West Footscray contains 2 Long Day Care centres (243 places), 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (30 places) and 2 OSHC facilities (115 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Greater Melbourne average. Combined service provision across long day care and preschool/kindergarten services, and the approximate 907 children in the cohort, sees a ratio of children per place of 3.3 - placing the area among the bottom 30% nationally for supply per child. Looking at long day care specifically against the under-5 population, the ratio is 3.7 children per place (lower quintile supply). Further breakdowns by age, to help in identifying the most in-need services, show an undersupply of LDC places across the infant and toddler cohort (<3yo) with just 243 places across 2 facilities serving a total of 540 children while preschool supply is similarly constrained with 1 facility providing 30 places (12.0 children aged 3-4 per place compared to the Greater Melbourne average of 2.6). To meet the Greater Melbourne average 356 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, with projected population growth of 23.9% between now and 2041, and 10.5% in the under 5 age group in particular, not considering current depressed supply, 30 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other drivers of note in the area are high female labour force participation of 68.3%.
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 6.8 per 100 residents with 880 enrolments across primary and secondary institutions. A lower-than-typical rate which suggests pressure might be taken off local services somewhat by school hubs in nearby areas. Additionally, the level of school places per child care place (LDC+PSK) is moderate. Fee analysis shows high fees are observed suggesting limited supply might be having an outsized impact on inflation.
12 school catchments intersect West Footscray (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 9,418 children aged under 5 reside, served by 10,213 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 0.9 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between West Footscray and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.