When should therapies (such as speech and language therapy) be classed as special educational provision, and included in Section F?

R v Lancashire County Council ex parte M [1989] 2 FLR 279: Speech and language therapy can constitute special educational provision.

London Borough of Bromley v SENDIST and Others [1999] EWCA Civ 3038: There is a significant degree of overlap between what is educational and what is non-educational therapy. It was inappropriate to seek to impose a rigid demarcation between the two areas. In this case, physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy were all considered to be educational.

DC & DC v Hertfordshire County Council (SEN) [2016] UKUT 0379 (AAC): Therapies which train a child or young person to manage anxiety (such as cognitive behavioural therapy or mindfulness) can be considered special educational provision, but general psychological support to address mental health problems is unlikely to be educational as it does not involve instruction or training.

East Sussex County Council v TW [2016] UKUT 528: The First-tier Tribunal has the power to order any changes to educational provision in an EHC plan – it can add to the provision, amend it or remove it. Health and social care provision which educates or trains is ‘deemed’ to be special educational provision, and the First-tier Tribunal can order it to be moved to Section F. However it cannot order changes to health and social care provision which is not educational. (Note that from April 2018, the First-tier Tribunal will be able to make non-binding recommendations about the health and social care parts of the EHC plan.)