Meadow Heights contains 3 Long Day Care centres (231 places), 2 preschool/kindergarten facilities (166 places) and 2 OSHC facilities (45 places). Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 994 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 4.2 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 231 places across 3 facilities serving a total of 589 children while preschool supply is moderate with 2 facilities providing 166 places (2.4 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Greater Melbourne average of 2.6). With projected population growth of 35.1% between now and 2041, and 16.2% in the under 5 age group in particular, 70 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 35.3%, 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 4.4 per 100 residents with 651 enrolments across primary and secondary institutions. A lower-than-typical rate which suggests pressure might be taken off local services somewhat by school hubs in nearby areas. As expected, the level of school places per child care place (LDC+PSK) is also lower than average. Out of school hours child care provision is similarly constrained, with 45 places for the 5-12 cohort. Fee analysis shows 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.
10 school catchments intersect Meadow Heights (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 6,354 children aged under 5 reside, served by 6,777 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 0.9 children per place, with limited variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Meadow Heights and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.