About Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice (OAIP)

The additional needs of most children and young people can be met by inclusive quality first teaching and reasonable adjustments from the funding and resources that are already or ‘ordinarily’ available in their mainstream school or setting. This is known as ‘Ordinarily Available Provision’.

The SEND Code of Practice, 2015 links high quality teaching with ordinarily available provision: “…higher quality teaching ordinarily available to the whole class is likely to mean that fewer pupils will require such support.”

This guide highlights a range of support and expectations that settings can ordinarily provide for a child or young person, without the need for additional support from an Education Health and Care Plan. In co-production with stakeholders, we agreed to call this document the West Sussex Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice guide (OAIP) to reflect our commitment to and focus on inclusive practice.

We acknowledge that adapting practice to meet the needs of all children and young people does bring its challenges. This accessible resource will be used to prompt discussion and facilitate planning to create more inclusive learning environments and experiences.

The OAIP was written with West Sussex schools, academies, early years settings, post 16 education providers, governors and trustees, parent carers, local authority officers and other specialists as part of the West Sussex SEND and Inclusion Strategy 2019–2024. The guide was revised in full in 2024 in a co-productive way to reflect the most up to date terminology, advice, and evidence-based research available.

As part of the development process, the following principles were used to guide thinking:

• the guide should be written for and used by all mainstream staff to provide helpful and accessible prompts and strategies for inclusive classroom practice and quality first teaching
• every child and young person can learn, achieve challenging objectives, and make progress when the right support is in place
• all staff have a responsibility to identify and address the individual needs of their children and young people. Responding to the needs of children and young people is key to promoting their wellbeing and independence and enabling each of them to fulfil their potential.

For further information email toolsforschools@westsussex.gov.uk.