Meeting the 2026 Dementia Training Standards: What Care Providers Actually Need to Do

If you run a care service in England, the Dementia Training Standards Framework is not optional reading. It is the benchmark your staff training will be measured against - by commissioners, by inspectors, and increasingly by the families choosing your service. The 2026 update has brought fresh expectations, and if you have not looked at it yet, now is the time.

This is not about ticking a box. It is about making sure every member of your team - from the receptionist who welcomes someone at the door to the registered manager signing off care plans - has the knowledge and confidence to support people living with dementia properly. Because that is what the framework exists to ensure, and it is what the people in your care deserve.

Let me walk you through what is changed, what your service needs to do, and how to get there without the usual scrambling that happens before an inspection.

What Is the Dementia Training Standards Framework?

The Dementia Training Standards Framework is a national framework that sets out the essential skills and knowledge needed across health and social care for anyone working with people living with dementia. It was developed by the Department of Health and Social Care, Skills for Health, and Health Education England in partnership with Skills for Care.

The framework is not a course in itself. It is a structured set of learning outcomes - the "what staff should know and be able to do" - that organisations use to design, commission, or evaluate their dementia training. Think of it as the syllabus. Your job as a provider is to make sure your training covers it.

It applies across the whole spectrum: care homes, domiciliary care, extra care housing, NHS wards, community teams, primary care, housing support services. If anyone on your staff interacts with people living with dementia - and in most care settings, that is everyone - the framework is relevant to you.

You can find out more about the framework and access supporting resources through the NHS Health Education England dementia awareness pages, or directly from Skills for Health.

What is New in the 2026 Update?

The framework was originally published in 2016 and reviewed in 2018. The 2026 update builds on that foundation with some notable additions.

The most significant change is the expansion of content around food, drink, and oral health. These were previously underrepresented areas that have now been given dedicated attention within the framework. If your current training does not explicitly address nutritional care and oral health for people living with dementia, that is a gap the updated framework will expose.

The 2026 update also reinforces the shift in language and approach that is been building across the sector - moving away from "behaviours that challenge" toward understanding distress as communication. This is not just semantic. It changes how you train staff to respond, and the framework now reflects that more clearly.

If your dementia training was designed around the 2018 version, it is time for a review. Not a full rewrite necessarily, but a proper check against the updated standards to see where the gaps are. Too many providers are still working from training materials that predate the current framework entirely, and that is a risk that is only going to grow as the updated standards become more widely expected.

The Three Tiers: Who Needs What

One of the most useful things about the framework is its tiered structure. It does not treat all staff the same, because not all staff need the same depth of knowledge.

Tier 1: Dementia Awareness applies to everyone working in health and social care. This is the foundation - what dementia is, how it affects people, and how to interact with someone living with dementia in a way that respects their dignity and supports their needs. If you have a receptionist, a maintenance worker, or a kitchen assistant in your service, they need Tier 1 awareness. Not a half-hour e-learning module that nobody remembers. Actual awareness that they can apply.

Tier 2: Dementia Skills and Knowledge is for staff who work regularly and directly with people living with dementia. This is where the core practical skills sit - communication, person-led and person-centred care planning, managing distress, understanding non-pharmacological interventions, supporting families, end-of-life care. Most of your frontline care staff need Tier 2 as a minimum, and it needs to be more than a one-off session.

Tier 3: Leadership in Transforming Dementia Care is for managers, team leaders, and those responsible for implementing and evaluating dementia training within their organisation. Tier 3 is about leading culture change, embedding best practice, and ensuring your service does not just meet standards but genuinely transforms the experience of care.

The mistake many providers make is treating Tier 1 as sufficient for everyone. It is not. A care worker supporting someone with advanced dementia needs Tier 2 knowledge at minimum - and that training needs to be comprehensive, not compressed into a single afternoon.

The 14 Topic Areas: What the Framework Actually Covers

The framework sets out 14 key subject areas, each with specific learning outcomes mapped to the tiers. Here's what they are:

1. Dementia awareness
2. Dementia identification, assessment and diagnosis
3. Dementia risk reduction and prevention
4. Person-centred dementia care
5. Communication, interaction and behaviour in dementia care
6. Health and well-being in dementia care
7. Pharmacological interventions in dementia care
8. Living well with dementia and promoting independence
9. Families and carers as partners in dementia care
10. Equality, diversity and inclusion in dementia care
11. Law, ethics and safeguarding in dementia care
12. End of life dementia care
13. Research and evidence-based practice in dementia care
14. Leadership in transforming dementia care

Note: While the framework lists pharmacological interventions as a topic area, PMH Consultancy Education prioritises non-pharmacological approaches as the foundation of dementia care. We believe understanding and applying non-pharmacological interventions first - communication, environment, meaningful activity, relationships - should always come before medication-focused strategies. Each of these has defined learning outcomes at the relevant tiers. When you are reviewing your training provision, you should be mapping your content against these 14 areas and asking: where are we strong, where are we thin, and where are we missing entirely?

Most services I have worked with are solid on awareness and communication. Where they tend to fall short is in the areas that feel less immediately practical but are no less critical - non-pharmacological interventions, equality and inclusion in dementia care, end-of-life care, and research and evidence-based practice. These are the areas inspectors are increasingly asking about, and they are the areas where a lack of knowledge has real consequences for the people in your care.

If you are looking for a training provider that covers all 14 topic areas across all three tiers in a structured, comprehensive way, our Dementia Care course at PMH Consultancy Education is designed to do exactly that. Sixteen modules, mapped to the framework, built for real-world application. You can find the course details on our academy page.

The CQC Connection: Why This Matters at Inspection

Under CQC Regulation 18 (Staffing), providers must have sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled, and experienced staff. That is not vague - it is a specific regulatory requirement, and dementia training is a core part of how that compliance is judged.

When inspectors look at your service, they are not just checking whether training has been completed. They are looking at whether staff can actually demonstrate the knowledge and apply it in practice. They will speak to your team. They will observe care. They will look at how staff respond to someone who is distressed, how they support someone's choices, how they involve families.

A training matrix that says "Dementia Awareness - Completed" means very little if the care worker on the floor cannot tell you why a person with dementia might be refusing personal care, or what they'd do differently because of that understanding.

The framework gives you the structure to build training that produces staff who can do more than pass a multiple-choice quiz. Used properly, it is your route to not just compliance but genuine quality - and the CQC's inspection approach is increasingly focused on exactly that distinction. Inspectors want to see evidence that training has translated into practice. They want to hear staff articulate their understanding, not just point to a certificate on a wall.

What Providers Actually Need to Do: A Practical Roadmap

Right, let us get practical. If you are a registered manager, a training lead, or a commissioner looking at this framework and wondering where to start, here's what I'd recommend.

1. Audit what you have got. Map your current training content against the 14 topic areas and three tiers. Be honest. Note where you are strong, where you are thin, and where there is nothing at all. This is your gap analysis, and it is the foundation everything else builds on.

2. Prioritise the gaps that matter most. Not all gaps are equal. If your staff are supporting people at end of life and you have no structured training on end-of-life dementia care, that is urgent. If your Tier 1 awareness is a bit dated but covers the basics, that is important but less critical. Rank your gaps by the risk they present to people in your care, not by which ones are easiest to fix.

3. Make sure Tier 2 is more than a one-off. The framework's Tier 2 learning outcomes are substantial. They cannot be covered properly in a single session. If your training is a half-day workshop or a single e-learning module, it almost certainly is not meeting the standard. Look for structured, multi-session training that builds knowledge over time and gives staff opportunities to apply it.

4. Do not forget Tier 3. If you are the manager reading this, Tier 3 is about you. Leading dementia care in your service is not just about making sure others are trained - it is about your own knowledge, your ability to evaluate practice, and your capacity to drive improvement. Investment in your own development at this level pays off across the whole service.

5. Evidence it properly. Do not just record completion dates. Record what was covered, how it maps to the framework, and how competence was assessed. Keep your training documentation aligned with the framework's structure, so when an inspector asks, you can show them exactly where each standard is met.

6. Build in refresher and update cycles. Training is not a one-and-done. The framework gets updated. Research evolves. Staff turnover happens. Build in annual reviews, refresher sessions, and a process for incorporating new evidence into your training programme.

7. Make sure your training is person-led and person-centred, not just knowledge-based. It is not enough for staff to know the stages of dementia or the types of medication. They need to understand what it feels like to be supported by someone who truly gets it - and that requires training that goes beyond facts into values, empathy, and reflective practice.

If you are reading this and thinking "I do not have the time or expertise to do all of that properly," that is exactly where consultancy support comes in. A good dementia care consultant can do the gap analysis with you, recommend or provide training that maps to the framework, and help you build the evidence structure that stands up to inspection. You can enquire about consultancy support through our contact page.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

I'm going to be direct here, because this matters.

Inadequate dementia training does not just mean a disappointing inspection rating. It means people in your care are not getting the support they need. It means staff who are unprepared for the realities of dementia care, which leads to stress, burnout, and turnover. It means incidents that could have been prevented. It means families who lose confidence in your service.

And from a business perspective, it means commissioners who look elsewhere, CQC ratings that limit your ability to operate, and a reputation that is hard to rebuild once it is damaged.

I have seen it happen. A service that assumed their training was adequate, did not audit against the framework, and only discovered the gaps during an inspection - by which point the findings were written, the rating was downgraded, and they were in reactive mode trying to fix everything at once. It is a costly, stressful position to be in, and it is entirely avoidable.

The framework exists because too many services were falling short. It is a clear, structured, evidence-based roadmap for getting it right. The question is not whether you can afford to implement it properly - it is whether you can afford not to.

How PMH Consultancy Education Can Help

This is where I will tell you what we offer, because it is directly relevant to what you need to do.

Our 16-module Dementia Care course is built around the Dementia Training Standards Framework. It covers all 14 topic areas across the three tiers, with modules designed to be worked through systematically - not crammed into a single session and forgotten. Each module includes practical applications, not just theory, so staff come away able to do things differently, not just able to recite facts.

The course is suitable for Tier 2 staff development and can support Tier 1 and Tier 3 learning depending on how it is deployed within your organisation. It is designed for the realities of busy care services - flexible, accessible, and focused on what actually matters in practice.

If you need more than a course - if you need someone to come in, look at your current training provision, help you map it against the framework, identify the gaps, and build a plan to close them - that is where our consultancy service comes in. We work with care providers to get from "we think we are compliant" to "we know we are delivering excellent dementia care, and we can prove it."

You can explore the Dementia Care course on our academy page, or if you'd like to talk about consultancy support tailored to your service, get in touch through our enquiry page.

The Bottom Line

The 2026 update to the Dementia Training Standards Framework is an opportunity, not just an obligation. It is a chance to look honestly at your training, close the gaps, and build something that genuinely improves the care your service provides.

Do not wait for an inspection to find out where you are falling short. Do the audit now. Map your training against the 14 topic areas. Check your tiers. Make sure your staff are not just trained but genuinely equipped.

And if you need help with any of that - the training itself, the mapping, the consultancy support to get it right - that is what we are here for.

Explore the PMH Dementia Care 16-module course on our academy page. Or contact us about consultancy support for your service.

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Pat Hobson is a dementia care consultant and educator with extensive experience supporting care providers to meet and exceed dementia training standards. Through PMH Consultancy Education, she provides both consultancy services and structured training courses designed for the real demands of care provision.