Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve dementia care and support for families post-diagnosis in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) other rural areas.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision of dementia care services. NHS England expects ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, and supports them with relevant resources, such as the recently updated RightCare scenario for dementia.

Lincolnshire is committed to continuing to look at how it can improve its offer to support the local population, following a diagnosis of dementia. The ICB is developing plans for a dedicated standalone service which will increase its capacity to offer support before, during, and after diagnosis.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has been commissioned by NHS England to develop a tool for local health systems to support investigation of the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates. This includes the assessment of underlying population characteristics, such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. The aim of this work is to provide context for variation, and to enable targeted investigation and provision of support at a local level to enhance diagnosis rates. The tool has been released, and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.