Oakhurst contains 3 Long Day Care centres (132 places) and 1 OSHC facility (72 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Greater Sydney average. With no preschool/kindergarten services observed in the area, only long day care, the ratio of children per place for the under 5 age group is 3.0 - placing the area among the bottom 30% nationally for supply per child. To meet the Greater Sydney average 70 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, projected population decline of 19.7% in the under 5 age group between now and 2041 suggests a reduction in demand for childcare services. Socioeconomic performance in the area in the way of income and employment figures, including female workforce participation, are broadly in line with national averages.
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 21.8 per 100 residents with 1,537 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. Proximity analysis saw distances of local residents to their nearest child care centre being shorter than average 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.
9 school catchments intersect Oakhurst (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 10,310 children aged under 5 reside, served by 6,437 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 1.6 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Oakhurst and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.