Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Deferred
The 2024 dental recovery plan introduced four distinct headline initiatives
Conclusion
The 2024 dental recovery plan included four headline initiatives, which aimed to provide an additional 1.5 million courses of treatment at a cost of £200 million in 2024–25.34 Funding for these initiatives would be drawn from anticipated underspends in the 2024–25 dental budget.35 These initiatives were: • the new patient premium (NPP): in 2024–25, participating practices could receive a credit of UDAs equivalent to £15 or £50 for each eligible new patient they saw (depending on the complexity of the treatment); • ‘golden hello’ payments to dentists: incentive payments of £20,000 (paid over three years from 2024–25) for 240 dentists; • uplift to the minimum value of a UDA: the new minimum UDA value would be £28 rather than £23; and • mobile dental vans: mobile units to deliver treatments in targeted communities.36
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the observation of the dental recovery plan's initiatives. NHSE is carrying out analysis of the New Patient Premium, Golden Hellos, and UDA uplift initiatives, with results expected to be published in Autumn 2025. The national programme for mobile dental vans was not implemented.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2025 2.2 NHSE is carrying out analysis of the main initiatives which were planned to result in additional appointments being delivered: the New Patient Premium, Golden Hellos and the uplift to the minimum Unit of Dental Activity (UDA) rate. The government decided not to implement a national programme of mobile dental vans and so this will not be included in this analysis. The impact of these 3 initiatives will be assessed using changes in activity claims and UDAs delivered. In line with NHSE’s regular data collection process and usual reporting timelines for dental contractors to submit returns, NHSE expects all data for 2024-25 to have been collected by end of July 2025. NHSE will then be in a position to run further analysis and provide a detailed breakdown for each of the initiatives individually. This should be completed by end of August 2025 and NHSE will write to the Committee in the Autumn to set out the results of this analysis. 2.3 In addition to this analysis, NHSE has carried out focus groups with stakeholders to understand their views on the New Patient Premium and will also undertake an evaluation of the Golden Hello scheme, due to be completed and shared with ministers by Summer 2025. This will be published alongside the main evaluation in Autumn 2025. 2.4 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2025 2.5 NHSE will carry out analysis of how many additional appointments were delivered by the 3 main initiatives in the dental recovery plan as set out in response to recommendation 2a. The government decided not to implement a national programme of mobile dental vans and so this will not be included in the analysis. 2.6 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2025 2.7 Due to the two-month window for activity claims to be submitted by dental contractors, the data necessary to provide this confirmation will be available from Summer 2025. Factoring in time for analysis of this data NHSE would expect to be able to report on the impact of the individual initiatives by Autumn 2025.