Are political parties doing enough to prioritise dementia in the General Election?

The recent publication of party manifestos marks a defining moment in the race to the polls. Party manifestos from across the political spectrum made a whole range of pledges on both health and social care but what does this mean for people living with dementia, and has the condition been adequately prioritised by political parties of all colours? 

During this General Election campaign, Alzheimer’s Society have been calling for candidates from all parties to acknowledge that dementia is the UK’s biggest killer and the greatest health and social care challenge we face in this country. We have asked for parties to commit to increase access to dementia diagnosis, to improve social care through a workforce strategy and mandatory dementia training, and to prepare the health system for new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. 

In this piece, I've reflected on what the manifesto pledges, taken collectively, say on the issues that affect the around 1 million people living with the condition across the UK.

Social care 

We’ve seen a range of pledges across party manifestos around social care including proposals to address pay and conditions in the workforce, moving towards a new way of funding social care, alongside reaffirming existing commitments around wider social care charging reform.  

Despite the inclusion of social care pledges in manifestos, there is not significant detail around the implementation of social care reform nor in all cases concrete plans confirming how pledges will be appropriately and sustainably funded against the backdrop of a very difficult economic landscape. This makes it difficult to assess the true potential impact of what is pledged.

Whoever forms the next government must deliver a social care system that’s set up to provide quality, personalised care, delivered by a well-trained and supported workforce. Though some manifestos did mention the social care workforce, they did not go into detail about specific training requirements. People with dementia make up around 60% of those who draw on homecare and 70% of older adults living in care homes, and so we want the next government to deliver a social care workforce strategy including mandatory dementia training, so that we have enough well-trained (to Tier 2 of the Dementia Training Standards Framework or equivalent) and supported staff to provide high quality care to everyone who needs it.

Diagnosis 

More than a third of people living with dementia in England and Northern Ireland and almost half of those living with dementia in Wales currently do not have a diagnosis, meaning they can't access the vital care, support and symptomatic treatment a diagnosis can unlock. Diagnosis is the start of the dementia pathway and it needs to happen early enough to ensure that people can plan for the future and get access to vital services, as well as being accurate enough to provide useful information about the type of dementia someone has.

People who have received a diagnosis report a wide range of benefits and, in fact, only 1% of people affected by dementia surveyed on behalf of Alzheimer’s Society in 2024 said they saw no benefit to getting a diagnosis. Despite these clear benefits of diagnosis to individuals and to the system as a whole, current spending on diagnosis and treatment is the equivalent of just 1.4% of the UK’s healthcare spending on dementia.

Broadly speaking, there were commitments from several parties aimed at improving diagnosis in general. These include commitments on increasing CT and MRI scanning capacity, which would go some way to speeding up dementia diagnosis and increasing access to brain scans. There were also pledges to improve early diagnosis and treatment, through measures such as increasing the number of available GPs and cutting down waiting times for assessments and treatment.

None of the manifesto commitments mention dementia diagnosis specifically. It’s vital that the next government does increase dementia diagnosis rates, as having large numbers of people living with undiagnosed dementia without access to support is not acceptable. An early action for an incoming government should be to set a new, ambitious but achievable, dementia diagnosis rate target, accompanied by funded plans to deliver early, accurate diagnosis at scale.

System Preparedness  

The potential of new Disease Modifying Treatments (DMTs) becoming available for the first time ever represents a defining moment for Alzheimer’s disease, but the reality is that a lot of preparation is needed to prepare the NHS to deliver breakthrough treatments if they become available.

So - have party manifestos proactively addressed this?

Overall, manifestos have made commitments which could help with the preparation of new treatments. An important part of preparing for new treatments is improving diagnosis and so the diagnosis pledges will be relevant. Some parties also made manifesto commitments to reform incentive structures to drive innovation and faster regulatory approval for new technology and medicines.

However, the reality is that if DMTs were approved tomorrow there would be significant barriers to access, which party manifesto pledges would only go so far in addressing.

To maximise the number of people able to access new treatments, we will need the next government to oversee the publication of a plan committing to significant investment to improve identification of dementia through the upscaling of amyloid-PET brain scans and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing, and the rapid roll out of new blood tests once they have been clinically validated.

Make dementia a priority once and for all 

We owe it to current and future generations of people living with dementia to get health and care systems right. The number of people living with dementia grows year-on-year and we know that 1 in 3 people born today will develop dementia. It is the biggest health and social care challenge we face in this country and, without a clear plan for action, dementia is a threat to the future sustainability of our health and social care system.

We have seen some specific references to dementia in the manifestos. We’ve seen dementia mentioned in relation to ensuring that Britain becomes a world leader in clinical trials, allowing more individuals to participate in trials via the NHS app, which aims to put Britain at the forefront of transforming treatment for dementia. We've also seen a recommitment to publishing and implementing the Major Conditions Strategy – of which dementia is one of six conditions covered. 

With dementia already costing the country £42bn and that cost set to rise throughout the next Parliament, all political parties must take bolder action to transform the way we think about and manage the condition. Alzheimer’s Society stands ready to be a critical friend to any future government to help ensure the voices and experiences of people living with dementia are heard and reflected in their policies.