But now they can lay claim to belonging to the second best childcare centre in Australia.

“It is a reflection of the exceptional level of care our teams provide to children and families every day,” an overjoyed spokesperson the for Goodstart Early Learning centres said.

Three Goodstart centres finished in the top eight list for the best childcare nationally, compiled for the first time by KindiCare, an app that compares the quality and cost of daycare centres.

It also looked at the best performing suburbs for childcare across Victoria, giving top marks to Dallas, Abbotsford and Ashwood in Melbourne.

KindiCare founder Benjamin Balk said the demand in metro suburbs was “not uncommon”.

“There is greater demand in numbers for childcare in metro areas, more competition and often professional parents with higher expectations of their early learning service providers,” he said.

“These factors tend to drive greater investment from childcare providers, particularly commercial operators, to ensure the quality of service delivery to drive occupancy.”

KindiCare rated the Victorian suburbs of Bannockburn, Campbellfield, Koroit, Koo Wee Rup and Baranduda as the worst performing.

Using Federal Government quality ratings combined with user rankings, KindiCare assessed Australia’s 16,552 child care services between May and November this year.

KindiCare’s rating system took into account the quality of care and value for money offered by the early learning services.

“You’ve got just as much chance of a poor performing centre being in the heart of the city as it being in a regional area,” Mr Balk said of the results, crunched for the first time.

Tasmania was the worst-performing state overall, while Queensland’s Thursday Island was the worst performing location nationally.

“What the top and bottom centres highlight overall is that it is important for every family to look in their local area to see how quality compares against the national benchmarks,” Mr Balk said.

“And also how centres in an area compare against each other when considering suitability and value for money.

“Whilst not black and white, regional areas do tend to perform worse than metro areas, particularly in Queensland, Victoria and NSW where participation in early learning is the highest.”

Across the country, family day care services continued to perform lower than all other early childhood education and care types.

Mr Balk said it came largely down to the service being under resourced compared to other parts of the sector.

“If you look at the average childcare centre, you can see centres have anywhere from 28 to 180 children in a centre and so they tend to be more structured,” he said.

“When it comes to family daycare, they tend to operate under a different structure where individual educators might have four children in their home that they’re looking after.

“So there’s not the same sort of structure and rigour as what you see in centre based care, which is why it tends to underperform.”

VIC BEST PERFORMING SUBURBS FOR CHILDCARE

1. Dallas

2. Abbotsford

3. Ashwood

4. Hughesdale

5. Highett

6. Windsor

7. Chirnside Park

8. Box Hill

9. Heathmont East

10. Parkville

11. Fitzroy North

12. Oakleigh

13. Wonthaggi

14. Kew

15. Burwood

16. Eltham North

17. Clayton

18. South Yarra

19. North Melbourne

20. Newport

VIC WORST PERFORMING SUBURBS FOR CHILDCARE

1. Bannockburn

2. Campbellfield

3. Koroit

4. Koo Wee Rup

5. Baranduda

6. Alfredton

7. Beveridge

8. Swan Hill

9. Leongatha

10. Moe

11. Ararat

12. Drysdale

13. Williams landing

14. Mildura

15. Horsham

16. Coolaroo

17. Strathfieldsaye

18. Mooroopna

19. Yarrambat

20. Bacchus Marsh