Carers left disabled girl in park

Probe after alarm is raised

ballot, Herwiyani Homfray was chosen for the second year for her picture“Crail Fishing Boats”in mixed media on a textured mountboard.

The new session begins on Wednesday, September 21 and during the summer, members will experiment with some of the techniques learned over the past few months.

An organisation that cares for people with learning disabilities launched an internal inquiry after a resident was “left behind” during a trip to an Alloa park.

It happened on the afternoon of April 14 when a party from Camphill Blair Drummond, Cuthill Brae, Blair Drummond, were visiting West End Park.

Members of the public became aware and concerned of a “quite clearly disabled” young woman wandering alone in the park and called police.

According to a newspaper report, one of the ladies who helped the girl thought she had recognised one of the carers who had been in the park earlier.

The woman was able to contact the carer, who was on the bus at the time, and the carer said they were on their way back to pick up the girl.

Sandra Sabiston

One of those who witnessed the incident told the paper : “I never slept all night worrying about it and how someone could be so negligent. The girl could have walked on to a busy road in front of a lorry or a car.”

The woman, who has an autistic child herself, claimed that when the carers returned to pick up the child they “were laughing and joking with each other and the police”.

“I thought this is just horrendous,” said the woman. “I would like to think the carers would hold their hands up and say this was a one-off mistake and it will never happen again.”

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “We received a report of concern for a child around 4pm on Thursday 14 April.

“Officers attended at West End Park and no further action was required.”

Sandra Sabiston, assistant director at Camphill, said that following the incident an internal investigation by managers was “swiftly initiated”.

She added: “The relevant external agencies, including the care inspectorate, have been advised of the situation and are satisfied with the steps we have taken to address the issue.

“The welfare of the people we support is of the highest priority at Camphill Blair Drummond.

“Our latest care inspection report shows grades of excellent across all quality themes in our day and residential service.

“This was an isolated incident which we wholly regret and is entirely out of character with the usual high quality standard of support we provide.”