Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) review and (b) update the NHS Continuing Healthcare guidance to ensure that mobility assessments fully consider the impact of severe dementia and other cognitive impairments on an person's care needs.

There are no plans to update NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) guidance regarding mobility assessments or specialist assessments by dementia nurses. The CHC assessment process is supported by the Decision Support Tool. This provides practitioners with a way to bring together and record an individual’s needs in the twelve ‘care domains’, including mobility. The assessment should consider the ways in which an individual’s needs interact with one another, for example how cognition impacts on mobility.

Eligibility for CHC is not determined by diagnosis or condition but is assessed on a case-by-case basis considering the totality of an individual’s needs, ensuring a person-centred approach. Someone with specialist knowledge of an individual’s condition, for example dementia, should be involved in the process. Assessments should take into account evidence from a comprehensive range of assessments relating to the individual. For individuals with dementia, this could include specialist assessments by dementia nurses.