Recommendation 6

HM Government Rejected

Reject The Department rejects this recommendation at this time and has no current plans to introduce registration. NHS dental practices are only contracted to deliver a course of treatment, which means that dental patients are only registered to a particular practice during that specific course of treatment. This model allows for greater choice and flexibility for patients and means that there is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend, allowing patients the choice of where they would like to receive a course of treatment subject to the capacity of dental practices and the patient’s willingness and ability to travel. We have made it easier for patients to find out which practices are accepting NHS patients. Our reforms of 2022 included a requirement that dentists must now update the NHS website with their availability, making access clearer for patients. The NHS dental workforce Recommendations 7 and 8 The Government and NHS England should commission a dental workforce survey to understand how many full-time and part-time-equivalent dentists, dental nurses, therapists and hygienists are working in the NHS, and how much NHS and private activity they are undertaking, alongside demographic data such as age and location. (Paragraph 68) The Government and NHS England must improve the routine data that is collected on the number of NHS dentists and the wider dental team, and the levels of NHS activity they undertake, as well as data on demand, to assist with workforce planning and identifying gaps in provision. This must be addressed in the forthcoming dental recovery plan. Until such a time, the Government should focus on statistics which show the levels of NHS dental activity. (Paragraph 69) Response Accept The Department accepts these recommendations. In October 2023, NHSE introduced a new workforce survey which will be repeated biannually. This data collection will incorporate the whole dental team and will include information on retention and recruitment of staff, NHS capacity and NHS workforce available, including full time equivalent data. The submitted data will be published in order to support ICBs with their commissioning function, with data from the initial survey expected to be available by early 2024. We recognise the need to do more to understand and respond to local needs and to increase transparency and local accountability about performance and service availability. To support this, we have started to publish monthly data on local levels of NHS dental activity and the proportion of UDAs being delivered in different places. These statistics are available on the NHS Business Service Authorities (BSA) Open Data Portal and are summarised at ICB level on the Fingertips public health data platform. We will publish additional materials for patients and the public to raise awareness of personalised recall guidance and help to manage expectations about how often those with good oral health require a check-up.