Waramanga contains 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (44 places) and 2 OSHC facilities (145 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Australian Capital Territory average. With no LDC services observed in the area, only preschool, the ratio of children per place for the under 5 age group is 3.8 - placing the area among the bottom 20% nationally for supply per child. To meet the Australian Capital Territory average 80 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, projected population decline of 14.5% 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 52.6 per 100 residents with 1,446 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. 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.
6 school catchments intersect Waramanga (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 5,012 children aged under 5 reside, served by 5,789 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 Waramanga and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.