Recommendation 15

At our session in February 2025 DHSC acknowledged that whilst the concept behind the initiatives were “entirely reasonable” the initiatives in the plan had ultimately not been successful, and that one—the new patient premium—”clearly failed”.40 NHSE also agreed that the plan had been unsuccessful but noted that overall UDA delivery for 2024–25 is on track to be about 1% higher than 2023–24, which NHSE felt was “in line” with increases in previous years.41 The NAO report, however, found that DHSC had assumed an increase in activity in 2024–25 of around 3.7% without the added hoped–for activity from the dental recovery plan.42 We asked for a number of how many additional courses of treatment had been delivered against the overall 1.5 million target, but NHSE could not give a specific answer, saying that it is “too early to say at this point that we have delivered towards the 1.5 million”.43