Let me tell you about a young man called Sam. He lives in Manchester – although exists might be a better word, since he never leaves his bed in a darkened room at his mother’s home. Once, he was a bright boy who loved going to the gym and planned to study nutrition science at university. He is also autistic. And his sad story – which is far from unique – shows what happens when citizens are allowed to slip through the cracks of society, wasting their lives, along with taxpayers’ money and any possible contributions to the wider community. 

Sam’s tragic saga has political resonance given the Government’s proposed reform of the special educational needs (SEND) system, the constant claims about “overdiagnosis” of neurodivergence, the desire to curb disability benefit payments, and the rising number of Neets – young people who are not in education, employment or training. Westminster is desperate to cut all these costs. Meanwhile, autistic people have been caught in the crossfire of culture wars, accused of “hypersensitivity” if diagnosed in their teens and targeted for attack by the populist right.

Few critics bother to look beyond the headlines at the sordid reality for citizens failed by the state. And at the root of so many problems lie the corrosive failures of our Cinderella social care system. Earlier this month, Baroness Louise Casey – chairing the 22nd major review into this sector in three decades, as reform is delayed once again – described “a system which means some needs are........

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