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The Nest Wellbeing Framework

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What is The Nest Wellbeing Framework?

The Nest Wellbeing Framework (The Nest) is Australia’s first evidence-based framework for child and youth wellbeing. Developed by ARACY (the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth) in 2013, following consultation with over 4,000 children, families and experts, it defines six interconnected domains that children and young people need to thrive:

  • Healthy
  • Valued, Loved and Safe
  • Material Basics
  • Learning
  • Participating
  • Positive Sense of Identity and Culture

The Nest recognises every facet of a child’s life as integral to preventing harm, enabling early intervention, and creating the conditions for every young Australian to reach their full potential. Licensed under Creative Commons, it is free to use in policy and practice.

Individuals, agencies, government departments, policymakers, researchers, and community organisations across Australia bring The Nest to life when they use it to frame their work — driving population-level change in the health and development of children and young people.

The Nest wellbeing framework diagram showing six interconnected domains: Healthy, Valued Loved and Safe, Material Basics, Learning, Participating, and Positive Sense of Identity and Culture

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The Nest is licensed under Creative Commons so it’s free to use in your policies or practice.

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What's In The Nest 2024 Update

Frequently asked questions

The name came from a young person at the national summit held to finalise the framework. They described all the areas of wellbeing as forming a nest — “if every area is supported, we’re able to be happy and healthy and fly from the nest.” The image resonated with everyone in the room, and the framework has been known as The Nest ever since.

The Nest applies to children and young people aged 0 to 24 years. It is used by individuals, services, government agencies, researchers, and community organisations — anyone working with or for children and young people can use The Nest to frame their thinking and practice.

The Nest treats wellbeing as an umbrella term encompassing all six domains together. When many people talk about wellbeing, they often mean one or two aspects — such as mental health or social-emotional learning. While these are important, The Nest takes a holistic view: optimal wellbeing means a child or young person is adequately supported across all six domains, not just one or two.

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Development began in 2010 at a meeting at Parliament House in Canberra. Over two years, ARACY consulted with more than 4,000 children, families and professionals across Australia, asking what it means to have a good life. Children and young people were central to this process, sharing their perspectives through drawing, group discussions and surveys. ARACY researchers also reviewed hundreds of Australian and international programs and strategies. The Nest was officially launched in 2012 and has been updated regularly to reflect new evidence and our changing world.

The Nest is used in many ways across Australia and internationally, including as a conceptual framework for developing strategies and plans; to monitor and evaluate children’s outcomes; to track student wellbeing in real time through tools like EI Pulse; to guide community engagement and conversations with children and families; and as a shared language for organisations, governments and researchers working across sectors. The Common Approach®, ARACY’s evidence-based practice framework, is built on The Nest’s foundations.

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Six operational principles underpin The Nest: 

  • Placing the child at the centre
  • Privileging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge
  • Taking a long-term, evidence-informed approach
  • Prioritising prevention and early intervention
  • Applying a life stage lens with particular attention to the early years and key transitions
  • Working toward systemic change through shared outcomes, reformed funding, and collaboration across sectors and governments

The Nest can be used at any level — from individual practice through to service planning, policy development, and population-level data analysis. In practice, this might mean using The Nest to frame conversations with children and families about wellbeing, to design or evaluate a program, to develop a strategy or community plan, or to align data collection across sectors. Because it is licensed under Creative Commons, it is free to use. Download What’s In The Nest? to get started, or explore The Common Approach® for a structured way of putting The Nest into practice with children, young people and families.

The Nest and the Wellbeing Wheel are related but distinct tools. The Nest is the overarching framework — it defines the six domains of wellbeing that children and young people need to thrive and is used at every level, from individual practice through to national policy.

The Wellbeing Wheel is a practical tool within The Common Approach®, ARACY’s evidence-based way of having quality wellbeing conversations with children, young people and families.

The Wheel uses The Nest’s six domains as its foundation, giving practitioners a visual, accessible way to explore wellbeing with the people they work with. In short: The Nest is the framework; the Wellbeing Wheel is one of the tools used to bring it to life in practice.

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What's In The Nest?

Download What’s In The Nest? to learn more about this wellbeing framework and how you can use it.

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Download The Nest technical document

This technical document underpins the action agenda, offering a comprehensive overview of The Nest’s development, methodology, and evidence-based strategies since its inception in 2009-10.

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Download The Nest and the UNCRC

The Nest is a child-centred framework that defines what children and young people need to thrive across six interconnected wellbeing domains, aligning closely with the UNCRC, which outlines these needs along with the roles and responsibilities of governments, families, and organisations in upholding children’s rights.

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Search through our extensive Resource Library including Research papers, Submissions, Reports and much more.

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The Nest in action

The Nest is a widely adopted framework guiding policy and practice to promote wellbeing and prevent disease across Australia and beyond.

Our Nest Projects

At ARACY, we’ve pioneered Australia’s premier evidence-based wellbeing framework, The Nest. We base all our work on the six interlocking dimensions of The Nest. It ensures children’s and young people’s wellbeing – including health, is always at the centre of our work. See our Nest Projects.

The Nest Initiatives

The Nest is Australia’s leading framework for enhancing holistic wellbeing, including health, of children and young people. It unites efforts across the nation to boost the wellbeing and health of our next generation. See the Nest Initiatives.

What is child wellbeing?

Wellbeing is a commonly used term, but it can mean different things to different people. This variability in interpretation can make it challenging to fully understand what wellbeing entails and, ultimately, to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people. Find out more.
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Healthy.

Healthy children and young people have their physical, mental, and
emotional health needs met. All of their developmental health needs are provided for in a timely way. They receive appropriate health services, including preventative measures to address potential or emerging physical, emotional and mental health concerns.

Learning.

Children and young people learn through a variety of experiences within the classroom, the home and the community in which they live. Their individual learning needs are addressed to allow them to realise their full learning potential. Families are engaged in their child’s learning. Children and young people are supported and encouraged to learn in a wide variety of settings, including formal education. They have opportunities to participate in a breadth of experiences where their learning is valued and supported by their family and in the wider community.

Participating.

Participating is about children and young people having a voice, being listened to, and taken seriously within their family and community. It means having a say in decisions that impact them. It is being empowered to speak out and express themselves. Participating includes involvement with peers and groups through a variety of activities, including online communities. Participating means being an active member of society.

Material Basics.

Children and young people who have material basics have the things they need. They live in suitable, secure, stable housing, with appropriate clothing, nutritious food, clean water and clean air. They have access to transport, to required local services (e.g. plumbing) and to open spaces in nature. Their family has enough money for necessities. They have the material items needed to develop as an active member of society such as school supplies, suitable technology or sporting equipment.

Positive Sense of Identity and Culture.

Having a positive sense of identity and culture is central to the wellbeing of all children and young people. This is important for all, regardless of background, but in Australia, especially for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. It encompasses having spiritual needs met, a sense of cultural connectedness, belonging and acceptance at home and in the community – and confidence that their identity, culture and community is respected and valued. It involves feeling safe and supported in expressing one’s identity, regardless of gender, sexuality, culture or language.

Valued, Loved, and Safe

Being valued, loved, and safe means having loving, trusting relationships
with family and friends. It involves a child or young person feeling valued by teachers and other adults in their life and knowing that they are important to others and that others are caring and supportive of them. It involves feeling safe at home, in the community and online. Safety also means feeling safe about their future, which includes the knowledge that the environment and climate are a priority and are being protected.