Liverpool contains 21 Long Day Care centres (869 places), 3 preschool/kindergarten facilities (130 places) and 5 OSHC facilities (451 places). Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 2,514 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 2.5 - 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 2.9 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 869 places across 21 facilities serving 1,501 children while preschool supply is moderate with 3 facilities providing 130 places (7.7 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Greater Sydney average of 8.3). With projected population growth of 33.9% between now and 2041, and 11.5% in the under 5 age group in particular, 118 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other factors worth noting are lower female labour force participation of 40.2%, as well as lower 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 18.7 per 100 residents with 6,606 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. Additionally, the level of school places per child care place (LDC+PSK) is moderate. Proximity analysis saw distances of local residents to their nearest child care centre being shorter than average.
20 school catchments intersect Liverpool (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 13,884 children aged under 5 reside, served by 7,468 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 1.9 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Liverpool and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.