Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress NHS England is making on the steps it is taking to engage with representatives of dementia organisations.

NHS England regularly engages with dementia organisations and stakeholders on the delivery of NHS Long Term Plan’s commitments. In addition to planned meetings and events, NHS England engages with Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Research UK and others on an ad hoc basis. It has endorsed Alzheimer’s Society’s revised dementia guide and delivered a joint webinar on the integration of dementia services.

During the pandemic, NHS England worked with Alzheimer’s Society to launch the Dementia Change Action Network website for those living with dementia and continues to engage with people with lived experience to design and shape services, guidance and policy. NHS England and NHS Improvement also commissioned resources to support memory services, developed with input from people living with dementia and their carers. This includes an e-learning course to support memory services managing a change in practice, to ensure the delivery of a personalised assessment and diagnosis; and a guide to supporting continuous development, improvement and innovation in memory services.