Dementia Care Specialist

Help shape exceptional dementia care by supporting colleagues to deliver personalised, compassionate care that enhances residents' quality of life. Joining us means becoming the specialist expert for dementia care across a national care home portfolio. Working alongside operational, clinical and quality teams, you'll provide expert guidance, practical support and tailored training that helps colleagues deliver outstanding, person-centred care for people living with dementia. This is a field-based role covering an assigned region, with regular travel to care homes, regional offices and commissioner meetings. Occasional travel to our Central Support Office in Darlington will also be required.

As a Dementia Care Specialist, you'll be the organisation's subject matter expert, supporting homes to strengthen dementia care practice, improve resident experiences and respond confidently to complex cares. Through coaching, education and hands-on practice development, you'll help embed evidence-informed approaches that make a meaningful difference to residents, families and care teams.

This is a national specialist role responsible for providing expert advice, guidance and practical support to care homes across England, Scotland and Wales. You'll work closely with operational leaders, quality teams and learning and development colleagues to strengthen dementia care practice through bespoke training, coaching, practice reviews and targeted improvement support. Whether responding to individual homes requiring enhanced support or contributing to wider organisational initiatives, you'll help ensure high standards of dementia care are consistently achieved.

Using quality data, observations and feedback, you'll identify opportunities for improvement, provide practical recommendations and support teams to develop personalised approaches that enhance residents' wellbeing, communication, meaningful engagement and overall quality of life. You'll also contribute to the development of dementia care resources, policies, training programmes and quality improvement initiatives, sharing best practice and supporting colleagues to build confidence and capability across the organisation.

You will be an experienced dementia care professional with a strong understanding of person-centred practice and a genuine passion for improving the lives of people living with dementia. You will be confident coaching and developing others, using your expertise to support colleagues in responding to complex situations with compassion, professionalism and evidence-informed practice. Comfortable working across multiple locations, you will be able to build trusted relationships with a wide range of stakeholders while adapting your approach to meet the needs of different teams.

You will combine excellent communication and facilitation skills with strong observational and analytical abilities, helping identify opportunities for improvement while providing practical, supportive guidance that delivers lasting change.

Essential

• Registered Nurse, Allied Health Professional, social care professional or equivalent relevant experience within dementia care, adult social care or healthcare.
• Significant experience supporting people living with dementia within a regulated care or healthcare environment.
• Specialist knowledge of person-centred dementia care, communication approaches, distressed behaviours, meaningful occupation and positive risk-taking.
• Experience delivering dementia care training, coaching or practice development programmes.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding, mental capacity, least restrictive practice and quality assurance within adult social care.
• Excellent communication, coaching and facilitation skills, with the ability to influence practice and support colleagues at all levels.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience using quality information to drive improvements in care.
• Confident IT skills, including care planning, audit and incident reporting systems.

Desirable

• Post-registration or specialist qualification in dementia care, older people’s care, education, quality improvement or leadership.
• Knowledge of recognised dementia care frameworks and national best practice guidance.
• Experience using digital care or governance systems such as Radar, Nourish, PCS or eMAR.

This is a national role with regular travel to care homes across England, Scotland and Wales. The role includes providing targeted support to homes requiring specialist dementia care input, including practice reviews, coaching, bespoke training and quality improvement support. As with all colleagues, you'll be expected to comply with our policies relating to health and safety, infection prevention and control, safeguarding and all relevant regulatory requirements. From time to time, you may be asked to undertake other duties appropriate to the role, and the responsibilities outlined above may be reasonably reviewed and updated following consultation to reflect business needs.