Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to ensure dementia training is provided to all health and social care professionals.

It is the responsibility of individual employers to ensure that their staff are appropriately trained and competent to fulfil the responsibilities of the role.

To support a consistent approach to dementia education and training, the Department commissioned Skills for Health and Health Education England to develop a Core Skills Education and Training Framework. Published in October 2015, the Framework, which sets out the essential skills and knowledge needed for all staff working with people with dementia in health and social care settings, is structured in three tiers, or levels of training, to reflect the different levels of knowledge specific roles would require.

The Government’s Dementia 2020 Challenge and associated implementation plan describes a programme of action to deliver sustained improvements in dementia care and set the expectation that social care providers deliver appropriate training on dementia to all relevant staff by 2020 to improve the care of people with the condition. As part of the implementation of the Dementia 2020 Challenge, we are considering how best to extend Tier two training to all relevant staff across health and care settings.