Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP) refers to the support that all Devon schools, early years, and post 16 settings should be able to provide for children and young people, including those with SEND, from within their own resources.
Devon’s ambitions for OAIP
We want children and young people with SEND to attend their local school or setting, in line with their and their parents’ wishes. The Ordinarily Available Inclusive Education Framework is intended to support schools and settings to reflect and develop their inclusive provision to benefit all the children and young people in the school and setting including those with SEND.
“We want all young people in Devon, including those who may have special educational needs or disabilities, to have the right support at the right time and in the right place to help them achieve, aspire and develop well, physically, mentally and academically alongside their friends and peers.”
– Councillor Lois Samuel, the Council’s Cabinet Member for SEND Improvement
By outlining a framework of expectations, we are encouraging consistency between schools and settings across Devon. Whilst this guidance is primarily aimed at education settings, we also intend that it will support parent carers and children and young people themselves to better understand the support that will be provided for all children and young people in their local mainstream school.
Graphic
Other words that might be used interchangeably with OAIP include universal provision, inclusive practice, quality teaching. In Devon, we will be promoting consistent use of the terminology Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision to avoid confusion and enable a shared understanding. These have also been illustrated in the graphic above.
Background
The SEND Review: Right Support Right Place Right Time Green paper (Department of Education, March 2023) references on page 28 the need for clarity and consistency in ordinarily available provision across schools and settings: ‘This will include setting out when needs can and should be met effectively in mainstream provision, and the support that should be made ordinarily available in mainstream settings to facilitate this.’
The concept of Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision (OAIP) is grounded in the SEND Code of Practice where in section 6.15 it is stated: ‘A pupil has SEN where their learning difficulty or disability calls for special educational provision, namely provision different from or additional to that normally available to pupils of the same age. Making higher quality teaching normally available to the whole class is likely to mean that fewer pupils will require such support. Such improvements in whole-class provision tend to be more cost effective and sustainable.’
The European Agency for SEN and Inclusive Education state that it’s: ‘a shift away from a narrow focus on learners’ special educational needs and special needs education as specific provision, towards extending and improving the quality of support for learning that is generally available to all learners.’
All mainstream schools and settings are expected to provide ordinarily available inclusive provision and targeted support (additional provision for children with SEND) using their available resources from within element 1 (AWPU) and element 2 funding (notional SEN funding).