If you work in early childhood education or lead an early years setting, you know the environment plays a key role in children’s learning and development. This blog explains what an enabling environment means, why it matters and how you can create one.
This article is part of a series exploring the four overarching principles of the early years foundation stage: the unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments, and learning and development.
What is an enabling environment in the early years?
In early years settings, ‘environment’ typically refers to the physical space. For example, how indoor and outdoor areas are organised and arranged, and the resources available to meet children’s needs and interests. However, this description doesn’t fully reflect the skill and intentionality that sit behind it.
‘Enabling environments’ is one of four overarching principles in the early years foundation stage statutory framework (Department for Education, 2025). The Birth to 5 Matters non-statutory guidance (Early Education, 2021) describes enabling environments as contexts in which “knowledgeable practitioners optimise the learning potential of every child”.
In practice, this means the physical environment is more than just the layout of a room or outdoor area. It’s intentionally shaped, through organisation, routines and the choices practitioners make, to support learning and development over time.
Why an effective early years environment matters
Research shows that the quality of your environment shapes children’s outcomes.
The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education study found that children who attended higher-quality early years settings had stronger cognitive and social outcomes. It also found that these effects were sustained into later schooling (Sylva et al., 2004; 2014).
Importantly, these studies judged quality not by how settings looked, but by how well the environment supported children’s learning and development. In particular, they emphasise well-organised spaces that foster emotional security and create opportunities for sustained shared thinking between adults and children.
More recent evidence reinforces that it’s the quality of children’s experiences within a setting, particularly the interaction between environment and skilled adult practice, that makes the biggest difference (Study of Early Education and Development (SEED), Melhuish et al., 2017).
The environment establishes the conditions for learning, and adults bring those conditions to life. The evidence is clear that adult interaction is central to quality.
How to evaluate an early years environment
With this in mind, it’s worth considering how early years environments are commonly described and evaluated.
In the early years, terms such as ‘continuous provision’ or ‘enhanced provision’ are often used to describe how environments are organised. These can be helpful descriptors. However, they can shift attention toward organisation rather than purpose. The critical question isn’t simply whether areas are resourced, but what they’re enabling.
Unless you know the children well, it’s not always obvious why particular resources have been selected, why others are absent, or why a space has been organised in a particular way. To make sense of these choices requires an understanding of their developmental trajectories, their emerging strengths and their patterns of engagement.
The rationale behind the environment may be rigorous and deeply intentional, but it's not always immediately obvious to those observing it. This can make evaluation understandably challenging for senior leaders, particularly those whose professional background lies outside early childhood education. To evaluate environments effectively, leaders need to think about what children are doing and experiencing within the environment.
In early years settings, learning is rarely captured in books. It’s embodied in talk, play, behaviour and interaction. The visible arrangement of a space and selection of resources often reflects a number of things. For example, considered professional decisions grounded in an understanding of child development, curriculum intent and the specific children in that setting at that time.
Case study: How we create an enabling environment in the early years
Find out how practitioners at Ashby Hill Top Primary School build a learning environment around children’s wellbeing and involvement in this case study.
Summary
An effective enabling environment is not just about well-organised spaces or plentiful resources. It’s about creating the conditions where every child can flourish, shaped by skilled practitioners who know their children well and make thoughtful, intentional decisions.
By focusing on what the environment is truly enabling and then grounding those choices in a deep understanding of children’s needs and development, we can create settings that support meaningful learning, foster wellbeing and help every child thrive.
To find out more about what an enabling environment should help children achieve, read the next blog in this series. It explores the key conditions that support every child’s learning and development.
References
> Department for Education (2025). Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage: Setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. Updated July 2025. London: DfE.
> Early Education (2021). Birth to 5 Matters: Non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage. London: Early Education.
> Education Endowment Foundation (2021). Preparing for Literacy: Improving communication, language and literacy in the early years. London: EEF.
> Melhuish, E., Gardiner, J. and Morris, S. (2017). Study of Early Education and Development (SEED): Impact Study on Early Education Use and Child Outcomes up to Age Three. London: Department for Education.
> Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I. and Taggart, B. (2004). The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project: Final Report. London: Institute of Education, University of London / DfES.
> Sylva, K., Sammons, P., Melhuish, E., Siraj, I., Taggart, B. and Toth, K. (2014). Students’ educational and developmental outcomes at age 16: Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE 3–16) Project. London: Department for Education.
