What Are The 7 Principles of Inclusion?

September 22, 2026

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The 7 principles of inclusion do several jobs at once. They’re the pillars your inclusion strategy is built on, and the areas your inclusive mainstream fund (IMF) allocation is expected to invest in. From September 2026, they’re also what Ofsted uses to judge how deep your inclusive practice runs.

No school reduces exceptional inclusion to 7 tidy boxes. But for inspectors, these inclusion principles are the starting point for working out how far that practice reaches across everything you do.

In this blog, we cover the DfE’s 7 principles of inclusion, with examples of how to evidence the quality and depth of each one.

The 7 principles of inclusion

The 7 principles come from the DfE’s inclusion strategy guidance published in June 2026, which sets the condition that any activity funded through the IMF allocation must sit under at least one of the principles and will be evidenced in your school’s inclusion strategy.

The 7 principles are:

1. Ambitious leadership and governance that embeds inclusion
2. Evidence-based support prioritising early intervention
3. High-quality adaptive teaching with a curriculum designed for all learners
4. Enriching provision beyond the classroom that all children can access
5. A safe and respectful culture fostering belonging, attendance and participation in learning
6. Strong partnerships with families and wider services
7. Inclusive environments with continuous improvements to accessibility

How Ofsted uses the 7 principles

Ofsted judges inclusion as its own evaluation area, graded on the same five-point scale as everything else, rather than the simple met or not-met standard used for safeguarding.

That grading reflects how inclusion works day to day in a school. It shows up in the ethos, in how consistently staff hold the same attitudes, and in the lengths everyone goes to so that every child, especially those who are disadvantaged or vulnerable, can achieve, thrive and belong.

Ofsted has described this as a golden thread running through the whole inspection framework, one that reaches leadership and governance as much as it reaches the classroom.

 

 

The 7 principles, and how to evidence them

1: Ambitious leadership and governance that embeds inclusion

This principle puts inclusion at the top of the leadership agenda, owned by governors and senior leaders as much as by your SENCO and teaching staff. For your most vulnerable pupils, that means decisions about the support and challenge they receive are ambitious and designed to allow them to access and benefit from.

In practice, inspectors want your SENCo’s role to carry strategic weight within the leadership structure, with the authority to drive improvement for pupils with SEND across the whole school. We know the move to make SENCo more strategic will continue to gain momentum, as mentioned in the proposed SEND reforms.

Leaders are also expected to hold high expectations for disadvantaged pupils and others who face barriers, pushing back against lower outcomes rather than accepting them.

Examples of Principle 1 evidence

• Your SENCo’s position in the leadership structure carries the strategic weight to drive whole-school change for pupils with SEND.
• Governors and trustees have been involved with, signed off and published your inclusion strategy.
• Leaders can show inclusive teaching is treated as the foundation of the strategy, ahead of targeted intervention.

2: Evidence-based support prioritising early intervention

Early evidence-based support focuses on catching barriers to learning early, before they compound. For vulnerable pupils, early and accurate identification is often the difference between a quick adjustment and years of unaddressed need.

Good practice notices needs quickly and accurately, before a pattern has had time to become obvious elsewhere. They look for the graduated approach in use, an ongoing cycle of assessing, planning, acting and reviewing, so support keeps pace with how a pupil’s needs change.

How to evidence Principle 2

• Training records show staff have been taught to recognise the barriers most common in your school’s context.
• Individual pupil records show the assess, plan, do, review cycle repeating over time (and with successful outcomes)
• Referrals to external specialists are logged, with the advice given and acted on recorded against them.

 

 

3: High-quality adaptive teaching with a curriculum designed for all learners

High-quality adaptive teaching belongs at the centre of your universal offer, consistently embedding inclusive practice into every classroom. Done well, it often removes the need for additional individual support, because a vulnerable pupil’s needs are identified and met quickly.

A strong leadership team draws on the curriculum, assessment systems, enrichment activities and working relationships across the school to remove barriers to learning and wellbeing for every pupil, especially those who are disadvantaged or vulnerable.

The adjustments your staff make should be judged by their lasting impact on a pupil’s academic and personal progress.

Examples of Principle 3 in action

• Time spent in lessons shows how adaptations are built into lesson design and delivery.
• CPD and coaching investment shows a marked improvement in adaptive teaching skills and confidence across the whole staff
• Adjustments for individual pupils carry review dates using their Individual Support Plan (ISP)
• Staff know their pupils well enough to adjust their approach mid-learning, drawing on the relationships they’ve built.

4: Enriching provision beyond the classroom that all children can access

Inclusion doesn’t stop at the classroom door. For vulnerable pupils, equal access to enrichment is often where a sense of belonging gets built.

Ofsted expects all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, to have equal access to and take part in relevant extra-curricular activities, and to benefit from high-quality personal development opportunities.

Examples of ways to evidence this principle

• Participation registers for extra-curricular activities are broken down by pupil group, showing how pupil voice has been used effectively to improve participation.
• Careers education records show which pupils have received guidance, and the impact this has
• Gaps in participation between pupil groups are identified and acted upon quickly.

 

 

5. A safe and respectful culture fostering belonging, attendance and participation

Belonging shows up in day-to-day pupil experience, and for vulnerable pupils it’s consistently linked to better attendance, behaviour and engagement. A calm, respectful environment, where staff-pupil relationships are nurtured, gives every pupil the conditions they need to attend, take part, and settle into school life.

Inspectors look for interventions well-matched and timed to the individual pupil, staff confident enough to adapt behaviour policy for those with specific needs, and adjustments that keep expectations high.

At the strongest end of this principle, pupils themselves describe feeling part of their school community.

How to evidence this in action

• Leaders can show whether attendance and behaviour improve for the pupils receiving support, and what they changed when an approach wasn’t working.
• Data on attendance and behaviour, broken down by pupil group, is used to adjust support available.
• Pupil voice on belonging is tracked across successive surveys, with leaders able to point to specific changes made in response to what pupils said.

6. Strong partnerships with families and wider services

Inclusion principle 6 looks at how schools and families work together, particularly when that relationship comes under strain.

Families are pushing for the best outcome for their child, and schools want the same, but are working within tight budgets and system pressures that families don’t always see. Wider external services are drawn on for expert advice, from speech and language therapists to educational psychologists, to identify and support a pupil’s needs.

Announced in the Schools White Paper, the government’s Experts at Hand service is intended to widen this access further, giving schools a shared pool of specialists to draw on regardless of whether a pupil has an EHC plan.

Inspectors want to see evidence of these strong partnerships in day-to-day practice, with pupils’ views carrying weight in what gets put in place for them.

Examples of evidence

• Leaders can show how a parent’s or specialist’s input changed a pupil’s support plan.
• Multi-agency work with social workers or the virtual school head is judged by whether a pupil’s outcomes moved, checked against what was agreed.
• Personal education plans are reviewed against the progress a pupil has made, with targets quickly adjusted where progress has stalled.

7. Inclusive environments with continuous improvements to accessibility

This principle covers more than the physical building. It’s about whether a pupil can get into a space (accessibility) and meaningfully use it once they’re there (interaction).

Access on its own doesn’t guarantee inclusion. A pupil might be physically present in a lesson, a lunch hall or an assembly without being able to take part in what’s happening around them in a way that helps them belong.

Ofsted’s own language distinguishes between the two. Inspectors check that any inclusion base supports pupils to participate meaningfully in wider school activities, and that timetabling decisions, such as part-time arrangements, stay short-term with a clear plan back to full-time education.

Your accessibility plan should be judged the same way, covering both what a pupil can access and how they can positively interact with their school day.

Ways to show evidence of this Principle

• Timetables and daily routines are checked for how easily a pupil can move between lessons, spaces and activities without extra strain.
• Any inclusion base is judged by whether pupils use it as a route into wider school life, tracked through their participation in lessons, social time and events beyond it.
• Leaders can show how a pupil’s day-to-day interaction with their environment has changed as adjustments are made, alongside the access those adjustments provide.

 

 

How IQM supports school inclusion

IQM’s Evaluative Framework assesses schools across 8 elements: inclusion values, leadership and accountability, curriculum, teaching and learning, assessment, behaviour and personal development, parents and carers, and links with the wider community.

Each of the framework’s elements maps directly onto the principles covered in this blog, from leadership and governance through to partnerships with families. Schools work through a Self-Evaluation Report against the Evaluative Framework, supported by IQM throughout, before a formal assessment visit from an IQM assessor and a full written report detailing the strengths and areas for improvement.

The Inclusive School Award lasts three years, with a renewal assessment built in to check that standards are sustained over time. Schools that continue to develop their practice can progress to Centre of Excellence and Flagship status.

IQM has worked with over 6,500 schools across the UK and internationally and is the only national provider of the Inclusive School Award.

Find out more about how IQM works with schools

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