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Thank you Gina 鈥� not just for your warm introduction, but for everything you do, raising awareness and supporting other people living with dementia. Thank you very much.

And I鈥檓 also grateful to the Alzheimer鈥檚 Society for bringing us all together this afternoon.

I can鈥檛 begin to reflect on what the future holds without acknowledging the challenges of the past 2 years. Whether it鈥檚 the people living with dementia, or those around them who love and care for them, I know dementia is difficult at the best of times. The pandemic made it doubly difficult.

Dementia made some of the steps we needed to take to combat the pandemic a lot harder: like extra handwashing or socially distancing. Or families and carers, who had very little respite.

But I know it鈥檚 the emotional side that鈥檚 proved toughest over time. It runs deeper than the smiles and hugs we all missed.

Many of you have tirelessly smashed the taboos around dementia 鈥� like the idea dementia is a hidden disease. Lots of you 鈥� people like Gina 鈥� are proof that people with dementia shouldn鈥檛 be hidden away from society.

But sadly, the pandemic saw us all spend more time behind closed doors, physically separated from society and the people that we love.

So I want to say a huge thank you to all of you, for your tremendous courage and resilience in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

When I accepted this role nearly a year ago, I made it my priority to safely remove so many of the restrictions around COVID. Burdens that kept us apart through these difficult times. We鈥檙e now leading the world in learning to live with COVID, and I鈥檓 proud of how far we鈥檝e come.

Yet even with these brighter days ahead, I know it will take some time for us to recover from this collective trauma. And, of course, the challenges of conditions like dementia haven鈥檛 gone away.

Over 900,000 people in the UK are believed to be living with dementia. In 2020, it was the leading cause of death (in England and Wales) after COVID-19.

Yet even when we鈥檙e faced with such stark statistics, it鈥檚 important to remember how we got here.

Economic growth, medical breakthroughs and vastly improved health and care services have seen life expectancy increase by more than a decade in our lifetimes. It鈥檚 one of the great triumphs of the 20th century. We鈥檙e all living longer.

If we鈥檙e to get the 21st century right, we need those extra years to be spent in good health.

And sadly that鈥檚 not the case for too many people. By 2025, 1 million people in the UK are expected to have dementia, and is expected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040.

There has been some great progress in recent years.

David Cameron used the rotating chairmanship of the G8 to convene the world鈥檚 first G8 dementia summit 鈥� which took the dementia challenge onto the global stage. And that passion for global action against dementia has continued in his current role as President of Alzheimer鈥檚 Research UK.

And I do want to pay tribute to David, because I remember very well when I was in his Cabinet: he dedicated an entire cabinet session to dementia and invited Alzheimer鈥檚 UK to speak to us. They enrolled us all as 鈥榙ementia friends鈥�, and even all these years later now I鈥檓 Health and Social Care Secretary, I still reflect on what I learned back then.

The Challenge on Dementia 2020 was another landmark piece of work, which saw a million care workers and a million NHS workers receive dementia awareness training. Over the 5 years of the strategy, the government invested some 拢420 million on dementia research.

But the pandemic has stemmed the tide of progress. Despite the best efforts of the NHS, it became harder for some people to get a timely diagnosis, because the pandemic made it more difficult to access memory assessment services. I know the Alzheimer鈥檚 Society has estimated over 30,000 people didn鈥檛 receive a diagnosis because of the pandemic.

Equally, we know from your brilliant research that tens of thousands of people are still missing out on a dementia diagnosis each year because they confuse key symptoms with getting old. As you say: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not called getting old, it鈥檚 called getting ill鈥�.

So, while these broader demographic trends, combined with the rising prevalence of dementia, were always going to take us to a crossroads 鈥� a moment where we鈥檇 have to rethink how we do health and care in this country 鈥� the pandemic has brought us to these crossroads a lot more quickly. In fact, we鈥檙e there right now.

I think one of the reasons why we haven鈥檛 made as much progress on dementia as we would like is because it鈥檚 going to take some pretty seismic shifts, both in terms of the architecture of health and care and our own approach.

That鈥檚 hard to do. Reform takes time. And you need to take people with you. But it鈥檚 a journey we鈥檝e already begun 鈥� and it鈥檚 a challenge this government is unafraid to take on.

Our plans for adult social care will help improve experiences for people with dementia and their families: with a far more generous means-testing, a cap on life-time costs to increase support and development for our phenomenal workforce.

The new Health and Care Act 鈥� which received Royal Assent just a couple of weeks ago 鈥� puts integrated care boards and integrated care partnerships at the heart of our system. Joint working and joint budgets will be directed towards caring for people and keeping them well in the first place.

You may also know that we asked Claire Fuller 鈥� a GP and Chief Executive of Surrey Heartlands 鈥� to conduct a stocktake of how primary care works within the new system. Now this is important, because we know that primary care is where the bulk of prevention can happen 鈥� and GPs play a crucial role in referring people with early signs of dementia. So I鈥檓 looking forward to hearing Dr Fuller鈥檚 views.

We know that joined up care is better for people with dementia and their families. Implementing the proposals in our integration white paper will be another important part of what we need to do. The white paper looks at everything from better data-sharing to multidisciplinary working across health and care, with the ambition of improving the experiences of those who use our vital services.

All of this taken together means our future work on dementia is going to take place in a very different health and care context 鈥� one which is much more preventive, professional, and joined up.

Not only that, but the combination of the demographic shifts we all know are coming, the setbacks of COVID-19 and the incredible opportunities afforded to us by pioneering research and new technology, mean we now need to do something dramatically different. We have no other choice but to step up and rise to this moment.

So that鈥檚 been the spirit behind our new dementia strategy, which we began developing last summer. I鈥檓 grateful to everyone who鈥檚 played a part and continues to play a part in bringing it to life, including the Alzheimer鈥檚 Society. That work is still ongoing, but today I want to tell you a bit more about what it will look like.

In short, I want it to be more ambitious than anything we鈥檝e done before. To begin with: I want our dementia strategy to be a 10-year plan, not just 5. Because we can only get to grips with long-term challenges by thinking long-term.

I鈥檇 like us to be as bold as we鈥檝e been with our 10-year plan for cancer. It will be driven by the same 4 themes behind our reforms in health and care 鈥� what I call the 鈥�4 P鈥檚鈥�: prevention, personalisation, performance and people.

Let鈥檚 look at prevention for a moment.

It鈥檚 estimated that as much as 40% of dementia is potentially preventable. 40%.

We now know that what鈥檚 good for the heart is also good for the brain. Action on high blood pressure, physical inactivity, alcohol, obesity and healthy eating all have a part to play.

So we鈥檙e going to be very ambitious on prevention, because I don鈥檛 accept that dementia is an inevitable part of ageing. It isn鈥檛.

We鈥檙e going to be equally ambitious on research.

We鈥檝e already committed 拢375 million into research on neurodegenerative diseases over the next 5 years 鈥� and I鈥檒l work across government to boost this further.

It means measuring ourselves against the leading countries globally and being unafraid to find new ways of working. It means being bold about finding new medicines and new treatments. It means being ambitious on new technology, like genomic sequencing and digital biomarkers. And it means continuing to smash taboos 鈥� just as you do so brilliantly, every single day.

So I鈥檓 really excited about this 鈥� and I鈥檓 excited to work with all of you get it right. Because it鈥檚 no exaggeration to say that our future depends on it.

We鈥檙e at the crossroads. All of us here today, we understand the challenges that lie ahead. When it comes to dementia, we know there have never been any quick fixes. We know there aren鈥檛 any easy wins.

But we also know that when a visionary plan comes together, with powerful partners and proper funding 鈥� and we couple it with care and compassion 鈥� that combination can be unbeatable.

That鈥檚 going to be the mission 鈥� and I鈥檓 grateful to have partners like you to share it with. Thank you.