Partnering with Government on Dementia. Early Lessons for Grant-Makers

This paper describes the work of Atlantic Philanthropies' grantees on dementia in Northern Ireland, and the emergence of the Dementia Signature Programme, which saw Atlantic partner with the NI government to sustain and embed its work.   

Atlantic recognised that as the provider of most of the services that disadvantaged and vulnerable people depend on, the state had huge potential to realise the systemic and population-wide changes needed to better support people living with dementia.  Despite the existence of a national strategy on dementia, no additional resources had been allocated to its implementation and the pace of change was slow. A joint government / philanthropy programme not only offered financial resources to dementia policy implementation, but also a degree of political and senior official interest that could support the changes its implementers were seeking to make.

This report describes how Atlantic and its partners designed the Dementia Signature Programme and early lessons learned about working in collaboration with government.