Ordinarily available provision is the SEND support every mainstream school in England must deliver from its own resources - without a diagnosis or EHC plan - and which councils publish in their Local Offer.
Where the term comes from
The phrase 'ordinarily available provision' does not appear in the Children and Families Act 2014 or the 2015 SEND Code of Practice. It is the practitioner label councils have adopted for the provision they set out under the Local Offer duty (section 30 of the Children and Families Act 2014). That duty requires every local authority to publish the education, health and care provision it expects to be available for children and young people with SEN or disabilities, including those who do not have an EHC plan. The SEND Regulations 2014 (Schedule 2) spell out that this must cover the provision mainstream schools and post-16 settings make, including support for learning and the curriculum.
Why it is the threshold that matters
Its legal weight comes from paragraph 6.15 of the SEND Code of Practice (2015), which defines special educational provision as support that is 'different from or additional to that normally available to pupils of the same age'. Ordinarily available provision is that 'normally available' baseline. It is the line a child's needs have to cross before SEN Support, and later an EHC needs assessment, is engaged. The top Local Offer pages tend to describe ordinarily available provision as a list of inclusive strategies, but omit the two points an LA decision- maker needs: that it is not a statutory term, and that it is the threshold against which lawful SEN Support and EHC decisions are judged.
What it covers, and what sits above it
Ordinarily available provision is delivered on the basis of need, not label - so it is not gatekept behind a diagnosis or a plan. A rough contrast:
- Ordinarily available - quality first teaching, reasonable adjustments, differentiated work, access arrangements, targeted small-group intervention, and the everyday support any well-run mainstream class provides from its delegated budget.
- Above the baseline - provision that is different from or additional to the above: targeted SEN Support on the graduated approach, and, where need is greater still, an EHC needs assessment and plan.
For a parent or school, the practical reading is that a request can be declined where the need can be met from provision ordinarily available - which is exactly why councils publish a clear, defensible description of that baseline.
Reform watch
The February 2026 Schools White Paper and the Education for All Bill proposed in the May 2026 King's Speech set out a statutory Individual Support Plan duty on every school, sitting on top of the ordinarily-available baseline. Consultation is live, and the government has signalled no structural change to EHC plans before September 2030, so the baseline described here still governs decisions today. See the Schools White Paper for the direction of travel.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.