A CARE service has been castigated after a young female with learning disabilities was left behind by her carers at an Alloa park.

Late last Thursday afternoon, members of the public became aware of the lone and “quite clearly disabled” girl, who looked to be around 14-15-years-old, in the West End Park.

The group of concerned people looked after the “non-verbal” girl, who had no means of communication, for around an hour after she was found wandering around.

Police were alerted and one of the people called their friend, whose partner was one of the carers.

Alloa resident Claire McKay, 37, witnessed the incident and said there were two other ladies and a man who all helped the girl.

She explained that just by “pure coincidence” one of the ladies thought she recognised on of the carers in the park earlier and made a phone call.

Ms McKay, who has an autistic child herself, was told the person works at Camphill Blair Drummond, “a supportive community for adults with learning disabilities to live, learn, work and relax”.

It is understood carers were taking the residents out for a day and the charity-run organisation said it “wholly regrets” the “isolated incident”.

Ms McKay explained: “As far as I am aware, she got hold of the actual carer, who was on the bus at the time, and she said they are on their way back for her.

She said the incident was “terrible” adding: “Especially for such a vulnerable child, who had no means of communication at all.”

The 37-year-old mother-of-three said “it just does not bear thinking about it”, especially because she has a vulnerable child herself, adding she was “shaking like a leaf in the park“ and was sick to her stomach.

She continued: “It was just horrendous, I literally never slept all night worrying about it and how anybody could be so negligent is just beyond belief.

“Without over-dramatising it, I really think that that could have been a life or death situation, because that girl could have just walked straight onto that busy road in front of a lorry, a car, or anybody, like I say, there could have been anyone in that park that could have been away with her.

“She was quite clearly disabled.

“I wondered whether I should maybe put her in my car to [warm] her up, but I did not know whether that was the correct thing to do, or whether that would just make her worse.

“It was a horrible position to be in, just not knowing what to do for the best.

“I would just like to think that [the carers] would hold their hands up and say: 'Look, this was a one-off mistake that should never have happened and we are really sorry and it will never happen again'.”

Sandra Sabiston, assistant director at Camphill, told the Advertiser: “An internal investigation was swiftly initiated by our managers in relation to the incident to which you refer.

“The relevant external agencies, including the Care Inspectorate, have been advised of the situation and are satisfied with the steps we have taken to date 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.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson confirmed officers attended the scene. They said: “We received a report of concern for a child around 4pm on Thursday, April 14.

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