I was struck by the findings of our 2025 report on health and social care support for people with dementia. The number of people being diagnosed is increasing, with the economic impact forecast to rise from £42bn to £90bn in the next 15 years.
Our report highlighted many of the challenges facing people with dementia, as well as their family and carers. The scale of the issue is reflected in Baroness Casey’s Independent Commission on Adult Social Care and her decision to ask Government to take immediate action on dementia.
At CQC, we are determined to play our part in making sure that people with dementia receive care that is safe, effective, compassionate and high quality. As well as highlighting the challenges, our report also includes many positive examples of health and social care services that actively seek to understand the people they support.
As part of our dementia strategy, we commissioned a review of good practice in supporting people with dementia, which is published by UK and worldwide universities and organisations in health and social care. The review included three discussion groups with experts, other regulators of health and social care and people with lived experience of dementia or caring for someone with dementia.
The resulting research report, published in March, highlighted how person-led care places greater emphasis on consistency and giving people control, choice and confidence.
The report highlighted areas of good practice, including:
- Making care plans together with people who have dementia and their families and carers – not for them.
- Providing social interaction and structured, meaningful and inclusive activities, which not only support wellbeing but also reduce symptoms of dementia.
- Enabling opportunities for people to feel part of a community, which helps people to continue to exercise choice and control in their lives.
- Supporting people to keep doing things that were important to them in smaller-scale, home-like settings, which helped maintain a strong sense of ‘home’.
- Where possible, respecting people’s preferences to be supported by someone who can speak their first language and relate culturally with them, which can help maintain trust, identity and a sense of belonging.
We will use these findings to develop guidance for health and social care providers on the best ways to care for people with dementia. We will do this by having conversations with people who have lived experience, charities and support organisations, and stakeholders with dementia expertise. We will start to co-produce this guidance from autumn 2026.
Good practice in action
Our assessment reports emphasise the importance of following good practice. We were pleased to again rate Home Instead – Eastbourne and Hailsham as ‘outstanding’ earlier this year. The service specialises in care for people living with dementia.
The genuinely person-centred culture fostered there shone through, with staff clearly understanding what mattered most to people, going above and beyond to enhance their lives. This high standard was made possible by strong leadership, thorough and effective systems and processes, and excellent support for staff.
People were thoughtfully matched with staff who shared similar interests and were supported by the same members of staff wherever possible, creating a culture of trust. Relatives told us this consistency significantly reduced anxiety and distress for their loved one living with dementia. This commitment to embedding good practice has a tangible and positive impact on people’s quality of life.
Making good practice clearer
We have now published our draft assessment framework for adult social care, which includes draft characteristics of each of our four ratings. As you read this, we will have begun our series of in-person engagement events to discuss your feedback on the draft framework. I hope you will recognise in the drafts the feedback we have incorporated from our consultation process.
I am confident that we are now working towards a much clearer framework. We have replaced the 34 quality statements with 24 key lines of enquiry (KLOEs). Coupled with the new ratings characteristics, which outline what we expect to see for each level of rating in each KLOE, we are moving towards a much clearer, practical and shared understanding of what good practice looks like. Please do contribute to this next stage of consultation.
Click here to read CQC’s report on health and social care support for people with dementia and here for its good practice in supporting people with dementia report.
Chris Badger is Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care at CQC. Email: [email protected] X: @CQCProf