Riverside contains 2 Long Day Care centres (109 places) and 3 OSHC facilities (107 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks. With no preschool/kindergarten services observed in the area (such services generally provided within schools in TAS), only long day care, the ratio of children per place for the under 5 age group is 3.5 - placing the area among the bottom 20% nationally for supply per child. Projected population decline of 2.6% 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 employment 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 30.6 per 100 residents with 2,353 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. Fee analysis shows fees are notably lower than national averages.
6 school catchments intersect Riverside (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 2,131 children aged under 5 reside, served by 404 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 5.3 children per place, with significant variance in this ratio.