What we think about social care

Alarmingly, too few care staff are trained in dementia, impacting the quality of care. In England, data from Skills for Care shows that around a third of the workforce have received any form of dementia-specific training. In Northern Ireland and Wales, there’s currently no national data on dementia training uptake.  

Our recent survey of 3,487 people who are close to someone with dementia or living with symptoms across England, Wales and Northern Ireland identified that around a quarter are dissatisfied with the social care support that is available. When asked what the best opportunities for improvement for people whose lives are impacted by dementia, 56% of people said professional care workers who are more skilled in caring for those with dementia. 

Low levels of dementia training are concerning and negatively impact quality of care, as set out in the 2024 State of Care report by the Care Quality Commission. Our report Because we’re human too, shows that high quality dementia training for care staff delivers significant benefits to people living with dementia and their carers, to care staff and providers and the wider heath and care system. 

Governments in England, Wales and Northern Ireland must introduce a statutory duty for all care providers registered with the relevant regulatory body in each nation to ensure their care staff undertake dementia training. 

Content of the training must also align with the relevant national dementia frameworks and should be underpinned by sufficient funding.

National governments should also implement a long-term social care workforce strategy to foster a sustainable and supported workforce to deliver high-quality, personalised care. Strategies should include fair pay and a clear career development pathway.  

When commissioning adult social care services, local authorities in England and Wales, and Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland, should include a contractual provision obliging care providers to ensure care staff undertake dementia training mapped to the relevant national framework in each nation. 

When sourcing and implementing training, local authorities in England and Wales, Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland, and care providers should factor in all five key components for impactful dementia training. This are set out in our report ‘Because we’re human too: Why dementia training for care workers matters and how to deliver it’. This is in addition to ensuring that the content of the training is aligned with the relevant national framework in each nation.  

In our recent survey of people living with dementia and their carers across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, one in seven carers were not aware of any sources of support, while 46% don’t know who to contact to find out how to access social care support. Of those who know or care for someone living with dementia, just three in ten (31%) agree that social care support for dementia is easy to access.

With the challenges carers can face, dementia specific respite care - short-term residential care for people living with dementia - should let carers take breaks and manage their own wellbeing. Yet, only 23% of unpaid carers for people with dementia we recently surveyed reported to know about dementia specific respite breaks, and only 7% have used them.