April 2026 Newsletter

Writing in the Daily Mail, Baroness Casey shared reflections from attending “Singing for the Brain”, a session run by volunteers from the Alzheimer’s Society, where people living with dementia, alongside their families and carers, come together to sing.

Baroness Casey described this as one of the most uplifting experiences she had in recent months because it was rooted in hope – hope that life and joy do not end at diagnosis.

Baroness Casey also wrote that this spirit of hope is lacking from how we treat and view finding treatments and cures for dementia in this country today. She added that dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are too often treated as an inevitable part of ageing and a social care “problem”, rather than as a collection of serious neurological diseases that demand the same urgent clinical focus as other health conditions such as cancer and heart disease.

She set out that action on dementia had been one of the requests she had written to the Government to ask for immediate support on- to scale up investment in dementia trials, to introduce a new, full-time Dementia Tsar, and to deliver faster progress on the Modern Service Framework for dementia and frailty.

Baroness Casey and the team would like to extend their gratitude to those living with dementia, their families and carers, and the volunteers from the Alzheimer’s Society who welcomed them to the session. You can read the full article here.

Baroness Casey’s letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care with her immediate asks of the Government can be found here.

Although not part of its formal remit, the Commission is keen to understand how adult social care is delivered across other parts of the UK.

In March, the Commission visited North Wales and visited services in Anglesey, Conwy and Flintshire, including a community dementia hub, supported employment and respite services, and a residential care setting supporting discharge and recovery. The visit included discussions with local authority leaders, staff, volunteers and people using services, as well as regional partners working across health and social care.

The Commission team would like to extend our thanks (diolch!) to the Welsh Government for hosting us.

As part of our wider policy and engagement work, the Commission has continued its programme of visits across England this month.

This included visits to Milton Keynes University Hospital and Watford General Hospital as part of ongoing work examining the role of the NHS in adult social care.

The team also travelled to Liverpool, where they met with two services supporting adults with learning disabilities, including both a residential setting and a service enabling people to live independently in their own homes.

In Manchester, the team met with Shared Lives to learn more about their Live More programme – a preventative, community-based model providing relational support for people living with dementia and their families. The visit included the opportunity to meet directly with people involved in the programme, including those living with dementia, as well as their carers and family members.

Also in Manchester, the team attended a conference hosted by Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, celebrating the contribution of unpaid carers.

The team also met with the National Care Forum, where they were introduced to emerging technologies in adult social care.

The Commission is grateful to everyone who helped arrange these visits, to all those who gave their time to meet with us, and especially to those who welcomed us into their homes.