The company provides support, guidance and training to the Early Childhood Community with particular focus on the Outdoors.The company founded in July 2017 and during the financial year 2021- 2022 the company’s activities have benefitted the community in the following ways:Note that COVID 19 continued to significantly curtail our face to face networking activity throughout the whole financial year, despite this we have: - continued to share and publicise ECO principles widely across existing contacts both locally, nationally and internationally. ECO social media presence has shown a slight increase with a more significant increase in our web based contacts. - communicated directly to social media contacts through tools such as Facebook this has enabled the company to continue to support followers, in particular those working directly with children in nurseries throughout the pandemic. - continued to work with researchers funded by the Froebel Institute to explore opportunities for babies outside, particularly in nursery settings.- continued to work with ‘Muddy Faces Ltd’ and ‘Early Childhood TV’ in mutually supportive ways, including discussions around future plans to support early career practitioners develop skills for teaching outdoors.- continued to edit and curate blogs, advertised on Facebook and accessible through the website to visitors and subscribers. We saw a significant increase in contributions from a wider range of collaborators. - continued to meet as directors.- ECO have made a significant contribution to the bid for ‘The Voices of the Future’ research project led by Manchester Metropolitan University and part of the NERC, ARC, ESRC funded national treescapes program.- ECO were a project partner for a second research bid to SSRC by Manchester Metropolitan University.- ECO directors took part in an international online 'Campference’ hosted by Tania Maloney in Victoria, Australia.Overall we believe that we have continued to have an impact for our existing contacts and have been able to increase numbers of contacts over the year. The profile of ECO has been raised, nationally and internationally and we now believe that related organisations are aware that we are a presence in the field and they recognise and appreciate our expertise and role as connector of people and ideas.

Directors Jan White and Menna Godfrey have kept in touch with a number of champions to support them during the challenges of Covid, particularly those who continued to work face to face in nurseries and schools.The directors continue to share the vision of the company through ad hoc conversations with stakeholders to ensure that future plans meet their needs.ECO has been delighted to have become involved with the research work at Manchester Metropolitan University and their affiliated Early Childhood Research Group. We expect our contributions to these projects to increase in the coming years.Director Jan White spoke at the inaugural conference of the TREESCAPE project and has shared her expertise. ECO is a named partner in this project. Jan has continued to attend their research meetings as the project funded by ESRC has developed.Director Jan White delivered a podcast for UWTSD in her role as director of ECO and professor of practice at UWTSD.Jan White has written a series of articles for Nursery World magazine, explaining the challenges to working outdoors with young children and suggesting solutions to overcome them. Menna and some of the ECO TEAM members have provided case studies for these articles.ECO entered an agreement with Goldsmiths University to provide a placement for one of their masters students. This generated some useful research and ways forward for developing our ‘Nature Friendly Nurseries’ project.In collaboration with the newly founded Outdoors Thinking Ltd, Jan has developed level three qualification accredited by OCN West Midlands. This project has taken a significant amount of both directors energies, but delivery began in April 2022 and has been well received to date. The mandate to develop a course at Level 3 came from our face to face conference (2019) and subsequent conversations. ECO is delighted to be part of the team that has brought it to fruition.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration