Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Accepted in Part
Dental recovery plan ambition misaligned with targets, failing to ensure universal access
Conclusion
The initial announcement of the dental recovery plan claimed that its aim was to “significantly expand access so that everyone who needs to see a dentist will be able to”.51 However, that ambition was never aligned to the actual targets of the plan, as an additional 1.5 million courses of treatment would have left overall delivery in 2024–25 around 2.6 million courses of treatment short of pre–pandemic levels.52 DHSC confirmed this to us, saying that “even had all the aspirations of this plan been achieved, we would not have got to a point where everyone could see a dentist”.53 DHSC and NHSE’s modelling
Government Response Summary
The government commits to NHSE carrying out analysis of the New Patient Premium, Golden Hellos, and UDA uplift initiatives, with data collected by July 2025 and a detailed breakdown provided by Autumn 2025, which will help assess the plan's impact.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
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.