More than 200 young people in Suffolk with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are still being 'held in limbo', new data has revealed.

The data was acquired through a Freedom of Information Request submitted by Emma Eveleigh, a Suffolk mom and Campaign for Change (Suffolk SEND) campaigner, in early April.

It revealed out of 523 young people who have Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and are due to transfer to a post-16 setting in September, 121 are still waiting to have their plan finalised.

On top of this, a further 86 have their plans finalised but have only been told a type of setting placements — mainstream or specialist schools — but still don't know where they will end up.

Ms Eveleigh said these 207 young people are being held in limbo as the statutory deadline for these to be finished is March 31.

She added: "The point is they should be done by the statutory deadline, these children need to have their transition set up.

"The children often need extra transition time so, for those who don't know where they're doing, it causes a lot of anxiety.

"Even when they do know, if they get their decision late, they might not have enough transition time and that could cause the whole placement to fail."

Asked if these young people would have a finalised post-16 setting ECHP by the time they were due to start school, a county council spokesperson said they were hoping to work through the remaining EHCPs by September.

The spokesperson added the council was improving when it came to meeting statutory timescales for the plans, with significant work underway to further improve the delivery of EHC needs assessments and plans in the future.

Statistics from late February showed the council delivering 17 per cent of ECHPs within their 20-week statutory deadline, compared to zero in June of last year — this bolstered by a £4.4 million investment into hiring some 46 new full-time staff over six months.

A similar FOI submitted by Ms Eveleigh last year also shows a decrease in the number of young people still waiting for their EHCPs to be finalised by the deadline, with 210 out of 452.

At the time, however, all 242 young people who had their plans finalised had a named destination, with none only having the type of setting they would be placed into.

Ms Eveleigh said this showed there hadn't been much difference in the past year despite a change of leadership in mid-February.

She added: I don't think families and young people can see any improvements at the moment."

"There could quite easily be young people and children who still don't have a named setting by September."