Coventry & Warwickshire's Living Well with Dementia Strategy Engagement Survey

A six-week engagement was held to seek feedback and comments on the draft Coventry and Warwickshire's Living Well with Dementia Strategy. This took place from 21^st September to 31^st October 2021.

We engaged with people living with dementia, carers, volunteers, the general public and professionals across Coventry and Warwickshire.  A range of ways to give feedback was offered, including through completion of an online survey and through in-person engagement (including one to one conversations, small groups, and larger groups).

We asked people how strongly they agreed or disagreed with the vision for the strategy, and specifically about each of the six priority areas in the strategy. We also asked some additional questions including about support for carers and how easy (or not) it was to understand the strategy.

85 people responded to the survey

253 people with dementia and carers took part in the in-person engagement. This included 38 people with dementia, 84 carers of people with dementia, 131 people involved in mixed groups of people with dementia and carers.

4 emails providing feedback about the strategy were received.

• In-person engagement: The key message was that people wanted more information on what support is available and how to access it.
• Feedback highlighted a lack of awareness of available services, with carers often learning about support through word of mouth, emphasising the importance of peer support networks.

• Survey responses: Many people were in strong agreement or agreement with the Priority areas and objectives (for 5 of the 6 priorities, this was approximately 90% of respondents (range was 87-92%). For Priority Three – Supporting Well – 84% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the objectives.

The key themes were that:

• There needs to be more awareness of support available for carers and people with dementia. Carers should not have to spend time finding out about services.
• Support needs to be in place early after diagnosis, and support needs to be available evenings and weekends.
• There needs to be greater reference to the support available to carers throughout the strategy.
• The majority of negative comments were in relation to whether there was enough funding to achieve the strategy and that more detail was needed about how the strategy would be achieved.

To respond to feedback from the engagement, the strategy will be developed in the following ways:

• Greater explanation that the strategy is a system wide strategy (e.g., that it involves many different organisations including Local Authority, Health and Voluntary sector)
• The Vision for the strategy will be further developed so it is less broad.
• Greater detail about how the strategy will be achieved will be included in the Delivery Plan for the overall strategy.  The Delivery Plan will include objectives for each Priority Area. These objectives will include details about the organisation(s) responsible for achieving them and the timeframes for when work will take place. The Strategy Delivery Plan will be reviewed regularly (at least every six months) and updated annually.
• Ensure the delivery objectives for Priority Areas link together e.g., the Priority Area for Diagnosis and Support after diagnosis link closely.
• The Delivery Plan will need to consider equity of dementia services, especially geographically.
• Although the overall priorities will not change, in each of the Priority Areas small changes will be made to ensure the wording is clearer or the objective is strengthened by adding in further information or clarification.
• Greater reference to support for carers will be made across the strategy.
• A statement about funding for the strategy and clarification about the organisation(s) that funds particular services will be included.
• Clarify that, for several objectives, work is already underway and needs to be built upon.

The next steps will include:

• Developing the strategy as described above.
• Taking the revised strategy to several meetings and Boards to seek final approval to publish the strategy.
• Taking the revised strategy to several key meetings and Boards (these will include a range of organisations such as NHS, local authorities, District and Borough Councils and voluntary sector) to ensure their support for the strategy.
• Publish a draft Delivery Plan along with the final version of the Strategy

The aim is to publish the strategy in late Spring 2022.

Updates about the Strategy will be provided on Warwickshire's Living Well with Dementia website:  www.warwickshire.gov.uk/dementia