08.135 Where a CYP requires SEP outside the school day does that necessarily mean they require a residential placement?
Noddy No-nonsense Guide
Authors: David Wolfe KC, Leon Glenister
25 Feb 2026
A: SenseCheck
- 0 Yes
- 1 No
- 0 Other
- 25 Feb 2026
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No
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Complex
No. The mere fact a CYP requires SEP outside of the school day does not necessarily mean they require a residential placement. It is important to ensure that the specific SEP required is set out in Section F, and the question then is whether that requires a residential provision to deliver it. As noted in LB Southwark v WE [2021] UKUT 241 (AAC) #28, independent living skills “may be best acquired outside a formal educational setting and therefore where “better to learn such skills than when attempting to live independently?” – i.e. where a young person is learning living skills, that may require an extended day curriculum but not require a residential placement.
Where the extended day programme arises due to a high need for consistency, the question to be asked is whether the “need for a consistent program was such that [the CYP’s] education could not reasonably be provided unless accommodated on the site where [the child] was educated”: Hampshire CC v JP [2009] UKUT 239 (AAC)#29, Westminster CC v FTT [2023] UKUT 177 (AAC) #128, #132.
When finding an educational need for a residential placement, the FTT needs to clearly to explain its finding that out of school hours SEP was required: Essex CC v DH (SEN) [2016] UKUT 463 (AAC)
25 Feb 2026
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