Ben watched nervously as the carer led his vulnerable brother Simon out of their flat and onto the busy London street.  

The short walk to the coffee shop was a highlight of Simon’s day and it was the carer’s job to make sure he enjoyed his usual hot chocolate and a warm brownie safely.

Simon, not his real name, is 28 and autistic. He also has epilepsy and psychosis. He cannot do anything for himself and has no sense of danger.

The brothers have forged a strong bond ever since their mother died of cancer in 2020, but Ben’s life has been on hold ever since.

He has had to quit his career in finance to look after Simon’s every need; washing, clothing, feeding him. Making sure he is safe.

And as the front door swung closed, Ben texted the carer one more time, to be on the safe side.

“Make sure to always stay close to him, especially when crossing the street,” he wrote.

The double tick of the WhatsApp message turned blue and the carer started typing. “Okay,” he replied.

But it would not be okay.

The person Ben had entrusted with his brother, the person whose job it was to care for him, failed him that day.

This is the story of what happened to Simon and what it might tell us about a social care industry in crisis, where councils are struggling to cope with demand – overspending by millions of pounds each year – and where the race to make savings could be putting vulnerable people at risk.

“There was knock on the door. Quite a frantic knock,” said Ben, recounting the events of that day in May.

“I went downstairs and realised it was Simon. He was sweating, huffing and puffing. Really upset. I looked into his eyes and could see that he was in a kind of sensory overload. I knew something was wrong.”

The carer was nowhere to be seen.

Simon, who should never be left alone, was right there on the doorstep. Alone.

Ben picked up his phone and messaged the carer. There was no reply. Then a few minutes later, the phone rang. It was the carer, sounding in a panic.

“Hello,” said Ben.

“I’m having an issue,” the carer said. “I went to the loo and asked him [Simon] to sit down and wait for me to come back.”

Ben could not believe what he was hearing. The carer had left Simon on his own in a busy coffee shop.

The carer continued: “I’ve searched everywhere.”

Ben said his brother wandered off when he realised no-one was with him. He left the coffee shop and turned onto the busy street.

Now completely alone, he crossed a busy road, with cars and buses all around him.

Then he walked alone for 15 minutes until he reached home.

Ben had so many questions, but in the months ahead he would struggle to get answers from the council and the care agency that supplied the carer.

Back in March 2024, Ben was told he could have a carer for 25 hours per week to help shoulder the pressure of looking after his brother.

His local authority, Camden Council, paid a provider called Hartwig Care.

Both Camden Council and Hartwig knew how vulnerable Simon was. It was all set out in a series of reports outlining his needs.

‘He could have been killed’

The first report was written by a social worker at the council, clearly stating Simon has “no road safety awareness and is at risk of wandering into the road if left unsupervised”.

The second report, written by a consultant neurologist, added: “Due to his cognitive disability, autism and epilepsy, he is not able to be alone without supervision.”

But on 1 May, the day the pair walked into the coffee shop, the carer sat Simon down and told him to stay where he was.

He then left him alone to go to the toilet, but when he returned Simon was nowhere to be seen.

It was a serious incident that Ben believes could have led to injury or even the death of his brother and calls into question the judgement and experience of the carer, who was costing the council £150 per day.

“The council said they would have to do an investigation. But I heard nothing back from the council,” said Ben.

A spokesperson for Camden Council said: “We would like to apologise to the resident and their family for the distress that this incident caused.

“Following this happening, we immediately began a safeguarding review with Hartwig to understand exactly what had happened and what they would do to ensure an incident like this does not happen in the future.”

Ben says: “The quality of care did not match the price that that they charged. And it just speaks to the greater issue about care in this country.”

A spokesperson for Hartwig Care said: “Due to client confidentiality, it is our policy not to provide comments on specific incidents involving our service users.

“However, we want to emphasise that client safety is always paramount in our service provision.”

Providers struggling to cope

Social care is at breaking point. Any council or care provider will tell you that.

The government knows it, which is why they have said they will reform social care and introduce a new National Care Service.

But the timetable for reform is unclear, despite councils appealing for more funding.

A staggering 81% of councils say they expect to overspend on their adult social care budgets this year, following a poll carried out by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care Services.

Nearly half (48%) of homecare providers say they cannot cope with current demand on services, according to the Homecare Association.

This could go some way to explain why complaints about adult social care, to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, have risen by a fifth since 2013.

Care minister Stephen Kinnock addressed delegates at the annual Children and Adult Social Care Conference in Liverpool recently.

He said the government was committed to reforming social care, but warned: “I’m not going to promise that change can be delivered overnight.”

The government knows social care reform will cost billions not millions at a time when public finances are in a fragile state.

Mr Kinnock told Sky News: “When we won the general election on the 4th of July, we inherited the worst fiscal environment since the Second World War. And so action has to be taken to get the public finances onto a stable footing.”

I suggested the government didn’t have the money to deliver on its promise to reform social care.

He said: “Until we fix the public finances we are not going to be in a position to invest properly in our public services. We’ve got to take it one step at a time.”

Government plans ‘unrealistic’

Melanie Williams, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care, described the government’s plan as “unrealistic” but said she remains “hopeful”.

She said the chancellor’s plan to hike national insurance contributions for employers would cost the social care sector and estimated £1.8bn.

“Providers have told us that they’re considering handing back services and some are saying they may have to exit the business,” she said.

“We know that reform will be expensive and require a long-term investment over time. But we need to make those small investments to get there.

“It is a big concern that there are so many priorities for government to face that they won’t be able to afford the changes.”

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Camden Council and Hartwig Care investigated the incident with Simon, but his brother Ben was not given a copy of the findings.

The council said the report had not been published online because the incident was “not serious enough”.

In August, Ben enlisted the help of a pro bono lawyer through a local disability charity who lodged a formal complaint with the council over its handling of the incident.

The council replied on 28 August and rejected the complaint, saying “the issues you have raised fall outside of our formal complaints process”.

Ben has been left with more questions than answers.

“I just want to know what happened and have confidence in knowing that it cannot happen again,” he says. “But I have been kept totally in the dark.”