George McNamara is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Alzheimer's Society. He is currently supporting the implementation of the Prime Minister's Challenge on dementia, in particular the creation of dementia-friendly communities.

Prior to joining Alzheimer's Society, George held senior policy positions at the British Red Cross and Action for Children and has written extensively on a variety of social policy issues. He has also worked in parliament and the civil service.


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Alistair Burns is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry and Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences at The University of Manchester, Clinical Director for the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC) and an Honorary Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist in the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust (MMHSCT). He is the National Clinical Director for Dementia in England.

Alistair graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in 1980 and trained in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry in London. He became the Foundation Chair of Old Age Psychiatry in The University of Manchester in 1992, where he has been Head of the Division of Psychiatry and is a Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, with responsibility for liaison within the NHS. He has been Director of Research and Development in the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Trust (UHSMT) and also Non-Executive Director and Vice-Chairman of that hospital board.

Previously, Alistair set up the Memory Clinic in MMHSCT and helped establish the old age liaison psychiatry service in UHSMT. He is a Past President of the International Psychogeriatric Association, is on the board of the European Association of Geriatric Psychiatry, joint chair of the UK Alzheimer's Society Medical and Scientific Panel and was an Associate Director of the UK Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases Network (DeNDRoN).

Editor of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and on the Editorial Boards of the British Journal of Psychiatry and International Psychogeriatrics, his research and clinical interests are in mental health problems of older people, particularly dementia and Alzheimer's disease. He has published over 300 papers and 25 books.

Presentation: Responding to the dementia challenge

The Prime Minister's challenge has gained significant momentum. Aiming to deliver major improvements in dementia care and research by 2015, there has been excellent progress, but there is still much to do, with significant increases required in research funding, diagnosis rates and the number of dementia friendly communities.

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Graham Browne was diagnosed at the age of 49 with a rare variant of Pick's disease. He is an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society and works with many other dementia organisations. He is married to Debbie and they have three children and three grandchildren.

Graham is a person who is passionate about talking about his life and living with dementia, sharing his experiences with health and social care professionals. He has shared his dementia life at local, national and international conferences and seminars. He has been on many steering groups, the most recent being his local hospital to get a dementia ward up and running.

Presentation: Living well with dementia

The aim is to offer a vital insight into what life is like for one living with dementia. Understanding the needs and aspirations of people with dementia and their families is absolutely key in responding to the challenge.

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Kate Harwood cared for her husband Marco at home for nine years. He had frontotemporal dementia and died this year at the age of 72. As a former teacher and campaigner for equality and social justice, Kate is now passionate about raising awareness of people with dementia and the vital role of family carers.

Kate did her best to enable Marco to be independent and active, whilst balancing supporting him and being involved where she could by sharing her experience of caring.

An active member of Uniting Carers, Dementia UK, Kate has focused on the implementation of the Dementia Strategy, nationally and locally in Camden, raising the voice of family carers. She is involved in a local carers campaigning group.

Presentation: Facing the challenges of caring for someone with dementia

The perspective of the carer is essential in any dialogue around dementia. The challenges of caring for a loved one who is living with dementia are great and varied, and must surely inform future health and social care policy.

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Janet Jadavji has been in the social care profession for over 25 years. She has a background in social work and extensive knowledge of working with children and families. For the past 13 years she has worked as a consultant for over 20 different authorities, working in complaints as an investigator, independent chair and trainer. Janet also has personal experience of the difficulties of caring.

Two years ago Janet realised that something more had to be provided for families, carers and those who suffer from memory difficulties. She embarked on a project with her partner Alex, who has 25 years expertise in IT, and started to create Yecco. Inspired by Janet's professional and personal experiences, the couple have designed a one-stop-shop that enables families to support each other, including the person they help to care for, and a tool that acts as an interface with professionals.

Yecco launched at the beginning of April and is a free website that enables anyone to support and plan for someone they help to care for. www.youtube.com/user/YeccoSavedMyLife, www.yecco.com

Presentation: Introducing Yecco

Innovative technology to assist the day-to-day lives of caregivers.

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David Blunkett's political career dates back to his election as a councillor in Sheffield at the age of 22, his leadership of the council in the 1980s, and his election to parliament in 1987. After serving on the Shadow Cabinet, he became Education and Employment Secretary in 1997, Home Secretary in 2001, and Work and Pensions Secretary in 2005.

Since leaving government, in addition to completing his diaries, 'The Blunkett Tapes', David has undertaken a series of major pieces of work, including on anti-poverty, affordable credit and social mobility, a review of the future role of the community and voluntary sector at the request of the then Prime Minister; chaired a major review of dedicated school transport, leading a commission that recommended extensive changes, undertaken a review of police accountability for the Home Office that helped shape a subsequent government white paper, and served on the Speaker's Conference that recommended substantial changes to improve representation in the House of Commons.

As well as working on behalf of his constituency and contributing to a number of voluntary and not-for-profit organisations, David is now being a constructive thorn in the side of the Coalition Government. Indeed, following publication of National Volunteer Programme, a blueprint for a large-scale youth volunteering initiative, he founded the Future For Youth Foundation, a new charity that will create meaningful, supported eight-month volunteering and social action placements for young people out of work, education or training. In September 2012, he published In Defence of Politics Revisited, where he set out a range of proposals to increase faith in, and improve the working of, democratic politics. Most recently, he was awarded status as an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Presentation: Improving diagnosis rates

Launched in July 2012, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia report 'Unlocking Diagnosis' set out action that can be taken to increase the number of people with dementia with a diagnosis in the UK, and the government has now set out its ambition for two-thirds of people to have a diagnosis and the appropriate post-diagnostic support by 2015. But has anything changed yet?

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Gillian Leng is the Deputy Chief Executive at NICE, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Gillian trained in medicine at Leeds, and then spent several years researching the epidemiology of peripheral vascular disease at Edinburgh University. She was involved in the Cochrane Collaboration as it first became established, and still contributes as an editor to the Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group. She specialised in public health medicine, and worked as a consultant before moving to NICE in 1991.

At NICE, Gillian has been responsible for the initial set up and running of the clinical guidelines programme, for establishing the NICE implementation function, and for setting up NHS Evidence. More recently, she has been responsible for the transfer of the National Prescribing Centre into NICE, for establishing the NICE accreditation programme, and for new work on Quality Standards across health and social care.

Presentation: Supporting people to live well with dementia

Professor Gillian Leng's session will provide an insight into NICE's new role in social care, looking specifically at the quality standard for dementia, what it covers and how it was developed. Professor Leng will also provide valuable advice on how improvements in dementia care can be measured and what support is available to help put the quality standard for dementia into practice.

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Eric Karran joined Alzheimer's Research UK in 2012 and has responsibility for high-level external representation of the charity as well as driving forward its research strategy.

Eric has extensive dementia research experience gained from working in the pharmaceutical industry, holding senior positions in neuroscience drug discovery research groups (most recently Chief Scientific Officer at Janssen Pharmaceuticals in Belgium), focusing on finding therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease. He has interacted widely with leading academic groups in the UK, Europe and the USA, as well as working with public funding agencies such as the MRC.

Presentation: Defeating dementia through research

A key component of the Dementia Challenge, research is gaining increasing profile, and with it a hope that more effective treatments for Alzheimer's and other dementias will one day become a reality. How might this best be achieved, and what progress is being made?

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Martin Rossor is Professor of Clinical Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He is Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Network for Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases (DeNDRoN), Director of the NIHR Queen's Square Dementia Biomedical Research Unit, President of the Association of British Neurologists (ABN) and a NIHR Senior Investigator.

He graduated from Cambridge and King's College Hospital Medical School London. He trained in neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square and undertook research into the neurochemistry of degenerative disease at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit in Cambridge.

He established a specialist cognitive disorders clinic that acts as a tertiary referral service for young onset and rare dementias. Clinical research interests are in neurodegenerative disease and particularly in familial disease.

Presentation: Research is for everyone

Patients and carers play a vital role in helping researchers work towards finding a cure for dementia. Find out what your role is and how you can help better research for a better future.

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Ian Sherriff is a founder member of the Plymouth University Dementia Group. Their research to date includes: 'Early Diagnosis of Dementia in Plymouth', Dementia Quality Mark for Residential care, evaluation of day opportunities provided by the voluntary and private sectors for individuals with dementia and their carers, evaluation of the Plymouth Dementia Action Alliance and the Dementia Friendly Parishes around the Yealm. The team has presented their work at the Alzheimer's International Conference 2012, the All Wales Dementia Conference 2012 and the Prime Minister's Dementia Challenge launch. They will also be presenting at the DH Expo 2013.

Ian is a member of the Prime Minister's Dementia Friendly Communities Challenge Group and a trustee on the board nationally for the Alzheimer's Society. Ian is an advisor to Devon County Council for its centre of excellence approach to dementia care. He is a founder member of the Plymouth Dementia Alliance and Dementia Friendly Parishes around the Yealm.


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Amit Bhargava is a GP Partner at Southgate Medical Group in Crawley and Clinical Chief Officer of the Crawley Clinical Commissioning Group, National Executive Board member of the NHS Alliance, South East Coast (SEC) Region Primary Care lead for Mental Health and member of National Stakeholder Forum. He has been involved in clinical leadership since 1999.

In the past he was the Clinical Governance and Diabetes lead for Crawley PCG, PEC Chair and Medical Director for Crawley PCT, GP advisor to the DH, SEC SHA clinical advisor for the Staying Healthy workstream, board member for the SHA service transformation board and SHA clinical champion for Managed Care.


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