Care Quality Commision's dementia strategy: what are the objectives?

With NHS England estimating that around 850,000 people in the UK have dementia and the economic cost associated with the disease thought to amount to £23 billion a year, dementia is one of the most important health and social care issues facing the UK. 

However, care for those with dementia is often disjointed and variable between service providers. To address this ongoing problem, in October 2024, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) announced that they would be developing a cross-sector dementia strategy, centred around the question 'how can CQC use its role to improve the experience of using health and social care services for people living with dementia and their carers?' 

The aim of the strategy is to produce evidence based statutory guidance for what good dementia care looks like. Whilst the strategy was put on pause following the announcement, on 1 May 2025, the CQC announced that it had resumed work and will soon begin a co-production strategy on statutory guidance.  

In this article, we highlight the objectives of the CQC’s strategy and what health and social care providers can expect to see in the future.

What is CQC statutory guidance? 

Statutory guidance from the CQC provides a set of guidelines to help health and social care providers understand what they need to do comply with their legal duties, including the requirements outlined in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. 

Whilst it's not legally binding, such guidance will often form the benchmark against which the CQC will assess providers when inspecting and monitoring a service. Following guidance will usually demonstrate compliance with the regulations, whereas failure to follow the guidance may point to a failure to comply with the regulations. Whilst there may be situations when a care provider can deviate from the guidance, they must be able to demonstrate that they are meeting their legal duties in a different way. 

CQC’s dementia strategy objectives

The CQC recognises that dementia is a key issue within the healthcare sector and wants to use evidence-based guidance to improve the quality of care and foster a more holistic service. Central to this, the strategy will create a uniform approach and promote collaboration between different healthcare providers and improving data sharing and information exchange, to create a seamless continuation of care. 

Through creating a cross-sector dementia strategy, the CQC hopes to ensure that all stakeholders work towards shared goals, making dementia care a priority across all sectors. It will work towards delivering 'a clear, widely accepted definition of what dementia care looks like that we can then regulate against and that others can set their expectations against.' 
CQC’s dementia strategy objectives are as follows:

• Co-produce evidence based statutory guidance for what good dementia care looks like and link to good practice guidance under their assessment framework. 
• Use their independent voice to tackle inequalities and encourage improvement and innovation.
• Apply statutory guidance across CQC regulatory activity.
• Actively work in partnership with key stakeholders to collectively affect real change. 
• Ensure staff receive comprehensive dementia training and work with partners to influence training and competency for the health and social care workforce. 
• Ensure CQC is a dementia friendly organisation to benefit their staff and wider public. 

For a detailed guide of CQC dementia strategy proposed objectives, outcomes and activities/outputs, please see here. 

Current status and looking forward 

The first phase of formulating the new strategy has involved CQC collating information from stakeholders to find out what is and isn’t working within the current healthcare sector. 
Current challenges facing adult social care providers included:

• Access to external services, such as GPs, mental health services and dental care, with assessments generally subject to long delays.
• The recruitment and retention of staff with the appropriate skills and experience to provide consistent care for people living with dementia. 
• More people being admitted with a higher level of care need, or a more advanced stage of dementia. 

The CQC has also identified examples of high-quality, compassionate care for people living with dementia and will also use this to inform their guidance. Timescales for external engagement, consultation and publication and currently unknown, but service providers are advised to keep an eye on updates so that they can contribute their own experiences and be ready for when the new statutory guidance is put into place. 

If you would like to discuss CQC regulation and the wider regulation of the health and social care sector, please contact Ian Manners or Zoe Hunt.