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Chancellor to unveil dementia fund in autumn statement Chancellor to unveil dementia fund in autumn statement
(about 2 hours later)
George Osborne is to announce a £15m boost towards the search for a cure for dementia. Government ministers have spent their cabinet meeting being trained as “dementia friends” as part of a drive to teach the whole civil service to recognise the disease in people.
The spending, to be confirmed in the chancellor’s autumn statement on Wednesday, will kickstart a multimillion-pound fund focused on boosting investment to tackle the disease. During their meeting in Downing Street on Tuesday morning, the cabinet was told how a person with dementia can take up to 90 steps in the process of making a cup of tea, compared with most people taking just 10 steps.
With 1 million people expected to be living with dementia in the UK in 10 years, David Cameron has made the disease a priority. In 2012, he launched the prime minister’s dementia challenge and last year he hosted the first G8 event on the condition. “Dementia is one of the greatest enemies of humanity and we must all play our part defeating it,” he said this week. David Cameron has now ordered his cabinet to go back to their departments and think about how to encourage Whitehall staff to become “dementia friends”, training them in the small things that can be done in daily life to help people with the condition.
The fund will bring together investors from the public, private and philanthropic sectors who will pool their money in a scheme that will invest in projects identified by global scientists as having the best chance of success. The education session, which was the idea of the prime minister, took place the day before the autumn statement, in which £15m of funding for research into a cure for dementia is to be announced.
The spending will kickstart a multimillion-pound fund focused on boosting investment to tackle the disease. The fund will bring together investors from the public, private and philanthropic sectors who will pool their money in a scheme that will invest in projects identified by global scientists as having the best chance of success.
The government has already increased the amount the UK will spend on dementia research to £66m by next year.The government has already increased the amount the UK will spend on dementia research to £66m by next year.
Globally, 36 million people have dementia and the World Health Organisation predicts that numbers will nearly double every two decades – meaning 66 million people will have the disease in 2030 and more than 115 million in 2050. Dementia is estimated to cost global healthcare systems £370bn a year – about 1% of the world’s GDP. Cameron has made tackling the disease a priority, as 1 million people are expected to be living with dementia in the UK in 10 years’ time. Two years ago, he launched a “dementia challenge” to encourage research and last year he hosted the first G8 event on the condition.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “As well as the research we need to fund, as well as the improvements in the health service we need, we also need our communities to be more dementia-friendly so that everybody knows how to handle and how to help people with these conditions.
“Particularly when loneliness is such an issue, when there are so many people living alone who don’t necessarily have families surviving or there to look after them, actually reaching out and helping other people is hugely important.”
Alzheimer’s Research UK welcomed the investment. The charity’s director of external affairs, Hilary Evans, said: “This represents another step forward in the fight to tackle what is our greatest health challenge and a devastating condition.Alzheimer’s Research UK welcomed the investment. The charity’s director of external affairs, Hilary Evans, said: “This represents another step forward in the fight to tackle what is our greatest health challenge and a devastating condition.
“The treatments available for people with dementia offer scant relief and are simply not good enough – we need a therapy that acts to slow or stop disease in its tracks. If we could produce a treatment that delayed onset by five years, a third fewer people would ever experience the devastation of dementia.”“The treatments available for people with dementia offer scant relief and are simply not good enough – we need a therapy that acts to slow or stop disease in its tracks. If we could produce a treatment that delayed onset by five years, a third fewer people would ever experience the devastation of dementia.”
Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “David Cameron is committed to making dramatic progress towards a cure for dementia by 2025, so it’s encouraging to see him turning these words into action through continued global and national leadership. This announcement is significant, given that investment in this area is so crucial.” Jeremy Hughes, the chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, who helped conduct the cabinet’s training, said: “David Cameron is committed to making dramatic progress towards a cure for dementia by 2025, so it’s encouraging to see him turning these words into action through continued global and national leadership. This announcement is significant, given that investment in this area is so crucial.”
Globally, 36 million people have dementia and the World Health Organisation predicts that numbers will nearly double every two decades, meaning 66 million people will have the disease in 2030 and more than 115 million in 2050. Dementia is estimated to cost global healthcare systems £370bn a year – about 1% of the world’s GDP.