the Cumbria community trying to fill void left by social care crisis

Villagers of Staveley want to turn closed care home into new facility for older people but have run into council roadblock

• Shortfall of £2.3bn a year in England’s care homes ‘putting people at risk’

Hospitals are clogged with patients fit for discharge with nowhere to go; care workers are quitting for better pay; almost one in five people aged 70 and over are lonely. Amid reports of dismal care standards, the government’s plan to “fix social care” has been postponed. Growing old in England feels increasingly precarious.

But in the Lake District, a village of 1,500 people has decided to fight back. What the citizens of Staveley have planned may create a template to be repeated nationwide.