Manjimup contains 1 Long Day Care centre (38 places) and 1 OSHC facility (50 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Regional WA average. With no preschool/kindergarten services observed in the area (such services generally provided within schools in WA), only long day care, the ratio of children per place for the under 5 age group is 6.4 - placing the area among the bottom 20% nationally for supply per child. To meet the Regional WA average 29 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, with projected population growth of 13.4% between now and 2041, and 29.8% in the under 5 age group in particular, not considering current depressed supply, 14 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 53.1%, 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 32.9 per 100 residents with 1,465 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. 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 longer than typical nationally while fees are notably lower than national averages. 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.
2 school catchments intersect Manjimup (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 933 children aged under 5 reside, served by 158 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 5.9 children per place, with limited variance in this ratio.