Dementia Care and Research

Thank you for contacting me about dementia care.

I believe that increasing public awareness and understanding of dementia among the wider public is vital to ensure that people are supported to live well with the condition. 

Research is crucial to understanding and tackling dementia. Under the Challenge on Dementia 2020 strategy, the Government's commitment to spend over £300 million on dementia research between 2015 and 2020 was met a year early, with £341 million being spent by March 2019. The Government is also supporting the £79 million Accelerating Detection of Disease challenge, a project bringing together the NHS, industry and leading charities to support research into the early diagnosis of disease, including dementia. 

I know that the Government remains committed to research to combat dementia, and will shortly lay out plans for supporting people with dementia in England up to 2025 - I look forward to seeing these plans and funding commitments at the next Spending Review. I will work with my colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that the manifesto commitment to double research funding to over £160 million each year by 2030 is delivered as swiftly as is possible. 

I support the Government's commitment to tackling these problems head on, and its goal of creating a sustainable adult care system that is fit for the future. An extra £36 billion will be invested in the health and care system over the next three years, including £5.4 billion in adult social care, to ensure it has the resources it needs to recover from the pandemic. Further, the Government announced a landmark £33.9 billion for the NHS by 2023/24 to secure the long term future of our NHS.

I am grateful to constituents who wrote to me about the Alzheimer's Society's Dementia Diagnosis Reception for Dementia Action Week. Whilst I am unable to attend the event due to prior commitments, I commend the excellent work of the Alzheimer's Society in this important field. 

For those who have contacted me about the timeline for the Government's 10-Year Plan for Dementia, I have been reassured that ministers are committed to publishing the plan as soon as possible. The 10-Year Plan will include plans to increase research funding for dementia and deliver an ambitious 'moonshot'. It will focus on the specific health needs of people with dementia and their carers covering prevention, diagnosis and research. It will also look at how new technology can be used to improve outcomes for dementia patients across the country.