Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the Alzheimer’s Society’s report entitled Because we’re human too: Why dementia training for care workers matters, and how to deliver it, published on 13 November 2024; and if he will make it his policy that adult social care staff should have mandatory dementia training.

The Department welcomes knowledge sharing across the sector and officials will consider the report in future policy development. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, care providers are required to provide sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled, and experienced staff to meet the needs of the people using the service.

We now have a national career framework for adult social care, the Care Workforce Pathway, which is linked to several existing competency frameworks, including the dementia training standards framework. The Department developed the pathway in partnership with Skills for Care, representatives from the adult social care workforce, and people who draw on care and support.

The Department has also launched a new Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification which links to outcomes in the Care Workforce Pathway. This contains the baseline knowledge required to provide quality care and will make sure that those who are starting out their careers in care have an informed awareness of dementia.