Narrabundah contains 2 Long Day Care centres (137 places), 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (74 places) and 1 OSHC facility (80 places). Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 345 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 1.6 - placing the area slightly above 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 137 places across 2 facilities serving 209 children while preschool supply is moderate with 1 facility providing 74 places (1.9 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Australian Capital Territory average of 2.5). Projected population decline of 0.3% in the under 5 age group between now and 2041 suggests a reduction in demand for childcare services. Other factors relevant to demand worth noting are strong 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 16.3 per 100 residents with 1,173 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. Fee analysis shows high fees are observed relative to national benchmarks.
4 school catchments intersect Narrabundah (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 Narrabundah and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.