West Beach currently has no childcare facilities operating within its bounds. With projected population growth of 9.6% between now and 2041, and 27.2% in the under 5 age group in particular. As well as this projected growth, other drivers of note in the area are upper 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 23.3 per 100 residents with 354 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. 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.
2 school catchments intersect West Beach (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 417 children aged under 5 reside, served by 67 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 6.2 children per place, with limited variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between West Beach and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.