Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with dementia are routinely offered the option of taking part in research.

The Government is strongly committed to supporting research into dementia. Join Dementia Research (JDR), delivered by the Department via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and in partnership with Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer Scotland and Alzheimer’s Research UK, is our main tool for enabling people to register their interest in dementia research and be matched to trials. The goal is to improve participation and diversity in dementia research by making it possible for anyone who wants to be involved in dementia research to get the chance to do so.

To increase uptake and awareness of research opportunities, the NIHR is undertaking several actions, including, direct text messaging from general practitioners to patients at selected sites across England, establishing links with NHS Memory Services and other care networks to integrate discussion of JDR into their processes, working with the NHS Admiral Nurses to develop training materials to support healthcare professionals when discussing research with patients and working to establish a national network of local JDR champions who will build on relationships with local organisations, charities and local groups representing under-represented communities to engage people with JDR.