Where Melbourne’s young families have no childcare

The challenge

New estates fill with young families faster than anyone counts them. Her gap report took a consultant six months and was out of date on delivery. Meanwhile parents queue two years for a place.

How the flow works

With xMap Flows, Olivia built Atlas. Atlas is an AI employee: a flow of 7 blocks.

1. Every quarter,

   Every quarter (Schedule)

2. across thirty growth suburbs,

   Thirty growth suburbs (Area of interest)

3. Atlas counts the children under ten,

   Children under ten (Demographics)

4. counts the childcare centres in each,

   Childcare centres (Nearby places)

5. works out the children for every centre,

   Children per centre (Calculated field)

6. keeps the ten biggest gaps,

   The ten biggest gaps (Sort and limit)

7. and makes the report for her desk.

   Quarterly gap report (Make a report)

What it solves

• Six-month study: solved by Demographics and Nearby places
• Old on delivery: solved by Schedule and Make a report
• Two-year waiting lists: solved by Calculated field and Sort and limit

The result

Every quarter Atlas hands her a fresh report. This one names Wyndham Vale, where nine hundred young children share one centre. Funding for two new centres went through in a single meeting.

Olivia’s report used to arrive late. Now it arrives before the queue does.

An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.

The flow, block by block

1. 1

   Every quarter

   Schedule

   Starts the flow on a timetable.

2. 2

   Thirty growth suburbs

   Area of interest

   Sets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.

3. 3

   Children under ten

   Demographics

   Who lives in an area: the number of residents, men and women, and nine age groups, from xMap’s population grid (hexagons of about 0.1 km², about 100 countries).

4. 4

   Childcare centres

   Nearby places

   Places around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or a whole group of them) and how far to look.

5. 5

   Children per centre

   Calculated field

   Adds fields worked out from the others: a number, a text or a yes/no.

6. 6

   The ten biggest gaps

   Sort and limit

   Puts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.

7. 7

   Quarterly gap report

   Make a report

   Turns the items that reach it into a clean PDF report with your logo and colour: the summary an xMap LLM block wrote for the whole list, the figures, charts of kinds and cities, a map and the list.

Templates to build it

Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.

• Districts with no pharmacy close byBlocks with many people and few pharmacies, ranked.
• Where young adults lack mental health careBlocks with many young adults and few mental health services.
• Neighbourhoods with many people and few notariesWhere many people live far from a notary, block by block.
• Areas with few halal restaurantsBlocks with many people and few halal restaurants.
• Where to build senior livingBlocks with many seniors and few care homes.
• Where young professionals rent: co-living sitesBlocks with many young professionals and city life, for co-living.

Learn how it works

• Location intelligenceUsing where things are, and what is around them, to make business decisions.
• Catchment areaThe area a store or service draws its customers from.
• Drive time vs radiusTwo ways to draw the area around a site, and when each is good enough.
• Ask the map a questionHow many of a kind of place, how many people for each, and where the gaps are, answered on the spot.
• Count what is around each of your placesCompetitors, footfall magnets or services within a distance of each site.
• Compare sites side by sideTwo or three spots measured the same way, one column each, the best of every row marked and the best site and why.

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