Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the roll out of the Dementia Connector Programme, and how many Dementia Connectors have been recruited in each health board in Wales?
We have commissioned Improvement Cymru to deliver a dementia programme to support Regional Partnership Boards (RPBs) in their implementation of the Dementia Action Plan and the Dementia Care Pathway of Standards. The standards include actions to develop the role and function of a dementia connector post (standard 12).
There are examples across Wales where the £12m allocated to RPBs to support the Dementia Action Plan’s implementation is being used to fund dementia connector type roles, but it is acknowledged titles vary across the regions. Regions have worked collaboratively to develop high-level core principles, role and responsibilities and monitoring requirements for the dementia connector posts to ensure a level of standardisation, which will also enable any learning and improvement for this work to be nationally identified.
We have agreed further capacity across Wales to support the continued development of the dementia connector role. This is equivalent to two posts per region.