Commissioners of health and care services will benefit from having a clear understanding of dementia workforce needs and competences in providing quality care for people with dementia and their carers in order to assure quality, safety, effectiveness, and value for money.
Person-centred services require commissioning to widen the scope of delivery opportunities looking outside of traditional service boundaries and delivery models.
It is important to ensure the right people, with the right skills are undertaking the functions and support needed by people with dementia and their carers/families.
However recruiting and training a skilled and compassionate workforce to care for people with dementia has become a serious challenge (Bowers 2008, APPG 2009). There is mounting evidence that the proportion of staff receiving dementia care training is low, even among those working in specialist dementia services (APPG 2009). For example, around one third of care homes with dedicated dementia provision report having no specific dementia training for staff (NAO 2007) and 52% of nursing staff in hospitals (Alzheimer’s Society (2009) have not received any work-based development or learning opportunities in dementia care. Evidence also suggests a variable picture of the quality of current provision of dementia training (DH et al 2010, APPG 2009).
Therefore educational programmes, workforce redesign and commissioning new ways of working in dementia will help to address these issues with service commissioners playing a crucial role.
Commissioning priorities and provider workforce strategies need to be aligned to ensure that all agencies responsible for workforce commissioning, planning and development meet both current and future demand.
Figure 1. The right workforce doing the right things at an achievable cost (Skills for Care at al 2010)