Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Modern Service Framework for Palliative and End of Life Care will include condition specific measures to address the palliative and end of life care needs of people living with dementia.

We are working closely with a range of stakeholders, including Dementia UK, on the development of the Modern Service Framework (MSF) for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care. We recently published an interim update on the MSF, which is available at the following link:

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-06-04/hcws88

The MSF will provide a clinically led, evidence-based framework to support sustained improvement in patient and carer outcomes, including for those with dementia, by reducing both inequality and unwarranted variation.

We recognise that high-quality palliative care and end-of-life care should include the opportunity for individuals to discuss their wishes and preferences so that these can be taken fully into account in the provision of their future care, also known as advance care planning (ACP).

In order to facilitate a consistent national approach to ACP, NHS England has published Universal Principles for ACP, which are available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/universal-principles-for-advance-care-planning/

Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance on dementia includes recommendations on ACP and involving people living with dementia in decisions about their care. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng97

Timely and equitable identification of palliative care and end-of-life care needs will be a key element of the MSF. NHS England and the Department are working closely with other teams who developing MSFs, including on Frailty and Dementia, alongside a wide range of stakeholders on the development of the MSF, looking at how we can enable more proactive assessment of palliative care need and subsequent access to services and personalised care and support, including ACP.