The LTA's Disability Plan was published on 12 December 2022.

To support the publication of the Inclusion strategy, the LTA have produced a video titled ‘Everyday Inclusion – It’s Just Tennis’ featuring contributions from members of the IDEA Group and the wider tennis community, speaking in their own words about inclusion in tennis.

Suffolk LTA shares the LTA’s vision for Tennis Opened Up and truly open to all. We want to ensure that everyone in Suffolk has the opportunity to engage and participate in tennis, no matter their disability/ability, background, ethnicity or gender. The County's Disability Strategy can be found here. We will support coaches and venues, to help make this vision a reality. To support coaches:

• We are creating an Inclusive Tennis Network for coaches delivering ,or interested in delivering, inclusive tennis sessions. The aim of the network will be to provide an opportunity to connect, network, receive relevant updates regarding disability tennis, and to share best practice. This will strengthen and grow the knowledge and skills we have in Suffolk.
• We hope that links with specific impairment sessions can be formed to help create opportunities for informal friendly competition, leading to participants competing in formal LTA competitions and supporting local disability events such as the Framlingham Tennis Tournament
• Throughout the year we will also provide CPD opportunities to enable coaches to become a highly skilled workforce within disability tennis.
• Finally, through the LTA Open Court Programme and accessing other available funding we want to invest in programmes that share the same vision of ‘tennis opened up’. This could be funding to help cover start-up costs to get your sessions up and running so that you have time to make the sessions sustainable in the long term. Some examples of sessions that have already been successfully supported through either funding or additional coach mentoring include walking tennis, sessions targeting those with long term health conditions, learning disability sessions, and projects that support those from low-income families.

Coaches play an essential role in ensuring everyone's experiences of tennis are positive and meaningful, so we want you to feel supported in removing some of the barriers people face. Please do not hesitate to get in touch about any project ideas or any other ways we can support you as a coach or as a club.

Emily Stebbings