Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to support people living with dementia in the (a) community and (b) care system.

Dementia is a key priority for this Government and we are committed to ensuring people with dementia and their carers receive the best possible care in all care settings. That is why in 2012 we launched the first ever Prime Minister’s Challenge on dementia to increase diagnosis rates, raise awareness and understanding and double funding for research in dementia by 2015.

Recently a number of steps have been taken to support people living with dementia in the community and in the care system including:

- We are aiming for 75 dementia-friendly communities by March 2015. 70 communities across England have signed up to the national Dementia Friendly Communities recognition process, with an increased ambition to reach 75 by March 2015.

- In the hospital setting, through the Dementia Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) reward (introduced from April 2012), with around 4,000 referrals a month, it is clear that more people with dementia in hospitals are being identified and assessed. Between April 2013 and June 2014 there have been 59,961 referrals as a result of the introduction of this CQUIN goal.

- We have made available £50 million capital funding for 2013-14 for the NHS and local authorities to work with providers to create better care environments to help people with dementia live well with the condition. The projects are now in the process of being evaluated and we will disseminate the key recommendations by the end of the year.

- On 1 April 2014 we put in place a new Dementia Directed Enhanced Service, which has had over 80% take up by general practitioners (GPs) to reward practices for facilitating timely diagnosis and support for people with dementia.

- The Government’s refreshed Mandate to Health Education England, published on 1 May 2014, builds on the existing ambition to have 100,000 NHS staff receive Tier 1 training on dementia by setting an ambition for a further 250,000 NHS staff to receive Tier 1 training on dementia by March 2015, with the tools and training opportunities being made available to all staff by the end of 2018.

- Over 200,000 NHS staff have already received foundation level training with a cumulative target of 359,000 to have completed dementia awareness training by March 2015.

- On 7 May 2014 Public Health England and the Alzheimer’s Society launched a major new campaign with the aim of securing one million people to become dementia friends by March 2015. The campaign is aimed at improving understanding and attitudes about dementia and towards people with the condition. There are currently over 520,000 Dementia Friends.

- On 10 September 2014 NHS England published a new Dementia Toolkit aimed at helping GPs making a more timely diagnosis and what they can do in terms of vital post-diagnostic support.

- On 3 October 2014 NHS England announced that £5 million will be made available to fund an additional enhanced service for GPs to run between October 2014 and March 2015 to drive improvements in dementia diagnosis.