Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to increase the (a) number of specialists in and (b) level of training on young onset dementia in memory assessment services.

We recognise that those with young onset dementia who draw on care and support have different ambitions and face different challenges to older age adults.

The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services, including the detection and diagnosis of dementia, and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services.

Under Care Quality Commission Regulation 18: Staffing, persons employed by the service provider in the provision of a regulated activity must receive such appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision, and appraisal as is necessary to enable them to carry out the duties they are employed to perform. This would include receiving appropriate support to carry out duties linked to young onset dementia.

The required training needs are set out in the Dementia Training Standards Framework, commissioned and funded by the Department and developed in collaboration with the sector, which is available at the following link:

https://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/info-hub/dementia-2015-updated-2018/