Government plans £300m investment into dementia research

More than £300 million is to be spent by the Government on research into dementia, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

Outlining new plans to tackle what he described as "one of the greatest challenges of our lifetime", Mr Cameron said an international dementia institute will be established in England over the next five years in a bid to make the UK a world leader for research and medical trials.

A separate multimillion-pound fund will be launched within weeks to help establish a large-scale, international investment scheme to discover new drugs and treatment that could slow down the onset of dementia or even deliver a cure by 2025, Mr Cameron said.

About 1.3 million NHS workers, from surgeons to hospital porters, will also be given training in how to give those with dementia the best possible standards of care.

Meanwhile there are plans to give three million more "dementia friends" training in how to give those around them with the condition support. As part of the initiative, businesses including Marks and Spencer, Asda and Lloyds banking group will train their staff to become dementia friends.

Other pledges include having the majority of people in England living in "dementia friendly communities" by 2020 by making shops, transport and other public places more accessible to people with the condition.

Faster assessments by GPs are also included in the Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia 2020.

Initial dementia assessments will take place in an average of six weeks and will be followed by better onward support such as informing sufferers of local services that can help them as well as advice for their carers.