As Dementia Action Week draws to a close, Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock, reflects on progress to date and the advances yet to come. A focus on improving quality of life
I recently had the honour to attend an Alzheimer’s Society event with many experts in health and social care, people with lived experience of dementia, and leaders in the diagnostics and research space.
Alzheimer’s Society does vital work and their continued engagement is something we are incredibly grateful for.
The independent commission into adult social care is underway as part of critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.
Baroness Casey has engaged extensively across the country with people with experience of the care system and many of you will have heard or read her speech at the Nuffield Trust Summit on 5 March.
You may wonder how this assessment was met by this government.
I would like to tell you all today that I was extremely pleased to hear the focus on improving the lives of those living with dementia, their families and carers.
We are grateful for Baroness Casey’s reflections and for the opportunity to build upon her recommendations.
"We want all health and care staff to have received appropriate training to provide high quality care to people with dementia." [Image created by freepik.com] Modern Service FrameworkI welcome the challenge to deliver faster progress on the Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia, to introduce a new, full-time Dementia Tsar and to scale up investment in dementia trials.
The framework will deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity and will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with frailty and dementia .
It will set national standards for dementia care and redirect NHS priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
As part of development of the MFramework, we will consider what interventions should be supported to improve dementia care and diagnosis waiting times, which we know are too long in many areas.
We are considering all options to improve care and help reduce variation, including reviewing metrics and targets.
We will continue to engage with a range of partners over the coming months, including Alzheimer’s Society, to enable us to build a framework which is both ambitious and practical, to ensure we can improve system performance for people with dementia and frailty both now and in the future.
The Frailty & Dementia Modern Service Framework Task and Finish Group is an advisory body to offer insight and guidance, helping to shape the Modern Service Framework for frailty and dementia by drawing on expertise from across the health and care system. Meetings have been occurring monthly, with the first meeting taking place on 25 March.
We will publish the framework by the end of this calendar year, as recommended by Baroness Casey. We are also committed to publishing an interim product in September this year to feed into NHS and local government planning cycles. We look forward to the Commission’s phase 1 report to inform the development of the framework.
"The UK is home to world leading experts in dementia research, supported through government funding for major initiatives such as the UK Dementia Research Institute and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres." [Image created by freepik.com] Training and researchWe want all health and care staff to have received appropriate training to provide high quality care to people with dementia.
DHSC launched the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme in September 2024, providing funding for eligible care staff to undertake courses and qualifications, including the new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate. It includes multiple courses focused on dementia.
The UK is home to world leading experts in dementia research, supported through government funding for major initiatives such as the UK Dementia Research Institute and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres.
The Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme now has up to £150 million of associated funding to deliver its objectives of accelerating innovations in biomarkers, clinical trials and implementation.
Of this funding, £33 million has already been committed to a series of initiatives, funding biomarker innovation, testing and validation projects which could support improved diagnosis, if validated for clinical use.
As part of the programme, government intends to establish the ‘Neurodegeneration Initiative’ which will be a globally unique, not-for-profit, industry led public-private partnership that will work together across government, industry, academia, the NHS and third sector, to deliver the programmes objectives.
This will enable faster set-up and running of clinical trials to make sure more treatments are developed and made available to patients sooner.
We are also investing in the research and development Missions Accelerator Programme (MAP).
The dementia challenge is to work with industry and academia to identify, develop, validate and implement innovations for the NHS and wider social care settings so that, by 2029, at least 92% of patients referred for dementia assessment receive a diagnosis within 18 weeks of referral.
Currently, up to £2m of the R&D MAP Health Challenge funding will be associated with the dementia challenge.
The Department of Health and Social Care, via the National Institute for Health and Care Research, has also invested nearly £50 million in the UK Dementia Trials Network, which seeks to accelerate the delivery of early-phase dementia trials across the UK.
We support the need for strong and meaningful leadership in such an important area of work. As part of the new Department for Health and Social care, we will ensure there is a new dementia leadership role.
This role will have national responsibility for driving forward the prevention, treatment and care of dementia, including fulfilling the Government’s manifesto commitment to put Britain at the forefront of transforming treatment for dementia.
We will consider how best to empower this role to provide the necessary leadership and accountability suggested by Baroness Casey, including lessons learned from the Cancer Tsar role.
We have made improving care for people living with dementia a clear priority and we are striving to make a real difference. We know that it will not be easy and that there is much work to be done, but together I know we can make the change needed to support those living with frailty and dementia and their carers, family and loved ones.
https://socialcare.blog.gov.uk/2026/05/22/creating-hope-improving-dementia-care-and-research/
seen at 18:38, 22 May in Social care.