Recommendation 6

NHS funded dental care is in crisis in some parts of the country, and NHS England’s failure to ensure people can access routine dental care is leading to more acute dental health problems. NHS England, rather than ICSs, remains responsible for most NHS dentistry but in some parts of the country it is impossible to find a dentist offering NHS treatment. At our evidence session in November NHS England could not tell us how much longer it expected these gaps in the provision of an essential service to remain. It told us about several changes it has recently made, including increasing payments for complex work, allowing dental health technicians to accept NHS patients for treatment, and increasing the activity cap for high performing practices. Following the session NHS England wrote to us to set out more details on these plans. We welcome NHS England’s assurance that it sees restoring dental services as a critical priority. However even in December 2019, before the pandemic, more than 40% of children and half of adults in England had not received any NHS dental care at all in the previous two years. We were disappointed that NHS England is still unable to say by when it expects the changes it is making to result in more dentists offering NHS treatment. 8 Introducing Integrated Care Systems Recommendation: Alongside the Treasury Minute response to this Report, NHS England should write to us and set out: • The funding intended for NHS dentistry in 2022/23 and 2023/24 and what coverage this provides, in terms of the proportion of adults and children who could access these services, and what services the funding will and will not cover. • Its understanding of the proportion of adults and children using non-NHS dentistry, and the proportion of people who do not access any dentistry services at all. • By when it expects to be able to consistently provide the target level of coverage, and • What patients should do if they require dental care and are unable to find a dentist o