Policy and Practice in England

We want everyone living with dementia to access to have a playlist or personally meaningful music that can help them live well with dementia. To achieve this we are calling for personalised music embedded into dementia care pathways the UK.

Read more about our impact across England and how to connect with us below. To read about our wider policy aims visit our Policy and influencing page.

Playlists in Parliament

In September 2025, Playlist for Life hosted a Parliamentary Drop-in at Portcullis House in Westminster, sponsored by Martin Rhodes MP. We called for MPs to support the use of personally meaningful music to be embedded into dementia care and raise awareness of the power of music in their constituencies.

In June 2025, during a debate around dementia care, Martin Rhodes MP highlighted Playlist for Life as a person-centred care initiative that should be more widely supported across the NHS.

Health and Social Care Partnerships

Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust have been using playlists since 2021. Introducing Playlist for Life saw improvements in the quality of life in late-stage dementia (QUALID) score for some people living with dementia.

Dr Joanna Marshall, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, calls Playlist for Life a first-line treatment to help people living with dementia, calling it “the paracetamol of non-pharmacological interventions”.

Read an interview with Joanna here.

Hallmark Luxury Care Homes, one of the largest care home providers in England and Wales has partnered with Playlist for Life, investing in their ‘Train the Trainer’ model to up-skill team members and cascade the strategic use of music for residents living with dementia in its care homes.

In a study, following the development and use of playlists for 13 residents over three months, resident-users experienced benefits in terms of reduced distress, increased communication, improved emotional well-being and increased engagement.

Read an interview with Head of Dementia, Tracey Carter, here.

Community Parnterships

We have established over 1,500 Help Points in England in partnership with grassroots community organisations where local families can access free resources (available in 12 languages) and support to create playlists.

In England we work with national organisations including Dementia UK and Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia Community and more.

MPs looking to support our work can:

Connect: Schedule a 20-minute briefing with us and learnabout how we’re helping families in your constituency.

Amplify our reach: Link us with local care homes,community groups, and healthcare networks.

Share resources: Display our free, evidence-based materials where constituents need them.

I think music is an essential part of most people’s lives and musical preferences should be part of any individual care assessment. I would encourage all care providers to think about how they use music to connect with the person’s sense of self, to enable people to reminisce about important parts of their life, and to connect people within a residential care home and foster a sense of community. Music can act as an important part of connections between residents and their families and friends. I believe music is one of the most powerful tools we have to support people living with dementia.”

And I must pay tribute to the pioneering work of the charity Playlist for Life. Their work creating personal playlists for people with dementia led to a 60% reduction in the need for psychotropic medication at one care home. This is the kind of cheap, easy-to-use social prescription that I’m fully behind. Because dementia is one of the major health challenges we face for the future. The number of people with dementia is set to rise from eight hundred and fifty thousand today to more than a million in less than a decade. Personal playlists could offer a simple solution to this growing problem.”