Social care: The crisis Britain’s politicians are too scared to discuss
Voters may want social care to be on the ballot at the UK general election, but no one seems to be listening.
“They used to say Eastbourne was the place to go to die,” sighs a woman walking along the town’s main street.
A classic British seaside town, Eastbourne — 70 miles south of London, perched on the southern tip of Britain — is both beautiful and run down. White cliffs line the seafront, a tired arcade juts out upon the pier.
Eastbourne’s population is — there’s no sugarcoating it — old.
Around 25 percent of residents are aged 65 or over — far higher than the national average of 18.6 percent. In Eastbourne and the wider East Sussex area there are an estimated 69,000 unpaid carers looking after those in need. That means a national crisis which has long gripped the U.K. is keenly felt in this quiet, sun-struck corner of the south coast.
Britain’s adult social care sector has been in turmoil for as long as most can remember — soaring numbers of elderly people and chronic underfunding posing a public policy challenge met with a distinct lack of answers by several generations of politicians.
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