Putting dementia on the agenda at the 2024 party conferences

As this year’s party conference season comes to an end, we have been reflecting on the great progress that we have made to push dementia care up the political agenda in the first 100 days of the new Government. While we can’t fix dementia care overnight, campaigners like you have helped make a great start.

• 1,275 of you wrote to your newly elected MPs to tell them why transforming dementia care matters to you
• 2,120 of you asked your MP to meet Dementia UK one-to-one or at the Liberal Democrat, Labour or Conservative party conferences
• We met with over 150 MPs during the conferences, including Secretary of State Wes Streeting, health ministers and the shadow health team and are continuing to meet with more back in Westminster
• And we’re already seeing MPs posing questions to the Government about our recommendations for change

Every Autumn, the political party conferences are a huge opportunity for charities to raise awareness of the challenges impacting their communities and to grow support for positive change among ministers, MPs, councillors, and party members.

Over the past month, our Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns Team and dementia specialist Admiral Nurses have travelled to Brighton, Liverpool and Birmingham for the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative conferences with a clear message to all political parties: transforming dementia care must be on the Government’s agenda.

Your campaigning is making a huge difference

For the first time, we asked you to invite your MPs to meet us and we were amazed by the results. Thanks to Dementia UK supporters, we spoke to over 150 MPs and their staff members about the urgent need to transform dementia care, including the Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting MP, who we talked to about his plans to develop a 10-year plan for health to make the NHS ‘fit for the future’.

Many MPs we spoke to had received emails from Dementia UK supporters. Your support and actions have shown them how many people believe that dementia care must be a key priority for every political party. Thank you to everyone who supported us.

In our conversations with MPs, we shared four clear steps the Government must take to start fixing dementia care so that everyone affected by dementia can access the specialist care and support they need, when they need it.

These were created alongside people with lived experience of dementia and our Admiral Nurses, who support people affected by the condition every day.

1. Improve support at the point of diagnosis by increasing access to vital health reviews and specialist dementia nurses.
2. Review NHS continuing healthcare (CHC) funding to recognise the impact of dementia as a complex and long-term condition.
3. Increase the number of dementia specialist Admiral Nurses in hospital settings to improve health outcomes and reduce hospital stays for people with dementia.
4. Create a new pathway of age-appropriate support for people living with young-onset dementia, where symptoms occur before the age of 65.

At our conference stand, we also showed a powerful film where we asked people living with dementia what they would say if they had five minutes with our new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. You can watch it here.

The time to act is now

Today, nearly one million people in the UK are living with dementia.

Despite the incredible work of dedicated health and care professionals, including Dementia UK’s Admiral Nurses, too many families facing dementia are still missing out on the vital care they need to manage the condition’s complex challenges. Too often, they are left feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and alone.

The new Government has said it’s time to change our NHS – and transforming dementia care is the perfect place to start.

We know it won’t be easy, but with one in two of us set to be affected in our lifetime, we can’t afford to wait any longer. We need bold Government action now.

Thank you for your support in putting dementia on the political agenda. As MPs now return to Parliament, we will continue to engage with MPs up and down the country to deliver real change for everyone affected by dementia, now and into the future.

Whilst we know that not all MPs attend party conferences, we were extremely grateful to those who stopped by to talk to us about the importance of transforming dementia care.