CQC's Dementia Research: 5 Steps for Derby Families

On 10 March 2026 the Care Quality Commission published a research report on good practice in health and social care services when caring for people with dementia, commissioned from IFF Research in partnership with Leeds Beckett University. The CQC's full provider guidance won't be co-produced and published until autumn 2026, but the research itself contains practical signals that families don't need to wait for. Here is the report translated for a Derby family with a parent or partner living with dementia, into five things you can do this month.

What the CQC research actually concluded

Three findings sit at the heart of the report. First, opportunities to feel part of a community let people living with dementia continue to exercise choice and control. Second, supporting people to keep doing things that mattered to them in smaller-scale, homelike settings preserves a strong sense of 'home'. Third, care plans must be made with people with dementia and their families, not for them — family and informal carers are partners in care, not background figures (CQC, 'Good practice in caring for people with dementia', 10 March 2026).

Step 1 — Have the 'what mattered' conversation while you still can

The single most important practical step the report points to is documenting what specifically mattered to your relative before dementia changed the foreground: hobbies, daily rituals, music they listened to, foods they liked, the route they walked, the people they cared about. Do this on a weekend with the family, write it down (a one-page 'About Me' is enough), and share it with anyone providing care. The Alzheimer's Society 'This Is Me' tool is the sector-standard format. Companions, hospital staff and residential staff all use these to anchor their interactions.

Step 2 — Re-shape the home for continuity, not adaptation

The CQC research stresses 'homelike settings' over 'clinical adaptation'. In practice that means choosing the smaller, more familiar option whenever possible: a chair the resident has had for years rather than a new specialist chair, the route through the house they always took rather than re-routing for accessibility unless it's essential, the lighting they're used to. Where adaptations are necessary, schedule them in clusters and explain each one. Kirk Group Handyman in Derby fits grab rails, replaces lighting, secures rugs and re-fits handrails to the colour and style families specify, rather than a clinical default.

Step 3 — Build a continuity-of-companion regime

The single biggest predictor of a positive companion-care experience for someone with dementia is whether the same companion turns up week after week. The CQC research is consistent with our own observation: people with dementia don't recover from a turnover of strangers easily. Each new face is a fresh disorientation. When booking companion care for a relative with dementia, ask the agency directly: what's your continuity record, what happens when my parent's usual companion is on holiday, do you brief the cover companion in advance? Anything less than 'we have a back-up rota and we brief them' is a yellow flag.

Step 4 — Get every professional onto one page

Step 5 — Schedule the difficult conversations early

Lasting Power of Attorney for both health and welfare and property and finance, advance care planning, and the conversation about residential care — all of these become harder later. The Mental Capacity Act and the LPA process require the donor to have capacity at the time of signing. Age UK's 2026 LPA guidance is clear that the right time is the day after diagnosis, not the day after the first crisis. The companion can flag, sensitively and indirectly, when small day-to-day decisions become harder — that's the family's cue.

"Family and carers should be partners in dementia care — not because that is generous to them, but because they are the people who know the person best and who will remain when professionals come and go."

What to expect from the autumn 2026 CQC guidance

From autumn 2026 the CQC will start co-producing guidance for providers on how to best care for people with dementia. The signals from the March research suggest that guidance will emphasise four things: smaller-scale homelike settings, family partnership in care planning, continuity of staff, and structured links to the resident's pre-dementia identity. Families with relatives in care homes can ask their provider's manager now what they're already doing in each of those areas. Providers expecting the guidance to lift their practice through 2027 are already ahead.

How Kirk Group Companion Care builds these into every visit

Every Kirk Group Companion Care care plan starts with an 'About Me' interview with the resident and a named family contact — and is reviewed quarterly. We match companions on interests, not just availability — we want the gardener with the gardening resident, the bird-watcher with the bird-watching resident. Continuity of companion is monitored as a quality metric, with a back-up rota briefed before any cover visit. Companions are trained on dementia awareness at induction and again annually, and our care coordinator joins family meetings on request. None of this is required by law. We do it because the CQC's research describes exactly what we already see works.