Andrew Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to local government funding on the delivery of the National Dementia Strategy.

Jane Ellison

On 21 February 2015, the Prime Minister launched his new Challenge on Dementia 2020, which builds on the achievements of the Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia 2012-2015. It sets out the vision for dementia care, support, awareness and research to be transformed by 2020.

Local authorities as well as clinical commissioning groups are responsible for funding and commissioning services based on their local population’s needs and ensuring that the services they secure provide the best quality for local people.

As part of the Spending Review, the Government announced that councils will be able to introduce a new social care precept. The social care precept gives local authorities that are facing significant pressures the freedom to raise council tax to help mitigate against these pressures. It puts money raising powers into the hands of local areas who best understand the need in their area and who are best placed to respond.

Further, the Spending Review set out the Government’s commitment to fund a Dementia Research Institute.