The Flourish Model was created by Wendy Ellyatt in 2018 in response to the fact that, at that time, countries were increasingly talking about wellbeing, but none of the frameworks were focused on optimising the conditions for human flourishing, which included the huge importance of early childhood development and  the fact that we live in a dynamically interconnected world.  Instead they were busy tasking snapshots of states of wellbeing later on in life.

​Through the model Wendy wanted to encourage people to start thinking systemically and to recognise that their own needs and wellbeing were always intimately bound up, not only with those of everyone else in the system, but with the health and wellbeing of the wider ecosystem.