Griffith contains 1 Long Day Care centre (77 places), 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (22 places) and 1 OSHC facility (22 places). Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 198 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 2.0 - placing the area slightly below the national average for supply per child. Looking at long day care specifically against the under-5 population, the ratio is 2.5 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 77 places across 1 facility serving 118 children while preschool supply is constrained with 1 facility providing 22 places (3.5 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Australian Capital Territory average of 2.5). With projected population growth of 17.2% between now and 2041, and 11.6% in the under 5 age group in particular, 12 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 68.5%, 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 30.5 per 100 residents with 1,782 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. Out of school hours child care provision is similarly constrained, with 22 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 fees are notably lower than national averages.
4 school catchments intersect Griffith (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 1,423 children aged under 5 reside, served by 7,005 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 0.2 children per place, with limited variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Griffith and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.