Ed Balls is presenting a new series looking at the state of care homes in the UK.
Ed Balls: Care in Crisis (working title) will see the former politician return to Yorkshire to spend time in a mid-sized care home in Scarborough.
The two part series is being made by Expectation for BBC Two and comes after Balls saw his mother, who has dementia, move into a care home. He’s hoping to see what’s going wrong in the system and what can be done to improve it.
“The crisis in social care is deepening, and we need to work together to sort it now. Because my mum has dementia and lives in a care home I thought I knew what happened in them; but as I started to dig deeper into the realities of the issues that care workers face daily, I realised I’ve only ever scratched the surface,” he explained.
“Covid exposed and accelerated a long-term decline in this country’s provision for adult social care, but it’s also given us a chance to do something about it. It’s for our parents now and our children’s futures that we must take this chance to understand more about what’s needed and do something before it’s all too late.”
He’ll meet families, who’ll share their experiences of their sacrifices and struggles in dealing with a relative or parent in care. And he’ll travel beyond Yorkshire to see how individual care homes and councils have responded to the crisis in innovative ways.
Later in the series, he’ll speak to local and national government to discuss possible reforms.
“There couldn’t be a more pressing time to examine the crisis in elderly care, and there couldn’t be a better person to do it with than Ed,” said Executive Producer, Colin Barr.
“His willingness to immerse fully and explore with empathy, is what makes him unique. I know this subject is particularly close to his heart and he’ll pour everything into understanding the challenges facing staff, residents and families, as we emerge from Covid.”
