) and 1 OSHC facility (260 places), with overall provision relative to the local child population aligning with national benchmarks, though below the Greater Brisbane average, with certain cohorts and service types experiencing tighter provision. Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 241 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 1.8 - 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 2.2 children per place. Further breakdowns by age, to help in identifying the most in-need services, show moderate LDC provision across the infant and toddler cohort (<3yo) with 108 places across 2 facilities serving 145 children while preschool supply is strong with 1 facility providing 25 places (3.9 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Greater Brisbane average of 11.1). Projected population decline of 12.0% 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 high female labour force participation of 73.1%, 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 17.4 per 100 residents with 858 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. 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 shorter than average while high fees are observed relative to 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 Grange (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 7,475 children aged under 5 reside, served by 6,231 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 1.2 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Grange and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.