Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Accepted
Paragraph: 68
Commission a comprehensive dental workforce survey on NHS staffing and activity levels.
Recommendation
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.
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, stating that NHS England introduced a new biannual dental workforce survey in October 2023, which will collect comprehensive data on the dental team and NHS activity, with initial data expected by early 2024.
Paragraph Reference:
68
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
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.