Wickham contains 1 Long Day Care centre (46 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, though above the Regional WA average. With no preschool/kindergarten services observed in the area (such services generally provided within schools in WA), only long day care, the ratio of children per place for the under 5 age group is 2.8 - placing the area among the bottom 30% nationally for supply per child. With projected population growth of 8.5% between now and 2041, and 23.9% in the under 5 age group in particular, 36 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 68.0%, as well as 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 17.7 per 100 residents with 357 enrolments across primary and secondary institutions. This above-average concentration of school places suggests the area serves as something of a destination for educational services, which typically supports elevated childcare demand through school run convenience patterns. Additionally, the level of school places per child care place (LDC+PSK) is moderate. 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.
1 school catchment intersects Wickham (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which 200 children aged under 5 reside, served by 46 LDC and preschool places. The demand-to-supply ratio for this catchment is 4.3 children per place.