Nottinghamshire Council handed second major fine over delays to vulnerable children’s care plan reviews

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.

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 council governance and ethics committee meeting about a similar case, which also led to the council paying £3,397 to a parent.

Councillors said the issue must be addressed amid 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 annually.

However, the committee’s March meeting heard just two-thirds of the 3,600 scheduled reviews had been conducted on time this year.

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

Councillors said this could mean the authority paying as much as £2.45 million in compensation if similar complaints were upheld.

Now a meeting of the same committee has been told another, similar complaint has 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, alongside a “symbolic payment” of £2,400 to “acknowledge” the implications of the delay between October 2021 and April 2022, and April-December 2022, 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”.

Coun Johno Lee, told the latest committee meeting, said: “I’m concerned about the cost affected to this council if we do not meet our targets – it is going to hit us financially.”

Coun Richard Butler said: “It’s worrying if we’re facing more fines as well as reputational challenges.”

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, council service director for education, learning and inclusion, said: “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.”