Dementia and Housing: What West Yorkshire’s Training Pilot Tells Us

With around one million people living with dementia in the UK, housing professionals are increasingly likely to work alongside tenants and residents living with dementia. In recognition of this, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership commissioned the Alzheimer's Society to deliver a programme of Dementia and Housing training to their staff in March 2026.

The training was co-produced by the Alzheimer's Society and the West Yorkshire Dementia-ready Housing Taskforce, aligned with recognised dementia training standards and tailored to housing roles.

Delivered as a one-day, face-to-face course on six dates, it used real-life case studies, facilitated discussion and practical scenarios to inform day-to-day service delivery. Participants also received a digital course handbook with local signposting information and a copy of the West Yorkshire dementia-ready housing criteria to support application and onward sharing.

An independent evaluation of the training was carried out by Dr Aisling Flynn, Bournemouth University, to assess the impact of the training on participants' knowledge of dementia and their attitudes towards people living with dementia.

Who took part?

58 housing staff completed a pre-training survey across six sessions, with 49 completing the post-training survey. 37 participants could be matched across both surveys, enabling pre- and post-comparison.

Participants represented a broad range of roles and experience levels, including Housing Officers, Extra Care Scheme Managers, Tenancy Wellbeing Coaches and Housing Services Managers. Over half had six or more years of experience in the housing sector.

What we found?

Dementia Knowledge

Knowledge was assessed using the Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale (DKAS-25). Average scores increased from approximately 50% correct before training to 59% afterwards.

The most notable improvement was in the Communication and Behaviour domain, which covers understanding how dementia affects communication and how to respond to behavioural changes.

Attitudes

Encouragingly, staff already held positive attitudes towards people living with dementia before the training began and a small improvement was observed following the programme.

Learning Outcomes

Across all six learning outcome statements covering areas including dementia-friendly design, effective communication, signposting to support and cultural diversity, between 98% and 100% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the training outcomes had been achieved.

Qualitative Feedback

Qualitative feedback was broadly positive. Participants particularly valued the quality and enthusiasm of the trainer, the relevance of the content to their roles and the interactive elements of the session including case studies, videos and group activities.

Where suggestions for improvement were offered, the most common related to course length, with a preference for a condensed or half-day format. Some respondents noted they would have valued input from a person with lived experience of dementia at the training session. This feedback will be considered for future iterations of this training.

Considerations and Next Steps

It is important to consider several factors when interpreting the findings outlined above. The matched sample of 37 participants is relatively small, and findings should be interpreted as indicative rather than conclusive at this stage.

It is intended that this work will help inform future activity. Following completion of the training programme, the focus has now shifted to supporting partners to embed the learning more widely across their organisations. This includes strengthening links with local services so that customers living with dementia can be effectively signposted to additional support within their communities.

While this bespoke training was designed to meet the specific needs of West Yorkshire, many elements will now be incorporated into the Alzheimer’s Society’s national training offer. This will extend its reach and support learning across the wider housing sector.

Conclusion

These preliminary findings suggest that targeted and bespoke dementia training may meaningfully improve housing professionals' knowledge and attitudes, particularly in areas of direct relevance to tenant-facing work. The results support the case for embedding dementia awareness within housing sector training provision.

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This blog has been published in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society, West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Bournemouth University.

For more information about the Alzheimer's Society, visit their website (opens new window).

Find out about the West Yorkshire Dementia-ready Housing Design criteria for general housing needs (opens new window).

For more information on the study design, contact Dr Aisling Flynn (opens new window).

And, if you found this blog of interest, visit the Housing LIN’s dedicated housing and dementia webpages, where you can also access the APPG on Housing and Care for Older People inquiry report, Housing for People with Dementia – Are we ready?