Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that those living with Dementia who have been offered a covid-19 vaccine are supported to arrive at their scheduled appointment; and what steps his Department is taking to follow up with dementia suffers who miss covid-19 vaccine appointments.

A number of steps have been taken to ensure those living with dementia have been offered a COVID-19 vaccine and are supported to arrive at their scheduled appointment, which are outlined in a Standard Operating Procedure published by NHS England and NHS Improvement.

This states that under the Equalities Act 2010, people with a learning disability or health condition that has a substantial and long-term effect on day-to-day activities are entitled to reasonable adjustments when accessing health services. This means that steps must be taken to remove or minimise the barriers that individuals with serious mental illness (SMI), dementia, a learning disability or autistic people may face in accessing the vaccine.

Most people with a SMI, dementia, learning disability or autism will be able to receive their vaccine in the standard way. However, for the minority of individuals where this is not suitable, reasonable adjustments should be determined in advance of the vaccine provision, centred around individual needs to minimise discomfort or distress.