Most early years frameworks tell you how a room should look and feel. The Early Years Ecosystem shows how a whole setting should run: how staff are recruited, trained and paid, how parents are truly partners, how children's neurodivergence and wellbeing are held at the centre, how food and resources are handled, and how it all stays financially sustainable.
I built it inside a real setting. I was graded Outstanding by Ofsted twice as a provider, before that practice grew into a full nursery and preschool. It is laid out below as six connected circles, not six separate policies on a shelf.
See how settings join and what it costs.
It grew inside a busy inner city setting with a full waiting list, four rooms, around 30 staff and up to 72 children a day. We trained apprentices along the way, mentoring them alongside the local college. The model was extended and reworked in practice as the setting grew, not written once and left.
It held through the pandemic. The setting stayed open as a keyworker provision when most of the country's early years settings closed, running on this model the whole way through.
Early years practice has understood children as sitting inside nested, connected systems since Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory in the 1970s: home, setting and community, all shaping the child together. This model takes that seriously and builds a whole setting around it.
On the home page each circle is shown as a habitat: the forest, the desert, the grassland, the sea, the tundra and the river. Each circle below carries the mark of the real ecological structure it behaves like: the canopy that shelters what grows beneath it, the root system that nothing above ground survives without, the point where growth actually flowers, the water table that reaches everywhere without being seen moving, the soil layer everything else is built on, and the river system that carries what every part needs to where it is needed. Six different mechanisms, one system, exactly the way an ecosystem in nature works.
In the moment planning, holistic curriculum design, forest school and outdoor learning, shaped and delivered in practice for over a decade.
Recruitment, wellbeing, CPD and fair pay, including a clear living wage commitment as a values position, not an afterthought. Nothing above ground survives without this.
MeMap, built for how children actually grow, with the Neurodictionary alongside as a resource in its own right. Early identification and SEND support runs on the same graduated approach, led by a founder who has worked as an early years SENCO and holds a Distinction level postgraduate qualification in autism.
Genuine partnership, daily circular communication, and a parent and carer course built to feel like a village, not a lecture, grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The original course was first piloted in 2016 and is being revived and updated now.
Mealtimes as connection and learning, growing, cooking and sharing food together, not just nutrition ticked off a form. Food for Life Early Years from the Soil Association, 2016.
Budgeting, ratios and sustainable running, the flow that keeps every other circle fed, so the model survives contact with a real budget.
The climate: shared values and principles. The weather every habitat lives under. A written, dated ethos in continuous use since 2013, grounded in children's rights, equity and neuro-affirming practice, so the same values reach the staff room, the garden and the lunch table.
The paths: policy and procedure. The safe, marked routes through every habitat. Policies and procedures are written to fit the six habitats and the current early years framework, not filed separately, so staff, families and inspectors can see how each one serves the whole. They are matched to your own local authority, taught as a short course with quick checks in paid time, kept fresh in team meetings and supervision, and reviewed every quarter with everyone, not only leaders. How the policies work.
Not a hierarchy and nothing sits still. This runs the way a real ecosystem runs: nothing disappears, everything circulates, feeds the next part, and comes back round changed.
Every circle is mapped to the seven EYFS areas of learning, so nothing sits on top of what a setting is already required to do. The full mapping comes with membership and accreditation.
Every part of a setting behaves like a part of the natural world, and each one below is something you can buy, learn and be reviewed against. Together they are the whole model. On their own, each is a resource in its own right, pitched for early years here and for older children and young people through The Freedom Approach.
01 · The forest
The canopy shapes the light everything grows in. In the moment planning, a holistic curriculum, forest school and outdoor learning every week, run in practice for over a decade, including weekly forest school in a public park from 2013.
What you get: the environment audit, the outdoor learning framework, and Forest School led practice from a Level 3 Forest School leader.
02 · The desert
The plants that survive here have the deepest roots. Recruitment, supervision, three hundred and sixty degree feedback, CPD, permanent contracts and a real living wage, as a values position rather than an afterthought. Nothing above ground survives without this.
What you get: the staff wellbeing structure, the apprenticeship model, with apprentices mentored alongside the local college, and the whole team training that counts towards CPD.
03 · The grassland
The growth point, where the whole system's purpose flowers. Personal, social and emotional development as the key that unlocks every other area of learning, early identification and SEND support on the graduated approach, led by a former early years SENCO with a Distinction level postgraduate qualification in autism.
What you get: MeMap for every child, the Neurodictionary for every adult, and the Holistic Individual Learning Plan where a child needs more.
04 · The sea
The water table reaches every part of the system without being seen moving. Genuine partnership, daily circular communication, and a parent and carer course built to feel like a village rather than a lecture.
What you get: the parent partnership method, the parent and carer course first piloted in 2016, and the communication pattern that keeps families inside the loop.
05 · The tundra
A thin living layer that everything else depends on. Mealtimes as connection and learning, growing, cooking and sharing food together, not nutrition ticked off a form. Food for Life Early Years from the Soil Association, December 2016, then invited to judge its awards. Signed up to Sugar Smart at its local launch in 2017.
What you get: the food and mealtime framework, the menu and growing plan, and the route to Food for Life for your own setting.
06 · The river
The river carries what every other part needs to where it is needed. Budgeting, ratios and sustainable running, so the model survives contact with a real budget. It ran a four room setting with around thirty staff and up to seventy two children a day, and stayed open through the pandemic as keyworker provision.
What you get: the budgeting and ratio model, the funding map including the Inclusive Early Years Fund, and the sustainability review at accreditation.
Practitioner membership £220 a year or £22 a month. Accredited setting £795 joining and £470 a year. Group licence 10 per cent off each setting, for three or more. Everything that is included, and the evidence behind each habitat. Habitat illustrations made for this site.