David Lawson successful in Upper Tribunal SEN appeal
8th January 2026
David Lawson successfully represented Hertfordshire County Council in the case of R & RK v Hertfordshire [2025] UKUT 381, an appeal about the complex and much disputed boundary between educational provision and healthcare provision. The issue has come before the courts and tribunals regularly since at least the 1990s. Education and health care provision fall under different statutory regimes, only one of which has an appeal mechanism.
The Upper Tribunal suggested that “the classification depends on how closely connected a provision is to the delivery of education” but noted that educational provision may also fulfil the function of treatment, meaning that a clear boundary is likely to be hard to find. The Upper Tribunal considered the order in which the various subsections of section 21 CFA 2014 should be applied, finding that the order in which they are considered might matter (at [42]-[43]) and suggesting practical ways to deal with the issue.
The decision can be found here.
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