Wilson contains 1 Long Day Care centre (92 places) and 2 OSHC facilities (69 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Greater Perth 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 3.5 - placing the area among the bottom 20% nationally for supply per child. To meet the Greater Perth average 79 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, with projected population growth of 10.9% between now and 2041, and 3.2% in the under 5 age group in particular, not considering current depressed supply, 27 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other drivers of note in the area 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 4.1 per 100 residents with 307 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. 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 relatively in line with national benchmarks while fees are notably lower than national averages. 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 Wilson (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 7,665 children aged under 5 reside, served by 2,937 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 2.6 children per place, with moderate variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Wilson and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.