Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure there are adequate numbers of NHS staff to care for people with dementia and what estimate he has made of the number of staff that will be required in each of the next 5 years

Given the range of professions which might support a person with dementia, which includes therapists, general practitioners, consultants, psychiatrists, and social care staff, we have not made any central estimates of the number of staff that will be required to care for people with dementia in the next five years. At a national level, we have published a Dementia Core Skills Education and Training Framework, launched in October 2015, to help ensure staff have the right skills. The Framework was commissioned and funded by the Department and developed by Skills for Health and Health Education England (HEE) in partnership with Skills for Care. Development of the framework was guided by an Expert Group including a wide range of health and social care organisations, relevant Royal Colleges and education providers.

The Framework sets out the core skills and knowledge which would be transferable and applicable across different types of service provision for people with dementia. It includes expected learning outcomes for training delivery, key policy and legal references and is aligned to related national occupational standards. The Framework is intended to ensure the quality and consistency of dementia training, and to help prevent unnecessary duplication of training.

Under the Government’s mandate to HEE, HEE will ensure that Tier 1 (awareness raising) dementia training opportunities and tools are available to all National Health Service staff by the end of 2018. Within the Government’s Dementia 2020 Challenge we are considering how to extend tier 2 training to all staff across health and care settings who are involved in care for people with dementia.