1. The National Dementia Declaration lists seven outcomes that the DAA are seeking to achieve for people with dementia and their carers. How would you describe your organisation’s role in delivering better outcomes for people with dementia and their carers?

Bury Council and Bury Clinical Commissioning Group are committed to delivering services that will transform the quality of life for people with dementia and their carers. We have a statutory responsibility to effectively commission local health and social care services for our population, this includes: diagnosis, treatments, access to information, social care and carers assessments of need, commissioning and quality monitoring of support services. The strategic and operational plans of both organisations reflect the importance of dementia. 

Our joint vision is through working in partnership with health, social care, the third sector and people with dementia and their carers, we will develop quality, person centred services which are locally accessible and responsive. As public service providers we have role to play in enabling people with dementia to live in an enabling and supportive environment where they feel valued and understood and have a sense of belonging, to this end, we are also committed to making Bury a dementia friendly town.

2. What are the challenges to delivering these outcomes from the perspective of your organisation?

A key challenge is to reduce stigma and misconceptions around dementia across services and the wider community, making people aware that dementia is everybody’s business. This will be a key challenge in our attempt to make Bury a more dementia friendly town.

The changing health and social care landscape and integration provides both an opportunity and a challenge. However, with decreasing budgets and increases in demand (+20% increase in the number of people with dementia by 2020) this will make it difficult to invest in new or non-essential services.