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Councillors fear the continued backlog could lead to long waits for the right care and even millions of pounds being spent on upheld complaints by the local government watchdog.

The council’s governance and ethics committee heard only two-thirds of the 3,600 planned annual education, health and care plan reviews have concluded on time this year.

The reviews are carried out for children and young people up to the age of 25 to work out their educational, health and social needs, such as therapy and schooling.

County Hall, Nottinghamshire Council's headquarters on the banks of the River Trent in West Bridgford.

Councils have a legal duty to review these plans at least every 12 months to ensure they are up-to-date, with the results and decisions published and updated within eight weeks of the review.

However, councillors have been told a third of Nottinghamshire children and young people with an EHCP have not seen their plan updated on time.

Staffing issues and difficulties with partner organisations have been blamed. Four new staff will be employed to tackle the backlog.

The authority aims to complete 80 per cent of reviews on time by the end of the year, meaning 720 children could still face delays.

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A council spokesman told the committee: “We are meeting timescales about 66 per cent of the time. We need to improve and have set a target of meeting the timescale 80 per cent of the time.”

It comes after the authority was told to pay £3,397 after it “failed to deliver all special educational needs provision” in an autistic child’s EHCP.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found the council also caused an “injustice” after it “failed to send a letter” with its plans after a review of the child’s EHCP.

Councillors said the decision could be repeated unless more reviews are completed on time.

Coun Philip Owen, committee chairman, said: “The improvement is only up to 80 per cent, which means one in five will still not be completed within statutory timescales.

“This is going to leave us vulnerable to ombudsman complaints on all of these and the award of compensation against us.”

If the same verdict was upheld for the two-thirds of cases not met this year, the authority would face compensation costs above £4m.

Hundreds of vulnerable Nottinghamshire children facing delays for care plan reviews