YouGov polling on public priorities for Council spending By Simon Kitchen Head of Secretariat, Dementia Action Alliance

Context All members are currently working against the background of very hard economic circumstances and tight public finances. Often having to make difficult political arguments both within and between organisations on why their services for people with dementia, should be maintained / increased at the expense of others.

Polling Contribute to the debate and support members Commissioned YouGov to look at public attitudes to cuts to services for people with dementia Questions drafted by Communication Steering Group Contribute the debate and provide ammunition to members to make those arguments, to ensure that the resources at put in place to make the National Dementia Declaration a reality Tackling the issue head on we commissioned YouGov to look at public attitudes to cuts to services for people with dementia The questions were drafted by the DAA Communication Steering Group, which all Alliance members were invited to participate, tailored to reflect the realities faced by members on the ground

Methodology Online interview of members of the YouGov Plc GB panel of 280,000+ 2003 responses Representative sample broken down by age, gender, employment status, socio-economic group, region and marital status 2003 – strong base Representative sample – provides public opinion as a whole

Questions asked People with dementia and carers of those with dementia need more help and support Funding for dementia services is likely to be threatened by the current financial climate In which ONE of the following areas would you be LEAST willing to see local authorities make cuts? Note that these questions were not asked in this sequence so respondents answers have no been prejudice by the previous questions.

1. People with dementia and carers of those with dementia need more help and support 83% believe that people with dementia and carers need to have more support Campaign work of member organisations to raise awareness of dementia in general People agree more strongly as your get older - > 83%

2. Funding for dementia services is likely to be threatened by the current financial climate 73% of people believe that funding for dementia services are under threat – again helped by awareness raising such as Age UK’s Agenda for Later Life though higher level of Don’t know which suggests that people are more aware of dementia itself rather than support services Again, slightly more concern as they get older

3. In which ONE of the following areas would you be LEAST willing to see local authorities make cuts? In what areas of council services, would people like to see least cuts. Social care age for older people come out, way ahead of traditional commitments such as as Bin collections / road transport

Breakdown Services for older people are marginally more important for woman than men

Conclusions The public overwhelmingly believe that dementia and carers of those with dementia need more help and support and that the services they already receive are at risk of being cut High level of awareness of dementia within the public at large When faced with difficult choices, the public overall prioritise social care for older people Infers that it makes electoral sense for central and particularly local government to prioritise these services when making funding decisions

Next Steps Communication Steering Group to use poll to raise profile of DAA within national, local and trade press Full results, with breakdown, circulated to members to support local and national advocacy work Names to attribute