Highton contains 2 Long Day Care centres (193 places), 4 preschool/kindergarten facilities (198 places) and 5 OSHC facilities (482 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Regional Vic. average. Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 1,313 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 3.2 - placing the area among the bottom 30% nationally for supply per child. Looking at long day care specifically against the under-5 population, the ratio is 6.5 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 193 places across 2 facilities serving a total of 752 children while preschool supply is similarly constrained with 4 facilities providing 198 places (2.5 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Regional Vic. average of 2.0). To meet the Regional Vic. average 478 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, with projected population growth of 28.7% between now and 2041, and 45.2% in the under 5 age group in particular, not considering current depressed supply, 204 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other drivers of note in the area are strong 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 15.6 per 100 residents with 3,545 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 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.
11 school catchments intersect Highton (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 13,246 children aged under 5 reside, served by 13,379 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 1.0 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Highton and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.