England to get a national dementia tsar, reporting straight to the Health Secretary

What happened

The Department of Health and Social Care has opened recruitment for England's first national dementia tsar, a full-time post paying £171,600 a year and reporting directly to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The advert describes a two-year appointment to lead a new dementia council bringing together government, the NHS, social care, local government, industry, academia, life sciences and the voluntary sector, to oversee the dementia priorities in the forthcoming modern service framework for frailty and dementia, and to publish an annual report on progress. Applications close on 8 October.

What it could mean

For the first time there will be one named person in Whitehall whose job is dementia, answering to the Secretary of State rather than to an arm's-length body. For services supporting people living with dementia, that is the person whose priorities are likely to shape what is asked of them next. It is a step in the right direction rather than a change in itself. None of the reporting on the advert mentions a budget, staff or statutory powers, or says how the role will sit alongside the CQC, NICE, NHS England and local council commissioners.

Why now

The appointment answers a recommendation Baroness Casey made in her review of adult social care six months ago, and a long campaign by charities for dementia to be given the priority cancer has had. The Carer reports it follows sustained pressure from charities. Social Care Minister Alison McGovern told the Alzheimer's Society's annual conference that dementia "has been neglected for far too long", and Alzheimer's Society Chief Executive Michelle Dyson said the postholder must be "a catalyst for change". A report from charities this month described dementia care as "stuck in the twentieth century" and called for progress on the scale achieved against cancer.

What we have and have not seen

We have not read the advert itself: the details above come from trade press reports of it. No appointment has been announced and no start date has been given. For commissioners, the useful question is not who gets the job. It is whether the tsar will have any say over what councils are expected to buy, and whether dementia-specific expectations start arriving through contracts before anyone has funded them. For operators, the same question in a different form: if dementia care needs the catch-up campaigners describe, who pays for it?