Nottinghamshire County Council has again been fined thousands of pounds for not completing a vulnerable child's care plan review on time.

It's the second time in a matter of months the Conservative-run authority has faced a fine over continued delays to education, health and care plans (ECHP).

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld a complaint against the council over the delay to an unnamed child's plan between 2021 and 2022.

The watchdog hit the council with a £2,700 bill and found it caused distress and harm to both the child and their family.

It follows concerns at the authority's March governance and ethics committee about a similar case, which also led to the council paying £3,397 to a parent.

Councillors said the issue must be addressed amidst a backlog in ECHPs, which are carried out for children and young people up to the age of 25.

The plans work out their educational, health and social needs and can organise extra support, such as occupational or physiotherapy, to meet those needs.

Local councils have a legal duty to review these plans at least every 12 months to ensure they are up-to-date.

The results and decisions must then be published and updated within eight weeks of the review taking place.

However, the March meeting heard hundreds of vulnerable children could be left without up-to-date plans if a backlog in ECHP reviews is not addressed.

Just two-thirds of the 3,600 scheduled reviews had been conducted on time this year, the March meeting was told.

The authority was aiming at the time to increase this number to 80 per cent, which would still leave 720 vulnerable children waiting for their plan review.

Councillors said this could mean the authority has to pay as much as £2.45m in compensation if similar watchdog complaints were upheld.

Now a meeting of the same committee has been told another, similar complaint has since been upheld by the ombudsman.

The latest complaint related to the child receiving a "loss of provision" in their plan due to the delay in reviewing its contents.

The council was told to pay the child's mother £300 for the "frustration and time and trouble" caused by the delay.

A 'symbolic payment' of £2,400 was also ordered to "acknowledge" the implications of the delay between October 2021 and April 2022, and then from April to December once it had been reviewed.

The watchdog said the authority must "provide evidence of actions it is taking to increase capacity and reduce waiting times" across the county.

The second upheld complaint was discussed by the governance and ethics committee on May 3 and councillors again raised fears about the backlog.

Councillor Johno Lee (Con), vice-chairman of the committee, said: "It doesn't sound to me that much has changed since the last meeting.

"I'm really concerned [about] the cost affected to this council if we do not meet our targets – it is going to hit us financially."

Cllr Richard Butler (Con), who represents Cotgrave, added: "If we carry on with this and enable more such problems in the future, it's rather worrying if we're facing more fines as well as reputational challenges.

"I know everyone is trying really hard but anything we can do to up recruitment and keep on top of this, the better. I do appreciate it is a difficult one."

Council officers told the committee many of the problems are the result of recruitment difficulties and the wider ECHP backlog is a national problem.

The authority is now aiming to complete 100 per cent of the planned reviews as soon as possible and officers say they will report back with an update in September.

Peter McConnochie, the council's service director for education, learning and inclusion, told the meeting: "We can't put a definitive timescale on it, given the complexity.

"We are clearly not delivering within the timescales required and it's of the utmost importance we address that.

"We apologise and we do inform parents of the difficulties we are facing. We need to see a reduction in the demand as well as increasing capacity to improve the timeliness.

"We are setting a target of 100 per cent because that's where we need to be to fulfil our obligations. It's a continually moving picture."